Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman begin a twenty thousand mile trip by motorcycle around the world, travelling through Europe, Mongolia and Canada. Seven one hour episodes.
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Just so you know, my title is part of the song lyrics from the opening titles and I thought it was rather appropriate!
2 men…2 bikes…20,000 miles. This is the story of 2 talented actors and best friends, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman who share a passion for motorbikes, and decided to bike across the world- the long way round in 115 days. They originally set out to make the journey just as something to do; a personal challenge to each of them, and just to see if they could do it. It was also a chance for Ewan to take a break from acting. Then they decided that they may as well document it!
They had cameras on their bikes and helmets, and they also rode with a third cameraman, Claudio, filming wherever they rode and also doing their video diaries. All their footage was edited into a 7 programme series which I watched on Sky One. I loved the series, as I am a massive Ewan fan, and I was fascinated by what they were doing. So imagine how delighted I was when I came home one day to discover the DVD playing on my TV!! (thanks Dad!). And imagine how annoyed my boyfriend was when I insisted we watched it…
But anyway, the DVD is a double disk set (2 disks in one DVD box) and is the entire series, plus some extras, and these extras include: ? Photo Gallery- Woo pictures of the lovely Ewan!! Ahem… ? Extended footage of the build up and preparation to the trip. This is basically like an extra mini episode and as well as the build up, shows Ewan and Charley's first few days of travelling. ? Interviews ? There's also footage from the pair's plane trip in Alaska!
So these extras are really good; you get to see what you wouldn't have seen in the series when it was on TV.
The DVD costs £15 when ordered from the official website of www.longwayround.com, or £12.99 from www.amazon.co.uk, from the original price of £17. The running time is 5 hours and 15 minutes.
The front of the DVD depicts the photo of Ewan and Charley standing in front of a spectacular landscape with their bikes, and it's the photo that is also used on the front of the book, and on the soundtrack that's been released with all the music on which has been used in the episodes. I'm not quite sure where the photo of them was taken, but I wish I did because it looks like they're in the most amazing place! If anyone knows, please let me know?
Ok, now actually on to watching the DVD itself!! The first DVD out of the case has most of the additional features on, and the first 3 episodes out of the 7. I wish there could have been more episodes as I felt watching them was over all too quickly, but each episode lasts an hour so you did get fairly good viewing time.
The menu is easy peasy to use. The screen that pops up is a simple landscape, and once Ewan and Charley zip by on their bikes, the menu options pop up on the right. You just navigate through the options by using the left, right, up or down arrows on your remote control, and you can either select an individual episode, or select play all. If you pick an episode on its own to watch, then you will be returned back to the main menu once that one has finished.
Every episode then begins with the opening song (which I think is by the Stereophonics. However, don't quote me on that because the title track isn't actually on the official CD!), and shows clips of Ewan and Charley in different scenes throughout the series. Then, each episode starts with the same intro, you hear Charley saying "we're gona ride 20,000 miles..." You then hear Ewan and Charley saying snippets about what they're doing, plus you get to see some of the other people involved in helping to make the trip happen, like Russ and David the producers, and Claudio the cameraman.
For those of you who were wondering, the route Ewan and Charley made took them through places like Prague, Kiev, then into Russia and Siberia, through Ulaan Bataar, Magadan, then they flew to Alaska, journeyed through Canada and America, and finishing up in New York.
I'm trying not do give it the whole thing away because I don't want to ruin people's viewing of it! I really like this DVD because it's not some 2 actors who one day decided to hop on a motorbike and take a really journey on their own. The DVD shows you the months of intense planning and training they went through, and how the whole thing nearly fell through. It demonstrates all the challenges they went through, how hard they found it, and how the whole team involved, including the support team, all came together to help everyone when the going got really tough.
This is also a project where the material of the trip truly came first and the people in it second, and not the other way round which I really like. No one did it for the fame they could get out of it. And Ewan and Charley had another mini-mission throughout their trip. On the way, they had meet ups with several different UNICEF organisations in different countries, to raise awareness of the wonderful work this organisation was doing to help children in many different unfortunate circumstances. It really did open my eyes to how some poor children lived, and how all they had to help them survive was UNICEF. I was happy to see on the news a little while back of Ewan doing some work in Africa in his first proper role as a UNICEF ambassador since the Long Way Round.
I'm not quite sure what else there is to say really! This documentary really pulls you in into what the guys are doing, and how they're not doing it for their public or the publicity, but just for themselves which I think is brilliant. When they finished their journey it's quite an emotional thing to watch and I'm sure you will, like me, be a little down that the journey is over, but hey, now you can go straight back and watch the whole thing again!
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