Weekend of a Champion

Jackie Stewart showing how knowledgeable he was .The man had such a strong and charismatic personality..And quite a hot looking fiancé in Helen :-) .He owns Monaco to win his second world championship .You can keep your pampered World champions of nowadays .This man was and is a legend of motorsport .A real driver who defied the odds with bravery and undoubted driving skill .

In this quite compelling documentary Roman Polanski revisits his 1971 doc, of the same name, and follows up its' showing with an interview with the great Formula 1 race driver Jackie Stewart some 40 years after the initial film. In this modern movie, Polanski does not direct leaving it to Frank Brown, but produced it and, as mentioned, does the key interview in the last 20 minutes with Stewart, now 75-years-old.

The documentary focuses on the weekend, in 1971, of the Grand Prix of Monaco, in Monte Carlo. The charismatic and charming Stewart is closely followed as he prepares for the event, amidst uncertain weather which often makes the course quite treacherous. Stewart's attention to every detail and knowledge of every inch of the racetrack are highlighted, and illustrate his true professionalism as a driver.

I thought the colorful pageantry of the race scene was vividly portrayed, with the adoring fans, dashing race drivers, beautiful women, and you really get a sense of being right there on the scene. Stewart's entourage is also highlighted, including his glamorous and supportive wife Helen, car owner Ken Tyrell, his pit crew and fellow drivers, and even his own personal physician on call in case of any problems.

As mentioned, in this updated version of the 1971 film, the last 20 minutes is devoted to Polanski and Stewart conversing in the same hotel room overlooking the Monte Carlo course some 4 decades later. One aspect of this part of the movie was my one criticism here, which was in trying to illustrate how dangerous Formula 1 competition was in those days, several fatal accidents of drivers are graphically and morbidly shown on screen, which can be quite macabre.

Aside from that, Stewart and Polanski discuss how Stewart was instrumental in getting the supervising bodies of Formula 1 racing to make safety improvements, so that today there are much fewer deaths and critical injuries. Also, it was fascinating to hear how Stewart, because of his dyslexia, still to this day can barely read or write and how he hid this from everyone including his wife. Finally, Stewart reveals humbly how he got his start racing cars, and it's quite an interesting story.

All in all, I found this documentary to be very well presented and compelling, and I would rate it highly.

RATING: A-

This is more of an excellent fan experience than an excellent documentary. It is extremely satisfying. It takes you back in time to 1971, Monaco F1 GP. Without narration, cameras (with seemingly unrestricted access) follow legendary J. Stewart during race weekend. As such, neophytes may find little guidance in understanding the structure of activities during a race weekend. So in the end I think it may be a movie for fans of the driver and fans of the sport. The footage is Stewart and Team Tyrrell-centric, so if you're hoping for lots of footage of other teams it is not going to be here. Everything was so different back then, and this is plainly shown. Monaco was way less developed, and the entire team experience was so much more primal. F1 fans will revel in the gut-level relationship between man and team, and man and machine. Following the "feature documentary footage", an intimate contemporary meeting between the director and Stewart is shown. Here, historical improvements in safety are highlighted. This review twists at one's sensibilities - it's suggested that left to itself, the industry might never have addressed the issues and made the simple improvements needed to save drivers' lives. My favorite throw away line (which may simply seem rude taken out context - I assure you it is not) "Racing drivers were amateur gynecologists but to have that specialist as the chief medical officer that was the bizarreness of the time..."

I believe it is Polanski's only documentary, making it a fascinating study. The shots of racing are cool as well as the period details and people. The breakfast scene sipping orange juice and discussing racing philosophy, drawing out maps, it is indeed like one of his labyrinthic films. Also, it's obvious he had a cinematic crush on the wife, maybe why he is there. She would fit in those early swinging 60s thrillers. The great twist is the post-interview 40 years later. I sense he always felt the movie was missing something and the new frame brought it to life. It's very touching. They talk about how safety has improved since then, pay tribute to those who passed, and reminisce about monuments and end on a point of view race scene which really brings it home the speed at which they go. This says something about life as well.

Jackie Stewart even remarks to Polanski, why did you make this? Polanski said, he loved racing. But I mean hot women, racing, documenting a champion, it's all cinema. He was a man who despite the elegance of his art was sort of an adrenaline junkie. The documentary is definitely worth seeing; at surface there's not much there, but like his films its pleasures, its statements and nuances are not obvious, then they hit you at once, they are all there looking back.