One
(or life on the limit)
If there is one film in your life you should watch about Formula One then ‘One’ is not that one film.
Reading the official description this film it is all pretty promising, it features motor racing stars like Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher. It is narrated by Michael Fassbender who we all know has a lovely voice, perfect for narration. It also boasts “Using rare archival footage and the greatest list of interviews ever assembled”. I don’t know which part of the film this “great list of interviews” makes an appearance but I missed it. I would have liked to have seen that list so that I could compare it to other great lists such as; Schindler’s List, The 10 Commandments, America’s most wanted list, The Book of Lists, The 1927 Yankees opening day line-up, Roasanne Cash’s ‘The List’, The 52 page list of provisions for Van Halen’s 1982 backstage rider, The ‘A’ List, The ‘B’ List, the list of great lists goes on…
One person who I feel could be miffed by being left off the list of incredible drivers in the description of the film is Martin Brundle, as he is the pretty much the main man of the film. The film opens with footage of the 1996 Australian Grand Prix where Brundle has a huge crash that basically snaps his Jordan in half. Miraculously he walks away and after a quick check by Dr Sid Watkins he is able to get into the spare car to take the restart after the red flag stoppage. Brundle is the first driver to speak in the film and describes his thoughts and feelings on the accident. The film is then book ended with this crash after we have meandered through a montage of F1 horror stories to end with Brundle's crash again but as an exemplary tale of safety triumph.
To redeem this film slightly there is some good footage which is presented in high quality with booming cinematic sound. There are doses of nostalgia with footage of races and drivers past, and for the record the list of interviews by my count would be 29. Up to you whether that qualifies as the “greatest list assembled”.
The one thing about ‘One’ that is fairly well described by the title is that this film has one premise, racing was really dangerous in the past but now days it is much safer. Believe me, you do not need to spend 111 minutes of your life watching this film to learn this. I don’t think we need films that are really no more than a montage of well put together clips that we can all see on you tube. To call this a film about ‘safety’ is basically an excuse to put a whole lot of crashes together with cinematic production quality because there are some people who might enjoy it.
I actually bumped into Juan Pablo Montoya the other day and he asked me, “how many Hartleys are you going to give to that film ‘One’ man?” I said “I’m going to give that film ‘One’, one Juan”.
