Word: knievel
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Roaring down a race track in Atlanta, Motorcycle Daredevil Robert "Evel" Knievel took a practice jump over four panel trucks, overshot the landing ramp, and broke his back-for the third time in his career. Determined to ride the next day, broken back and all, Knievel asked the doctor, "If I were to jump so I'd land on the balls of my feet, not on my behind, so I wouldn't jar anything -what do you think?" The doctor didn't think much of it, so Knievel set off for the track in an ambulance, just...
...with seven of her eleven children, Ethel Kennedy landed on her back. Her acrobatics caused boot-top fractures of two bones in her right leg, which were set by doctors at the lodge infirmary. Hardly worth mentioning, however, compared to the snap, crackle and pop of Motorcycle Daredevil Evel Knievel, who, by rough count, broke his 101st, 102nd, 103rd and 104th bones at the Michigan State Fairgrounds last week. The latest fracture of his collarbone and ribs will not, of course, deter Knievel from his scheduled motorcycle leap this week in Sacramento, Calif., where he aims to soar over...
Almost anyone, however, might mildly enjoy Evel Knievel, a cheerfully silly motorcycle saga based on the life of a professional daredevil and his wife Linda (Sue Lyon). The movie is best when dealing with Knievel's early exploits: harassing the small-town Montana cops, riding into a dormitory full of giggling co-eds in pursuit of his girl friend, and stunt driving in a rundown local rodeo. Soon Knievel (played improbably but ingratiatingly by George Hamilton) begins to build quite a reputation for himself, and even becomes a sort of folk hero. Crowds turn out from all over...
Surprisingly for a film biography of a man who is still alive (the real Knievel performed in Madison Square Garden a month ago), the hero is portrayed as an egomaniac, a compulsive worrier and a shameless searcher after publicity. Marvin Chomsky's direction is pedestrian, but the script (by Alan Caillou, John Milius and Pat Williams) has some nice moments of quirky comedy, as when a fissure opens in the earth and a rather large automobile disappears without a trace. The film is good-naturedly skeptical and occasionally satiric about Knievel's exploits-in marked and welcome relief...
...last days of a 16-month, 2,000-mile trek across the Arctic. This summer, eight men from East Africa will try to follow up their successful ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro (elevation: 19,340 ft.) by climbing Mount Everest (29,028 ft.); all are blind. Stunt Man Evel Knievel plans to race a jet-powered motorcycle down a ramp at 280 m.p.h. and-God and the authorities willing-jump across the Grand Canyon. Last week Henry Carr, Detroit Lions defensive back and former Olympic 200-meter-dash champion, raced a pacer over a 110-yd. course...