Looking Back at the Beginning

In the year of McLaren’s 50th anniversary celebrations, a new short film directed by leading Swedish music-video maker Marcus Söderlund, sheds light on McLaren’s very human back-story – namely that of New Zealander Bruce McLaren, who founded his racing team five decades ago. The film follows the ghost of McLaren as he retraces the scene of his crash at the Goodwood circuit in 1970 – the crash that took his life at 32. Shot in Söderlund’s trademark, dreamlike state, it is accompanied by a spine-tingling McLaren monologue, ending poignantly with the words: “…What might be seen as a tragic end was in fact a beginning. As I always said, to do something well is so worthwhile that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. Indeed, life is not measured in years alone but in achievement…”