Disappointing doco on a legend
Scott Dixon is one of our most successful sporting exports yet many Kiwis know little about his exploits. The 38-year-old has dominated America’s premiere motorsport competition – the IndyCar series – during the past decade, winning four of the past 11 championships (and five overall).
Made by the Kiwis behind the excellent McLaren and Wayne documentaries, Born Racer attempts to lift the lid on the Brisbane-born Dixon and expose local audiences to the rigours of one of the US’ most-beloved sporting obsessions.
It certainly succeeds in the second part but, strangely, the affable, quietly-focused driver feels like a bit-part player in his own movie. While, perhaps thankfully for everyone around him, he doesn’t possess the chaotic charisma of a Wayne Gardner, Racer I think would have benefited a little more from Dixon’s own voice, insight and input.
We get a glimpse of his training regime, a sense of his humble but determined nature and some thoughts on his ‘‘passion’’.
But like the Richie McCaw movie Chasing Great, you never really feel like you get to know the real Scott Dixon.
However, that’s thankfully offset by the thoughtful reflections of key personnel in his Chip Ganassi racing team, IndyCar rivals like Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti and particularly his wife Emma.
A former competitive runner, you can hear the conflict in her words, torn between a desire for her partner to win and just wanting to have him home safely.
Watching her reaction as Dixon’s potentially life-threatening crash at the prestigious 2017 Indy 500 unfolds is truly compelling viewing.
‘‘That car saved our life today,’’ she later muses. Likewise, it’s fascinating to hear Dixon’s father Ron reveal how hard he worked to give his son the best chance of succeeding.
‘‘I’d spend 40 to 50 hours on my business and 40 to 50 hours on him each week,’’ he says, before adding that he borrowed money ‘‘that even my wife didn’t know about’’.
But while Dixon dutifully pays tribute to his parents and is captured on camera telling reporters about his Indianapolis crash, director Evans (HipHoperation) for one reason or another doesn’t pursue either storyline with much gusto.
It also must be something of a disappointment that the 2017 season ended in less-than-dramatic circumstances, especially after, as Dixon himself says earlier in the movie, it was ‘‘the perfect storm for a great story’’.
So while Born Racer is an excellent primer into the world of IndyCars, unlike say, Asif Kapadia’s Senna, it falls short of being an essential portrait of a sporting legend.
We get a glimpse of his training regime, a sense of his humble but determined nature and some thoughts on his ‘‘passion’’. But you never really feel like you get to know the real Scott Dixon.