Ewan McGregor And Charley Boorman - Long Way Round (Wide Screen) > Reviews > A trip of a lifetime.

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding

Advantages:	Ewan Mcgregor, amazing scenery
Disadvantages:	None .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I've always been a big fan of Ewan McGregor, and two Christmases I sat down and realised there was nothing on. I started to flick through the channels and found 'Long Way Round'. I wasn't a bit fan of documentaries back then, especially ones about motorbikes and going around the world, they used to bore me silly, but it was Ewan McGregor so I thought I'd give it a chance.

It is probably the most fantastic piece of documentary that I've ever seen.

The Plot

When old friends Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman set out to follow two of their passions they never imagined what an experience it would be. Both had a love of motorbikes and they both wanted to see the world, a way that not a lot of other people have really seen it before.

They teamed up with David Alexainian & Russ Malkin, two well known creative directors and the four of them came up with the idea for Long Way Round.

They decided that they were going to spend 115 days to travel 20,000 miles from London to New York, the long way round.

They wanted another cameraman to ride with the boys, and they found Claudio, who rode his own BMW alongside the boys.

In April 2004, the boys set off from London and travelled on their bikes into mainland Europe, going east and finally ending up 115 days later in New York on the exact time & date they said they would be there when they were planning it.

They couldn't do it alone however, Russ & David both had support vehicles and they essentially were travelling around the world with Ewan & Charley. In the big 4x4's were both of them, a couple more cameramen and a doctor. They would meet up at every border into every different country to talk about the trip and struggle to get through borders that not many people have travelled through before.

After the trip was completed, Charley went on to complete The Road to Dakar which is one of the toughest races in the world. When he came home, they started to prepare for The Long Way Down.

The Places

In 115 days they managed to travel 20,000 miles from London to New York, they travelled through 12 countries. Here they are:

UK- Starting point (London)
France
Belgium
Germary
The Czech Republic
Slovakia
Ukraine
Russia
Kazakhstan
Mongolia
USA
Canada
USA- Ending Point (New York, 115 days later)

Some of the journey could not be done by motorbike however, they had to go on the train in Siberia just because there was no road to where they wanted to go, some of the Road Of Bones which goes from Russia & Magadan they had to have help from some passing lorries because the bikes just couldn't get through the water and on the final leg, they needed to fly from Magadan to Alaska.

In Europe they mainly stayed in hotels, but as they got deeper into the journey, they had no choice but to camp because there was no one and no houses for miles let alone a nice hotel.

The People

Ewan McGregor- A well known Scottish actor who decided to follow his love for motorbikes and take the trip of a life-time.

Charley Boorman- A good friend of Ewan and shared his passion for seeing the world and motorbikes.

Claudio Von Planta- the Cameraman who experience the whole trip with the boys, he didn't get off to a good start because he told them at the last minute he didn't have a UK driving licence for his bike. He failed his first test, and had to retake it and meet them in Prague.

Russ Malkin- A well known creative director, who travelled in one of the support vehicles.

David Alexainian- An American creative director, who was a friend of Russ's and was brought on the team by him. He drove one of the support vehicles.

In Russia & Asia they were joined by Sergey who was a security advisor and Vasily who was a doctor.

They were also joined by the young Jim Simak, who was a cameraman. He spent most of his time on the support vehicle filming from there.

The Bikes/ Support Crew Vehicles

Ewan wanted to drive BMW bikes but Charley really wanted the KTM, he thought that they would be better suited for this journey. However, stupidly KTM declined the offer of them using their bikes for the journey as they thought it would be an embarrassment and not very good publicity for them and so the boys went with the BMW.

They each had a BMW R 1150 GS Adventure.

I don't know if that's good or not, my knowledge of cars let alone motorbikes is limited.

The Support crew travelled in two Mitsubishi off road vehicles, a red L200 Animal LWB 4x4 pick up and a black Shogun warrior DI- D automatic estate.

The Charity

Ewan & Charley wanted to do this ultimately for a charity, they decided to choose UNICEF. They visited some of their work in Mongolia, Ukraine & Kazakhstan.

Accidents

The whole team had quite a few accidents but I think Ewan McGregor took the brunt of them all. He had petrol sprayed in his eyes twice on two different occasions. He got bitten by a mosquito which required treatment and had been bitten in quite a few lower areas as well. He got hit by a young driver in Calgary.

Russ & Vasily managed to turn over their 4x4, luckily the car took most of the damage and they came out with only minor injuries.

Charley hurt his shoulder which stopped him from riding for a few days.

Cameras

Claudio filmed most of the scenery but quite a bit of it however was filmed by Ewan & Charley. They each had a camera on their bike and in their helmet and one to do a film diary every night.

Authorities

They had to travel through 12 countries, so there had to be problems but Ewan & Charley forgot to get their carnet stamped into the Czech Republic and spent 12 hours trying to get out of Czech and into Slovakia.

In Kazakhstan they had trouble with the cops again, but not in a bad way. They insisted on escorting the boys through the country and it turned the ride into a media circus and the boys just wanted to get on.

Music

Ewan sorted out the title song from The Long Way Round via text. He loved Stereophonics and got the lead singer to sing a song for the theme tune.

The DVD

Episode 1- Preparation
Episode 2- London to Volgograd
Episode 3- Kazakhstan
Episode 4- Barnaul to Western Mongolia
Episode 5- Western Mongolia to Yakutsk
Episode 6- Yakutsk to Magadan (Road Of Bones)
Episode 7- Anchorage to New York

The disk includes deleted scenes and some lovely pictures of the trip.

Other

The whole documentary is well worth watching, Ewan McGregor really shines and it's nice to see his personality come out. The people they met on the trip were lovely, and it's nice to see how nice people can be and how welcoming they can be. I loved the fact that they would trade vodka from their country with Scottish alcohol, I thought that was really sweet.

The trip took 115 days and it's shown within 7 hours of wonderful cinematography. It's really amazing the countries they see and the people they meet.

Long Way Down

Ewan & Charley and the rest of the team wanted to do the journey again so they decided to travel from John O'Groats in Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa.

Ewan broke his leg about 2 months prior to the trip and that nearly ended the trip.

It's being shown on BBC 2, Sunday nights at 9 and the DVD comes out in the beginning of December.

Thanx for reading.

Kirsty