Ferrari: Race to Immortality

I generally agree with the 5 previous reviews to mine, but I loved it. It tells the story well about the risks the drivers took (and perhaps pushed by Enzo, their fans and their women), the camaraderie among drivers despite their competitiveness, and how dangerous the sport was back before crush zones were designed into the cars, tracks had runoff areas, and research backed helmets and hans devices were mandated. It's sad because it's all true, but great because it tells and shows the story. In summary:

The bad: limited coverage of Enzo, limited mention of other Ferrari drivers debatably more important to Ferrari's history than Collins and Hawthorn (which the film tends to focus on), poor editing of the new filming of the old cars in action vs the original footage.

The good: Fantastic old race footage with clean visuals and good coloring, great story about Collins and Hawthorn, good stories about a few of the other earlier drivers. Wonderful, if sad, story of how it was back then about the dangers and the drivers.

This was so disappointing it drove me to make an imdb account just to complain about it. From the title you might expect a documentary about Ferrari, but don't fool yourselves into thinking it will be. It's merely about Mike Hawthorn and Petter Collins.

A documentary of extreme British bias, where even a legend like Fangio only gets a passing mention to enalt "how nice" Petter Collins was.

If you're looking to know more about Ferrari, this will be a waste of time. There's nothing there. At most you will have a mention of other drivers here and there, and tasteless footage of dead bodies that was clearly included for shock value, without any consideration or respect towards the people involved.

I can't for the life of me understand why this was advertised as a Ferrari movie at all.

Another great documentary about motor racing and Formula 1 after McLaren and Williams, two films that also came out this year. Ferrari: Race to Immortality takes place in the mid 50's and tells the story of Enzo Ferrari, his complex character, his famous racing team and the drivers with emphasis on two great British masters of the wheel, Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorne.

The film is beautifully made, the archive footage of the races and cars are great. The story is told through interviews and narration by Enzo Ferrari, fellow drivers, wives and girlfriends. Drivers back then were a special breed of people, their determination, passion and love of racing is hard to understand sometimes but it is also hard not to find it beautiful and inspiring. They lived their lives on the edge and to the fullest, basically trying to cheat death every time they drove those cars. They were warriors, gladiators, stars and gentlemen. It is impossible to compare Formula 1 of today to those times, it almost seems like a completely different sport.

The film has quite an emotional punch as well, many young lives tragically ended, families lost sons, brothers, fathers and husbands in their pursuit of speed and dreams.

Strongly recommended to all motor racing and Formula 1 fans regardless if you are a Ferrari supporter or not, I believe you will not regret it.

Glorious 16mm and specially 35mm footage from one of the most aesthetically pleasing eras in motorsports history. Harsh testimonies of what racing was all about back then. The movie is a tremendous showcase of a bygone era we will never come close to.

Of course the movie is absurdly British, specially considering the topic (they care more about Stirling Moss than about Ferrari's Alberto Ascari). If you have ever watched motorsports-related media, you would already know nothing ever gets produced if there are no Brits triumphing in it either at the wheel or as a manager.

Those cars, those courses, those people, the absolute "vibes" as the kids would say... Tremendous through and through, horrific at times, and it is all presented with great competence.

What a disappointment. This is not a documentary about either Ferrari the manufacturer or Enzo Ferrari, the iconic owner. Most of the documentary is about some of the drivers in the 50's, probably 2/3 of the whole film is about Mike Hawthorn. And a lot it's very repetitive with so many other documentaries about how dangerous was F1 in the 50s. But other documentaries, take a clear storyline on that topic, take a more broad view and show how safety in the sport improved from the 50s to the 2000s, particularly during the 70s. In this case, they stay in the 50s. I was expecting learning either about Enzo (his origins, how he built the empire, his personality, the way he managed the team and the company, his quirks) or learning about Ferrari team and the evolution of it and the unique philosophy to manage competition and drivers. But nothing, besides a few short quotes and recordings of Enzo Ferrari, nothing much more about Ferrari. An absolute waste of film and time.