User reviews

Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Vanessa Nöcker, and Michael Wech's aptly-titled Michael Schumacher documentary, Schumacher, speeds through years and titles without diving too deeply into any significant details. It is a heartwarming and riveting reflection on the Formula 1 icon, supported by the Schumacher family and hugely benefits from their database of photographs and home movies, but it falls short of presenting a picture of the guy beyond what was already known.

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.

Beautifully told story of his racing career, taking a look at all the key highlights including his battles with Senna, Villenueve, Hill & Hakkinen. His wife plays a predominant role in telling the story, giving great insight as to how Schumi was behind the cameras. Credit to anyone who can hold their emotion back for the ending of the documentary which talks about his current well being, a racer he was, but above all he was a Father to two beautiful children - a must watch for any sporting fan.

I won't say much, the film reminded me why we still miss this guy. He's one of those few chosen ones who are legends on their field and for a good reason.

This is a beautiful tribute to him and I wish for his family to remain as beautiful as I saw them, united and proud. He built a strong, protective shield through out the years, one which he now needs the most. I hope for his recovery, to never see Corinnas tears on her face, or his childrens' sad eyes ever again.

A very emotional and well put together documentary covering Micheal's journey and showing his life on and off the track. It focuses not only his success but also his struggles.

Personally I felt it was a bit short and could've been a multi part documentary series like The Last Dance , but regardless still a well made documentary ,credit to the team and the Schumacher family for this. A must watch for every formula one fan.

Keep fighting Michael , hope you recover soon to witness Mick making you proud.

A lot of times the information given felt very spread out. This gave the docu an overall very slow feel. On top of that, everyone interviewed felt a little too positive about schumacher. Even if it's all genuine, I don't want to hear people talk about how great a guy he was for 1,5 hours. Overall a compatent docu, but could have been a lot better.

6/10: good but not that much.

I admit I am a Michael Schumacher fan. I didn't expect to be quite as moved by this as I was, what shines through is a real love story between Michael and Corinna, every shot and every picture tells that story. It underlined his career at every turn and every moment of his success.

It is biased to the extent that it skims across his on track antics at the height of his career, but this isn't really a movie about that. It's a movie about passion, never giving up and also being humbled by life and acceptance of change.

The star is really Corinna, the last interview section is from the heart and for those of us who grew up idolising the sporting hero we can only be happy that he has such a proud, protective and loving champion in her. Yes he had luck on the track as well as historic skill, but this movie makes you think that his marriage was the real luck and the real achievement and that carries on to this day.

Keep believing MS.

By accounts Schumacher was not only one of the greatest drivers, but also one of the most ruthless. This documentary does a poor job of examining that ruthlessness, leaving us with a familial legacy rather than a racing legacy.

Knowing the situation Michael is those last 8 years, I couldn't stop crying from the beginning until the end of it. An absolute masterpiece documentary and the perfect tribute to a legend like Schumacher. After watching this, I'm even more happy I've started following F1 in his time and proud becoming one of his millions worldwide fans.

P.s. Hope he recovers as soon as possible and comes back to circuits watching his son Mick racing in F1 :)

First of all, I am a Schumacher fan since 7 years old, when I betrayed my parents and pretty much my entire country that was supporting his rival back then in 1993.

I liked him because he was punching above his weight and I just admired him as a person and racer. Sometimes it is hard to explain rooting for a team or athlete. It is a very subjective choice, but I was with him all the time.

The film focus on his career from 1994-2000. Those were the years that his races were the most competitive. Also it marks a transition when F1 reverts its course from being a sport with bitter rivalries, betrayals and plots in the 80s to the more sanitized and professional league that it became in the 2000s.

Schumacher was part of this transition and it is nice to see a documentary remindining us of his achievements and failures.

Europeans and South Americans will enjoy this movie, but if you are North American, I don't recomend because F1 is not very well known in those markets.

I loved it and I'd recommend this to everyone! His early days with Benetton, his struggle with Ferrari, his rival with Haikkinen. This had everything. I forgot how big Mika Haikkinen was as a rival and how great person he was. Michael Schumacher simply is Michael Jordan of Formula 1. Absolutely. Both are mentally same. No fear no nothing. I hope you get well Michael! We wish you a speedy recovery! We love you! And thanks to Schumacher family for this beautiful documentary.

