User Reviews

If you're a fan of riding off road on two wheels, you need this video. If you have all the On Any Sunday videos, you need this video. I didn't know what I thought I did about John Penton. He's one of the icons of the golden Age of dirt biking which I believe to be between 1965 to 1985 (not that I first starting riding first on a Honda trail 55 in 1965 had anything to do with it) There's only two minor complaints about the movie: 1) No closed captioning which I require, and... 2) Not one mention of his Edsel of a dirt bike called the "Mud Lark". That should have been included. The Mud Lark is on the list of the ten worst dirt bikes ever made and should have been mentioned. Other than that, the movie is a winner and should have been nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Documentary". On Any Sunday was nominated, why not "Penton"? You need this movie to keep next to all your On Any Sunday movies.

In this overly long documentary, at 2 hrs. and 14 min., the remarkable life story of John Penton is chronicled. Penton was a pioneer in the world of off-road motorcycle racing, especially in the decades of the 1960's and 70's. He not only was a most celebrated racer himself, but was directly involved in the design and engineering of the bikes, which would eventually take the name of Penton motorcycles.

I'll readily admit I knew virtually nothing about enduro racing before viewing this film, but I'm always interested in learning new things. I'm certainly no expert like the gentleman who wrote the other review here on IMDb, so a lot of the terms used here were too technical and detailed, at times, for me.

However, Penton's story (he was 88-years-old at the time of the filming) is quite fascinating to me. His innate solid character and integrity as a person, allowed him do business deals with a handshake and his word was really his bond. He also faced personal tragedies in his life, but still passed down his love of racing to his family, who enthusiastically picked up the mantle. Penton's gritty determination allowed him to keep moving forward, despite serious physical injuries and pain which would slow others. He came across to me as a real old-school persona, which seem to be rarer and rarer to find these days.

In summary, the documentary written and directed by Todd Huffman, and narrated by Lyle Lovett, could certainly have used some better editing. However, I still found Penton's story remarkable and interesting.