A Sneak Peek at '1: The Unvarnished Story'
By Susan LaMarca
A local sneak peek of the documentary 1: The Unvarnished Story helped kick off the 2012 Formula One US Grand Prix in Austin on November 15. The red carpet included former drivers Emerson Fittipaldi, Jackie Stewart and Brett Lunger, plus Bernie Ecclestone, President and CEO of F1 Management and F1 Administration.
1 is an account of Formula One from the 1960s and 1970s, culled from thousands of hours of archival footage and contemporary interviews with 60 drivers and professionals. During those years, television audiences and sponsors brought business to motor racing as advancements in technology and engineering increased the performance of race cars. These decades marked the most dangerous period in the history of the sport, and many drivers were killed due to lack of safety regulations.
Producer Michael Shevloff introduced director Paul Crowder (Riding Giants, Dogtown and Z Boys) and writer Mark Monroe before the screening. After working on the project for three years in the making, the filmmakers expressed excitement at the opportunity to screen the film during Austin's Formula One weekend. They were also thrilled to announce that the final version of the movie would be narrated by Michael Fassbender.
The jovial and diminutive Fittipaldi and Stewart, world champion drivers featured in 1, took the stage to address the audience and each other. Both paid honor to Professor Sid Watkins, recently deceased at age 84. As official Formula One race doctor, and later, President of the FIA Institute for Motor Sport Safety, Watkins played a pivotal role in the creation of the F1 safety protocol that exists today.
The film opens at the starting line of the 1996 Australian Grand Prix. On the first lap out, Martin Brundle's car is broken in half when he flips it into a sandpit. Two or three excruciating seconds later, Brundle virtually springs, smiling, from the horrifying wreckage. He casually jogged back to the starting line and hopped into his spare car. Brundle notes in his interview, "It has become unacceptable to die in the name of sport." The 38 driver deaths between 1952 and 1994 meant an F1 racer of the past was more likely to have a fatal collision than become a world champion.
1 is packed with historical information specific to Formula One, but also includes the heroic and unstaged passion, bravery and visual spectacle of what some believe to be the richest, most exciting and glamorous sport on earth. The documentary shows footage of a member of The Doghouse Club, a group formed by Formula One wives who fought for F1 safety requirements, who tells a reporter that she must really love her husband because she puts up with him spending the entire night at work on his car only to have it break down in the second lap. Shortly before his fatal accident, driver Jochen Rindt asks his wife what her "one free wish" would be and laughs when she answers, "For you to stop racing."
When the announcement is made at a 1968 Formula Two race that beloved driver Jim Clark had fatally crashed, the camera pans to a frozen crowd, dumbfounded and absolutely heartbroken. After all the flag waving, champagne spraying, fat wreaths hung around the necks of the victorious, the supermodels/ all manner of shiny surfaces, James Hunt fighting, Francois Cevert grinning, it becomes very glorious, and in conflicting ways believable that death in pursuit of passion is noble.
To the wild applause of the Austin audience, halfway through the film Ayrton Senna appeared in a pre-recorded interview. The question was posed: "Senna, you're the fastest guy around, why don't you quit?" To which he replied, "I can't." After so many Formula One deaths, by 1994, the sport had grown enough for the world to see Senna's fatal accident on television, and F1 organizers were forced to take control of safety measures. Racing doesn't have to be dangerous if drivers aren't injured or killed in inevitable crashes.
By dedicating a comparable amount of funding, research and technology put into making cars faster, Formula One has made cars and tracks safer. There has not been a fatal F1 crash in over 18 years. Martin Brundle's ecstatic HD thumbs-up is cut against a roaring crowd of thousands. 1: The Unvarnished Story ends where it begins, on a hopeful note for the future of motor racing.
Susan LaMarca is an intern at the Austin Film Society.
[Photo credit: "Michael Shevloff, Paul Crowder, and Racersand Filmmakers at 1: The Unvarnished Story Red Carpet" by David Weaver.]