Hell on Wheels

It being Tour de France time, SBS showed the documentary "Hell on Wheels" this week, which covers the T-mobile team in the 2003 race. It was on at the movies this time last year, and I wanted to go and see it, but missed it. Clucker went and saw it though, and came back with the verdict of "boring".

Now that we have the wonders of a PVR, I taped it and watched it one morning when I was monkey-sitting.

For the first half hour, I couldn't see what the silly clucker was on about. It was anything but boring. Ok, it was in German, and Stonehenge failed to descend from the top of the screen, but it was pretty interesting for a documentary. The shots of the riders zooming through the crops etc were good cinema.

Then, the curse of all editors descended. Instead of chopping the thing down to say a good 60 minutes, they had to stretch it out for 90. The middle third was like watching paint peel off the garage. I was still working out how to operate the PVR at this stage, so I didn't fast forward through it (like I should have). I would have died of boredom in a cinema.

Thankfully, there was a good, juicy crash at the start of the final third and that sparked a return of my interest. The last bit was as good as the first bit.

One thing to note though - we keep on reading about how thin and long-lived the French are, and what wonderful food they eat blah blah blah. Anyone who wants to disabuse that theory need only watch this documentary and focus on the spectators rather than the cyclists. The spectators in one segment waddle around like a bunch of force fed geese. Yes, the French can be as fat as yanks. I was doubly amused by the fact that cyclying fans could be so fat. Irony.

Anyway, if you are going to watch it, fast forward from about minute 30 to 60 and you'll enjoy it thoroughly.

Otherwise, sitting through the middle third truly is hell on wheels. Or, since it is now recorded to hard disk, hell on spindles.