A documentary on seven-times Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher. Through race footage and interviews with teammates, rivals, friends, family and himself we see his history and get a picture of a man who dominated the sport of motor racing.
An interesting documentary on a man who is synonymous with Formula 1 and is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, F1 driver of all time. Shows well his history, his humble beginnings, how his experience as a child racing go-karts shaped him into the champion driver he would become, his ups and downs. The struggle years with Ferrari, the first few years he was there, are covered quite extensively and show his perseverance and the rewards for it.
I could have done with more details of the races and championships though. Through narrowly focusing on Schumacher you miss out on the broader F1 history. On several occasions I had to reach for my phone and look up how a championship season ended and who won. Even in individual races the film just concentrates on a controversial Schumacher incident and then just leaves it at that, rather than tells us how the race ended.
This also extends to Schumacher's golden period, 2000-2004, where, other the 2000 win, nothing much is said about the other four years. After showing us in grim detail the struggles of the early Ferrari years the producers could at least have allowed us to enjoy the pinnacle of his career. Once again I had to look up the details myself.
Through interviews with his wife and children we also get to learn more about his private life. This is reasonably interesting and shows another side to Schumacher. However, this aspect is overdone, overly sentimental and starts to feel like a promotion.
The lack of detail mentioned before then carries through to the conclusion. The skiing incident and aftermath is told in very cryptic terms. No details of what happened, no details of how he is now. It feels quite empty and once again the producers turn to sentimental interviews, rather than details, to fill in the space.
Overall it's still quite interesting and does give you a decent picture of the man, his personality, history and achievements but falls short of being comprehensive or brilliant.
