Bruce McLaren

(On Cable TV, November 2022) While the McLaren name remains dominant in the auto racing world, comparatively little is known nowadays about the founder of the company Bruce McLaren—a New Zealander who improbably became one of the top racing car drivers in the world, and the founder of the illustrious car company that still bears his name. In documentary McLaren, director Roger Donaldson captures recollections from the aging men and women who were there during his brief moments of fame—the pilots, friends and engineers who worked with him as the company created racing cars and earned notice by winning. McLaren died in a track car crash in the early 1970s and so the film has a lot to do in order to find historical footage, talk to interview subjects, re-create a few sequences through animation, and even stage a few historical re-creations of key moments in McLaren’s life. It’s rather good, although interest may be heightened or tempered by one’s affection for car racing. Some of the best moments happen in covering the Mosport Can-Am era with its gloriously over-the-top cars. A decently well-made film, McLaren is both a tribute, but also a time machine back to a time when auto racing changed radically: Watching the cars McLaren drives at the beginning and the end of his career illustrated just how quickly things changed throughout the 1960s. Combined with the portrait of a short but fascinating life, it makes the film worth a look for those interested in the topic matter.