Big long waffley review - TT3D: Closer To The Edge

Go see this film. I'm saying that right at the start. Go see it, you won't regret it. If you haven't seen it already, here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QldZiR9eQ_0

I don’t know how many emotions I went through watching TT3D: Closer to the Edge. So I was slightly reliving them whilst writing this. I apologise in advance for the occasional swearing and the inevitable digressions. I’m not a writer, I don’t normally review things, but here goes. Oh and by the way, for those who haven't seen it/don't watch the TT - SPOILERS.



Well. I feel like I’ve just been hurtled round the TT course at 200mph. Bloody hell…

Apparently at the age of 5, when I first saw the TT, I sat by the roadside at the Creg-ny-Baa and shuddered in horror every time a bike went past. Although I had just got lost in the pub, so I could’ve been a bit shaken up already.

Considering that, I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed the movie. And for once it wasn’t just the fact that Guy Martin was making me laugh so hard I nearly cried (and I’m happy to say that I wasn’t the only one laughing loudly in the cinema. I know I’m going to love a film when people are laughing loudly in the cinema and no one cares).

That first footage of the start of the lap – where there’s more or less just road flying past – gave me such an adrenaline rush I was left violently shaking for a good half an hour. With a massive grin on my face though. Been a fair few years since I’ve seen proper firsthand footage of a lap. It's gripping, so much more than exciting.

I like the use of 3D. I know some people are saying it’s unnecessary because the whole event is already so thrilling. But I think if it’d been in 2D, I wouldn’t have cared quite so much. I wouldn’t have been quaking in my boots (sandals…) or gasping with my heart in my mouth or laughing until I cried. The 3D just brought you into it, it made you feel like you were there. They said this on the 20th at the Villa Marina, at the press launch, that they didn’t want it to be about bikes leaping out of the screen. They wanted to bring the audience to the TT. And that’s precisely what they did.

Oh god Guy… now there is a boy I would love to be mates with. He talks faster than me!! Yes, he says stupid stuff and, as one man said, often “unbroadcastable” stuff. But he’s just so funny and I love his passion and his (brutal) honesty. Yes, perhaps his temper gets the better of him but it happens to the best of us. And when you're that passionate (and obsessed?) about something, you not going to easily get over things that go wrong.

There’s something about the riders’ eyes before the race. Actually it’s always there slightly (especially Ian Hutchinson. He scares me a bit). It‘s the same look the Husky that lives up the road from me has. How do you describe it… It’s like there’s so much focus and concentration there, such intensity, there's just a bit of a psychopathic look in the eyes. Gives me the shivers just thinking about it. But I suppose you have to be at least a little bit nutty to be able to race the TT, right? I don’t know.

Bridget Dobbs is an impressive woman and I really take my hat off to her. When I heard Paul Dobbs' widow was in the film I felt a bit sick. I was worried she was going to be really emotional and it was going to be really hard-hitting. It certainly was hard-hitting, but in a completely different way. She’s so strong and those kids look happy and like they have so much fun. She’s clearly continued to give them a brilliant life and let them remember their father happily. And I like the fact they still enjoy the TT. That amount of strength is something I aspire to.

When the bit about Paul Dobbs' crash was on, my stomach turned. Due to exams I haven’t kept up with the TT the last couple of years, and I’d forgotten it was the year they were filming that he’d crashed. I got so caught up in that moment, that when they said it was the final race and I saw Guy and Conor starting off it hit me – these two crash, and crash badly, and I’d completely forgotten until now. Shit. It was one of those moments where you can hear that little voice in the back of your head going “STOP WATCHING!!!” but you can’t tear your eyes away from the screen.

I assume they don’t have cameras at Ballagarey (for good reason…), but the use of the blacked out screen with voiceover of the paramedic and then the pictures – I’m putting my head in my hands now just thinking about it again. It was so effective cos it was the same technique they used when Dobsy crashed, with the blackout and the voiceover. Made a real link between them that just made your heart sink. There was such a build up - they kept saying he was missing and you felt ill just waiting for the footage or something, anything to get you out of this agony of waiting to see what happened. They just kept talking to other people, it was so sickening; and then the screen went black and the voiceover came on. God that fireball was huge. And when the paramedic said Guy was begging him “Don’t cut my leathers!” God bless him. Heaven forbid he’d worry about himself.

Conor’s crash….. the words just aren’t even there. The first time they showed it me and my mum (and a few other people around us) gasped and put our hands over our mouths. We knew he’d crashed, we’d heard his list of injuries read out. But we didn’t know where he’d crashed and quite how bad it’d been. Seems stupid when I think 4 days ago I heard a guy read out more or less every other bone in the body having been broken, amongst other things (that nerve damage sounded nasty), and I sort of thought “Ouch that sounds awful.” But it never quite linked up that therefore it must have been a really horrific crash. Of course the second time they showed it – the full fall this time – I couldn’t believe it. He bounced over a stone wall. Bounced. Fell off the Verandah, and bounced over a solid stone wall (which was apparently 5 feet high). If he’d have gone into that wall at the speed he was falling, I reckon it would’ve been lights out, game over more or less. He probably would’ve broken more than he did at least. Although I'm sure (second time seeing it) he tried to grab the wall as he went over it, to stop himself and I reckon that'll be where he dislocated his arm. Ouch. He looked like someone had thrown a ragdoll off the mountain. Thank god he's ok now. He’s one lucky guy. Someone is definitely watching over him.

The music!! It nearly killed me!! I’m not talking about the soundtrack, all the songs (they were brilliant by the way), I mean the composed orchestrated stuff. They say the best music is the music you don’t notice, because it fits the mood so well. I agree with that to an extent because most of it I didn’t really notice. However just before Conor's and Guy’s crashes, that music that slowed the hell down, all twinkly piano and strings. It hit me like it was an arrow and my heart was a bullseye. Maybe because I knew what was coming, I don’t know. It made that part of the film so haunting, I can still see it.

I couldn’t quite decide where they were going with the ending. The film was so for the TT, there wasn’t anyone against it, there was no mention of the call for a ban or anything. And yet they ended the film with Guy and Conor in hospital (Guy with that giant cup of tea, even when he's injured!! That boy makes me laugh!) and Ian with his leg all pinned together (urgh that footage of him getting run over nearly made me throw up). They ended on a slightly depressing note. I almost felt like the film was trying to make you question it. Kind of saying “Well, you’ve seen them do it, you’ve seen all the raw emotion that goes into it and how much they want to win, so much that they push themselves to the edge. Now look at them. Was it really worth it?”

It’s hard to say. They’re such beautiful young men I’d love to say “No it’s not, stop being so stupid. You have a nice face and I don’t want you smashing it all over the pavement.” But they love it. You can see it in their psycho-husky eyes. And to take it away from them would kill them as well. So what can you do?

I think I would go watch the TT again. I might start shuddering again when the bikes go past though.

Oof. Somebody put the kettle on. I think I need a cup of tea.

EDIT Just been to see the film a second time. My legs were shaking all the way through - would've thought I'd have been calmer knowing what was coming. Anyway, corrected a couple of things I got mixed up here. And the crazy thing is, I want to go see it again...