Whether you’re a veteran motorsport enthusiast or a recent convert to Formula 1, chances are you don’t need to be told who Jackie Stewart is.
As a three-time world champion who is rightly heralded for spearheading major advances of safety in Formula 1, later became a race-winning team principal and is still a regular figure in the paddock even today, Stewart is one of F1’s true living legends.
But more than 50 years since his first world championship triumph in 1969, it’s also the case that the majority of those who follow Formula 1 in 2022 were not around to see Stewart when he was at the peak of his powers as a driver. While many of us know who he was and what he achieved, a large proportion of those who now faithfully watch every grand prix will know little about Jackie Stewart the man.
Enter film maker Patrick Mark and his 90-minute documentary ‘Stewart’, currently airing exclusively on Sky television in the UK. Much like ‘Senna’ and Netflix’s ‘Schumacher’ attempted to chronicle the sporting lives of two of the most successful drivers motorsport has ever seen, ‘Stewart’ does much the same for the 83-year-old’s career.
But while the film is a celebration of the life of a champion, it is also as much a stark and, at times, brutal chronicle of death during Formula 1’s most dangerous era.
“I don’t know anyone who’s seen it who hasn’t had a weep,” Stewart told the Mirror after watching the completed film for the first time. “It’s been beautifully done. I think it will be the best motor racing film ever made – and I had nothing to do with it.”
High praise indeed – but does ‘Stewart’ truly live up to such plaudits?
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Narrated entirely by Stewart himself, with contributions from the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi and the late Murray Walker, ‘Stewart’ is a documentary where you can tell the thought and effort that has been put into every frame. From luxurious shots of the dramatic Dunbartonshire countryside Stewart hails from to interspersing archive footage with more modern shots of Stewart in the paddock filmed in 2019, the film rips along at a surprising pace. There is not a single shot of anyone sat in a chair talking into a camera to be found in this documentary.
Naturally, the film focuses on Stewart’s career in racing. But ‘Stewart’ is not a documentary about a racing driver as it is about the life…
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