in the early 1970s ….” Malcolm ’ s co-star and Grand National Champion dirt tracker Mert Lawwill hears the same stuff .
Brown ’ s tale is that powerful , that universal .
From the goosebump-generating opening scenes and kitschy , early- ’ 70s music to the dirt track , desert race , hill climb , road racing , ice racing and ISDT grist that comes later , to the emotionally stirring final scenes of Smith , Lawwill and fellow co-star – and Hollywood icon – Steve McQueen playing on Baja ’ s sand dunes and spinning donuts on a So Cal beach , Brown ’ s funky-yet-friendly take on our two-wheeled world reminded us then , and reminds us now , why we all became motorcyclists in the first place .
“ A motorcycle is anything you want to make it ,” Brown voices in the movie ’ s opening scenes . “ Turn it on and you can give yourself a real thrill !” A real thrill . Watching On Any Sunday , even after the 50th or 100th viewing , is very definitely that , and every time I do , which is about once a month , the same thing happens : During the entire hour , twenty-eight minutes and 39 seconds , I am a kid again … riding my first motorcycle – a red 1971 Honda SL70 – through the woods in rural northern Ohio and experiencing that special freedom that only a 10-year-old on his or her first motorcycle can feel . And I ’ m also , of course , reminded yet again just how droolingly wonderful the sport of motorcycling really is .
On Any Sunday Roots
My first real look into the history and guts of On Any Sunday occurred during the research and writing of Malcolm Smith ’ s autobiography , titled Malcolm ! The Autobiography , which Malcolm and I began work on in 2012 and finished in 2015 . ( Get yours at malcolmsmith . com .) Malcolm was old friends with Bruce Brown , of course , and during the development and writing of Chapter Six ( the On Any Sunday chapter ) we chatted with Bruce a lot about how it all came together . Suddenly I was privy to all sorts of stories and anecdotes about the movie and Lawwill and McQueen , and for a fan like myself , every one of them was totally engrossing .
Bruce Brown was a Southern California kid who began surfing ( and taking pictures ) at age 11 . He attended high school in Long Beach , majoring in ( his words ), “ not going to school ,” and after scoring high marks in the Navy ’ s subma-
Bruce Brown ( center ) with Malcolm and Joyce Smith sometime in 2012 . Brown wrote the Foreword to Malcolm ’ s 2015 autobiography .
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