The Truth Behind Montana's Most Famous Daredevils

The Missoulian's Vince Devlin's take on both daredevils:

"See no Evel, hear no Evel, speak no Evel? Good luck with that at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival this weekend, where almost four hours of Knievel-focused films will crash into your lives.

“Being Evel” and “Chasing Evel” delve into the complicated, fascinating and ego/alcohol-driven life of Evel Knievel, the motorcycle daredevil from Butte.

“Chasing Evel” comes with a subtitle – “The Robbie Knievel Story” – but rest assured, Evel dominates his youngest son’s story the same way he dominated headlines in the 1970s.

Several of the same people talk to the cameras in the two documentaries, most notably Evel’s long-suffering first wife Linda and oldest son Kelly, and there’s no question both films cover acres of the same ground.

But Oscar winner Daniel Junge’s “Being Evel” is the consummate look at the rise and fall of Evel Knievel.

Jesse James Miller’s “Chasing Evel” pulls back the curtain on the rocky – and sometimes violent – relationship Knievel had with the son who chose to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“Evel broke bones. Robbie broke records,” says one family friend.

Both “possessed huge egos, which needed to be fed constantly,” says another."