It is an inspiring story that embodies the path of Bruce McLaren, who founded the McLaren motor racing team. McLaren shows that he is indeed a man of humble beginnings, but he has achieved outstanding success in the automotive world.
Donaldson's film captures this lost era of motor racing through a rich selection of archive and home movie footage, though some newly reconstructed scenes and animations would have been better avoided.
A paper-thin portrait of the racing car driver and designer Bruce McLaren, it is constructed with all the verve and passionate inquiry of a press release.
Taking a leaf out of Asif Kapadia's award winning documentary Senna (2010), Donaldson offers a comprehensive account of the highs and lows in the man's short, yet fruitful career.
The talking heads are framed by captions that at times make the film look like a classy PowerPoint presentation, but its mix of lovely, fuzzy archive footage and pretty reconstructions makes it feel like a kind of docufiction.
