A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story

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.

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?

(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...?

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.