BEING EVEL (Daniel Junge). 101 minutes. Rating: NNN
Where to watch: iTunes
Here are some of the things iconic daredevil Evel Knievel, who died in 2007, did in his lifetime: jumped over 19 cars on his Harley-Davidson claimed the Guinness world record for most broken bones in a lifetime made millions on a toy line inspired other extreme sports athletes like Tony Hawk and got charged with battery in 1995 for assaulting his girlfriend, Krystal Kennedy.
That last bit goes unmentioned in the documentary Being Knievel, though the way talking heads describe the stubbornly irresponsible and venomous stuntman, you figure he’s the type. Long-time wife Linda Bork speaks wearily about Knievel, acknowledging his womanizing and hinting at more. Some digging might have revealed the full extent of his abuse of women, though director Daniel Junge may have felt he already had too much dirt on the guy he’s supposedly paying -tribute to.
This bio’s willingness to engage Knievel’s dark side, from con man to self-mythologizing hero, is refreshing. But perhaps it was simply unavoidable, since every intimate source interviewed has a lot to get off his or her chest – including a press agent who ended up feeling Knievel’s fury via an assault with a baseball bat.
The only person consistently kneeling to Knievel is producer Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame, who kicks things off by exclaiming, unconvincingly, that the red, white and blue-clad cowboy kissing the sky “was the 70s.”
The film suggests a stronger argument: it takes a special type of asshole to do the things that others wouldn’t dare.
