1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

1 Blu-ray Movie Review

First in auto racing documentaries.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 18, 2014

Ready drivers, revving engines, squealing tires, burning rubber, a harmony of moving parts, man and machine bound together by a few straps, both moments from glory and inches from death. 1 shares the tragic history of Formula One racing, a sport dogged by death and fueled by passion, innovation, and a need to test the limits of man and mechanical endurance. It's the story of the men who build the cars, the men who drive the cars, the violent deaths many suffered, and the progress in safety into the modern era. It's a straightforward and oftentimes blunt history of man's fascination with moving fast and building a better product that can propel him faster and further than others, but at the risk of an untimely demise and for the satisfaction of doing something better than anyone else. The film, directed by Paul Crowder (The Last Play at Shea), Written by Mark Monroe (The Tillman Story), and narrated by Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), paints a vivid and captivating picture of the juxtaposition between sport and tragedy, desire and mortality, and life and death.

It'll take more than a sign to keep the drivers safe.

1 covers several decades of Formula One triumph and tragedy, a large roster of rising talent and fallen stars, and a detailed examination of car improvements, failures, and improved safety measures over that timespan. The film opens with a study of Formula One's formative years and its first premiere driver, Juan Manuel Fangio, who dominated the sport throughout the 1950s and held a world-record five titles, a total that would not be surpassed for more than forty years. The picture examines the thrills and dangers of racing, focusing on car development and increased speeds which yielded an increased number of fatalities. The picture focuses on a number of drivers over the years and their place in the sport's triumphs and tragedies, including Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Lorenzo Bandini, Jochen Rindt, Jackie Stewart, Roger Williamson, and François Cevert. The film focuses heavily on the Niki Lauda-James Hunt rivalry, Lauda's accident and quick return to the sport, and his refusal to finish the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix, citing track safety concerns, a pivotal moment in racing's history and engendering a new push for driver safety. The film follows through to the modern day and the death of Ayrton Senna, the sport's last casualty as of 2012.

1 builds the story of Formula One through the prism of its tragedies and the drivers who befell them. Through driver profiles, interviews with their peers, and vintage footage, the picture assembles a troubling history that speeds towards a more stable present. While it's a relevant approach, it grows difficult to watch in quick order. Even for those unfamiliar with the sport, it becomes clear early on that almost each driver who is a focus will perish in an accident. It's an overload of tragedy, but then again, that's the point. Formula One's history is one of innovation and the daredevils who perished because of those innovations. The film's feeling of despair and hopelessness accentuates that history and drives home the point with relentless and unforgiving bluntness, saved only by the sport's transition to safety-first protocols in the later years and a brief depiction of the joys of competing and winning in as much safety as the sport allows.

The film's rapid-fire depiction of the horrific rate at which drivers died is balanced by a fascinating story of automobile evolution and the greater push towards improved safety measures, measures that were initially roadblocked by money and politics but that were eventually embraced with Formula One's emergence as a force on television and Niki Lauda's injury and refusal to race in unsafe conditions that propelled the sport to better, more advanced safety-first measures that are now a staple of the sport, a sport that's become one of the safest in the auto racing world. The film is smartly assembled in, for the most part, chronological order. It's well-versed and accessible, foregoing an overload of tech terminology in favor of a more audience-friendly, almost casual approach. It will certainly speak more to viewers who are intimately familiar with Formula One and its history, but newcomers or casual race watchers shouldn't be put off by anything in the film.

1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

1's video presentation is sourced, primarily, from older racing footage that spans several decades. It's in various states of decay and quality. Some of the film footage holds up well, revealing good colors and details, even through some evident wear-and-tear. Some of the material is in a much fuzzier state, showing a heavier amount of grit, grain, scratches, and other maladies. Various photos, both in color and in black-and-white, look noticeably sharper and cleaner. A number of interviews are included, most of which have only recently been photographed. Here, the HD video source material looks fine. It's well detailed and nicely colored, yet neither stand apart as anything special in terms of presentation against other, similar HD video documentary sources. In short, there's a wild array of picture qualities on display, all of them appearing about as accurate as one might expect given the lengthy timeframe over which they've all been culled.

1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

1 spins its wheels on Blu-ray with a respectable Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It features good, aggressive music that flows well and presents the listener with a clear, robust listen. There's a strong low end to start, a positive, forceful rumble that's tight and even and heavy but not unkempt or rattly. Various racing sound effects are enjoyably punchy, too. Cars zip through the stage with large amounts of energy, all but sending a gush of wind into the listening area. Race fans will enjoy the potency of the various racing sound effects. However, the track's key component is dialogue. Both narration and interviews -- whether newly minted in the HD video segments or from vintage clips -- play clearly and evenly from the center. The track is quite dynamic for a Documentary, though given the subject matter an exciting, aggressive track was to be expected.

1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Aside from an assortment of trailers for other Millennium titles, 1 contains no bonus content.

1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

1 is often difficult to watch, but that's mostly the point. Its a film of triumph in the shadow of an ever-present string of tragedies, of advancement in technology and the loss of life that was a result. The film tells the story of the sport's evolution, first to faster cars with little or no regard for driver safety to the modern era in which technology and safety live in harmony. It's structurally even, highly interesting, and nicely narrated. Millennium Entertainment's Blu-ray release of 1 features good video and audio. No extras are included. Recommended.