"Bennett's War" is Hollywood’s latest brilliant step that will hopefully inspire a whole slew of young kids to take up dirt bike riding (and therefore motorcycling in general; hey, I can dream, can’t I?). The movie's plot revolves around dirt bikes and motocross riding and racing, and I am definitely going to go see it.

Now, I know that there have been a lot of real bombs when it comes to motorcycle movies (“Torque,” anyone?), but we keep our optimism up and hope that a good one comes along. Heck, we all enjoyed the latest reboot of CHiPs, didn’t we?

The main character in this flick is one Marshall Bennett, who rode dirt bikes and raced motocross as a kid. Bennett goes to war with the Army’s Special Operations (Ranger) motorcycle unit. He encounters an IED and is injured, but not before he saves his buddy’s life. A broken leg and back means a medical discharge, and so he comes home to his family farm. Bennett has a tough time re-adjusting to civilian life after being in battle, and while his parents try to be supportive, they are under pressures of their own: they’re behind on their mortgage and near to losing their family’s farm to debt.

Army Motorcycle
The Christini AWD motorcycle that the US Army uses. Photo credit: AmericanSpecialOps.com

There it all is! Backstory, heroism, conflict! And now, Bennett sees a way to help his family out, which is, of course, by competing in, and winning, a big motocross race! Now it might all sound awfully trite and maybe a bit contrived, but this is a Hollywood movie we’re talking about. Maybe don’t get your hopes up too far; we know it isn’t a deep, intellectual indie flick. It does, however, promise to be a tear-jerker feel-good film where the hero saves the day (no, I haven’t seen the movie but you know it’s coming). And the entire story revolves around motorcycles!

The racing sequences of the movie were filmed at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernadino, California. The battle action shots were not filmed with the iconic diesel KLR (Kawasaki M1030) but probably with something like the Honda CRF 450 (Christini AWD), which the US Army does, in fact, actually use.

It’ll be in theaters at the end of August, so start planning your local riding club’s movie night event.

Source: YouTube, Glen Helen Raceway, IMDB, American Special Ops, Christini

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