A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story

I read Fangio - his autobiography - about 40 years ago and remember seeing him at races and being interviewed and it is difficult to express quite how iconic a figure he was in life as well as in racing history. This film does address that in it's interviews with drivers like Stewart and Prost, but somehow it's coverage of his racing career is bland. Archive footage of 1950's motor sport is somewhat limited, but dressing it up by dubbing on a retro-style commentary didn't work for me and I also found it distracting that not all the clips match the races being described in the commentary. Aspects of his career that were massively significant - his crash at Monza in 1952, the 1957 German Grand Prix and his kidnapping in1958 are covered - although the kidnapping is barely touched upon - but somehow the sum is less than the parts. This guy was an absolute legend, but somehow they've reduced him to a collection of facts.

I mean, I feel ya bud but... come on, is that really 1 worthy?

It is kinda sad that when there is good story to tell, had a chance to interview with some special names in Formula 1 history, but there is no storytelling. Time didn't pass while I was watching, several times I checked the bottom bar to see how many minutes to end. In my opinion; unfortunately this documentary is not so successful about reflecting Fangio's legacy. But in otherside, it is good to see the old and original aspects of Formula 1 and motorsport history. If interested, then it might worth see it.

I want engine noise! All I got was a wall of pointless background music, drowning out both voice and noise. Could not stand to keep watching (hearing) that.

This is a technically competently made doc on the life of Juan Manuel Fangio, one of the greatest drivers of all time. It is nice to have some of Formula 1's greatest legends talk about one of their idols and the impact he had on their lives. It is pretty informative on the F1 side but it lacks on the more personal side. His life had a lot of incredible situations (he was kidnapped by Cubans for Chrissake!) that are barely mentioned and I think there should have been a lot more emphasis on the Ascari death, which isn't even mentioned! So all in all it's a decent doc that feels a bit incomplete.