Schumacher. Everyone knows the name. Whether you're into motorsport or not. The trick here in this new documentary is what all documentaries strive for, to be more than the headline, to dig deeper into the story. Motor-racing and F1 is the vehicle if you'll pardon the pun, but this is very much a human story. Now I'd consider myself a motorsport fan, but only of more recent years. I never followed Formula 1 while Michael Schumacher was in his prime. We get the likes of James Allen, Eddie Jordon, Sebastien Vettel, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Eddie Irvine, Mika Häkkinen, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Mark Webber, the family Rolf, Ralf, Corinna, Gina and Mick, Michael himself... and Bernie Ecclestone, I guess inevitably. All telling the story of the wonder kid who burst unexpectedly into the worlds most famous race series. Struggling with the fame. Going head to head with hero's and getting his elbows out. It's not as well crafted as Senna, that tells Ayrton's story beautifully through archive footage. There's is a lot of archive though, it covers the lions share of the heavy lifting, but there are new interviews too, largely with the family. The archive delves deeply into the early history. Family filmed footage of karting. The Senna rivalry and the crash that took his life. The Senna crash when you see it, doesn't look too bad. I mean it's still bad, but certainly by modern standards, the driver is getting out. Senna didn't though. Stretchered off to hospital in a coma. This isn't Senna's story, but Schumacher went on to win that race and clearly is shaken by events. Maybe the only time he ever was. He's a steely guy. Schumacher's current condition isn't addressed much, but in the telling of the Senna aftermath, his wife Corinna talks about his mental strength. The ability to block things out and focus. "He shows me this every day". It's the clearest indication the Schumacher is a fighter still fighting, but after that skiing accident, he's now "Different". It's an interesting story. Undoubtably one of the best drivers in motorsport history. Also undoubtably absolutely ruthless, determined or dirty some would say. Me included, it's undeniable. He's a great driver, but there's to many incidents that clearly illustrate he was a hot head. It's to it's credit that the film, heavily endorsed by the family doesn't pull these punches. Focusing as much on this as his part in rebuilding Ferrari. Race footage. Dramatic music. The dominance he achieved, it's all here, but there's so much more for fans of F1 or just captivating human ambition.

I was hoping for a bit more than what we got, it doesn't really tell you much about him that we didn't already know, apart from clips of his family speaking if you've watched F1 since he came to the scene then there's really not a lot of new things we didn't already know.

Certainly a little disappointing in my opinion.

Michael was the hero of my childhood. He got me into F1 and growing up, my room was plastered with posters of him and my wardrobe full of Ferrari basecaps. Some of my fondest childhood memories were watching him race on sundays together with my family.

I do like the approach of this documentary focusing on him as a person. Of course, some of the greatest racing moments are missing such as his comeback in '99, the battle with Hakkinen in Spa or his last pole in Monaco, but I'd argue that most of the people that have followed his career do already know them and those who don't will find them within seconds of looking up any compilation on Youtube.

Then there is the last chapter of this documentary that left me devastated. I was so occupied with remembering all the great and controversial moments of his career that I almost forgot this chapter. His accident was and still is tragic for me but seeing his family carrying the burden of losing the loving husband and father that he was, was something different and I had to pause a few times to compose myself.

There isn't a lot that I'd rather wish than him being able to fully recover. It's one of my biggest dreams that one day, there'll be a moment when we're going to see him and his family happy and healthy together.

I hope this becomes reality.

It doesn't seem to bring anything new.

If you already know about Schumi's career and have seen some things about it, you don't need to watch this.

It's not like you will miss anything if you don't watch it.

If you want to experience schumacher evolution from promising upstart to unbeatable winning machine from a more human perspective, go watch right now. Mind you that it's not perfect there are few shortcomings but you will not be disappointed.

"Schumacher" is a Biography - Documentary in which we follow the life of Michael Schumacher from his early stages on karts to becoming the seven-time Formula 1 champion we all know. He had to overcome himself and his limits in order to succeed and become one of the best drivers in Formula 1.

As a Formula 1 fan I enjoyed this documentary because it had plenty of information regarding Schumacher that I did not know, much information about his daily life and also about his childhood. The direction which was made by Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Vanessa Nöcker and Michael Wech was very good and they presented very well Michael Schumacher from a different perspective than we knew and have watched. In addition to this, they succeeded on combining very well his early stages with his success in Formula 1 andhis personal life. Finally, I have to say that "Schumacher" is a nice documentary to watch even of you are not a Formula 1 fan because you will learn something about one of the best Formula 1 drivers of all time.

A bit of a meh Documentary about Michael Schumacher. Most of the runtime is just people saying how great he was at racing, which we already knew from the start. Even his prime years of racing are skimmed through fairly quickly, and you don't find out much about him outside his racing career. I wanted to learn more what Schumacher was like outside his career, but it's mostly archive footage and interviews about how awesome he was as a racer. Very little is covered about the issues and conflicts he had, and it felt kind of artificial and sanitised in many places.

5/10.

A wonderfully inspiring sports documentary that focuses on the racing legend's iconic rise, Schumacher is a shining example of the good stuff that Netflix is capable of producing. The documentary really humanizes the larger-than-life Schumacher - as a friend, a colleague, a family member, and an excellent racecar driver - all perspectives well-rooted and covered in equal measure. Even his competent peers only had the greatest things to say about him. The makers thankfully do not relegate it to a sheer puff-piece by also showcasing Schumacher's vulnerabilities and struggles before he became 7-time World Champion. It also doesn't resort to excessive melodrama and focuses less on the accident that rendered him catatonic. Private matters stay strictly private. It's a competently made tribute piece that mires millennials in beautiful nostalgia.

Is 1h 52m enough to cover Schumacher's life? Not at all. Is it still worth a watch? Definitely.