Brock: Over The Top 2020

A life in the very fast lane

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To properly tell the story of Peter Brock isn’t to just spin a yarn about a racing car driver who happened to win a particular motor race a few times more than the next bloke. It shouldn’t be about hiding the human flaws of a true icon of modern Australian culture, either – or hanging him for the same.

Telling that tale of derring-do and dastardly deeds is a dilemma that’s been faced by writers and directors over the course of the past three decades – and it’s a subject that’s been treated poorly by some. Only now, 14 years after Brock’s death, has a film managed to walk the line between deification and denigration as finely and empathetically as Brock: Over The Top.

This 105-minute doco was originally intended for a wider cinematic release, but the crushing impact of COVID-19 on movie theatres has resulted in a largely digital roll-out – and this, folks, is a crying shame because it’s a beauty.