A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story

I cannot believe the people that give this documentary a low star review! So much love time and effort went into making this. Viewers are so damn ungrateful these days! You make it if you think you can do better.

Loved watching every second of this. Thank you!!

The average rating is bogus! Doesn't reflect the documentary at all.

Wish there where more stories like this available online.

Amazing.

(Flash Review)

Was Juan Manuel Fangio the best F1 driver of all time? He is known as the godfather of F1 as he was the best and most accomplished driver it the early 40s-50s era and held the record of 5 World Championships until Schumacher finally topped him at the turn on the century. He was also able to win championships with several different manufacturers; a rarity. There is some great early racing footage in here. The documentary is straightforward and not creative except from a vague analysis they concocted to pick a best driver over every era. Guess who they picked...?

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 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 follow modern F1, but I'll admit my history is patchy. I know Juan Manuel Fangio of course, one of the very best... if not the best, but there's opportunity to learn much more. However, the bar is set high for documentaries these days and this doesn't really reach that bar. It's quite formulaic, pretty dry, certainly in the opening half hour which is a dull history lesson through Fangio's initiation into motor racing. Granted I learn he started at a surprisingly late age by today's standards, being 37 when he first raced in Europe. It was a different time in motor sport, near impossible to compare today's drivers to those from Fangio's era and the pacing of A Life of Speed grinds to a halt as this topic is covered. Today it's marginal gains, fast reaction speed, different tracks, radically different cars. There was no desire for comfort in the 50s and little thought to safety. I only mention this as it sadly seems to be the key point of the film. There's lots of familiar faces, Stewart, Prost, Häkkien, Rosberg, Alonso, Wolff, coupled with plenty of archive footage, but it feels as much a history of F1 and motor racing as Fangio himself and nothing particularly new. Senna's death, the horrific crash at Le Mans and some archive audio dubbing that sounds slightly suspect. Much is made of Fangio's achievements, winning 5 championships with 4 different constructors, but this feels bolted on and really should have been the central theme. For me that's where this suffers, structurally it's very loose, well intentioned, but lacking pace and a good story arc. Frankly I think Fangio deserves better.

4/10