(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...?

To understand my rating of "A Life of Speed", it must be understood that I'm into cars and car racing history of all kinds. I enjoyed watching this documentary with my parents who grew up in the 1950s (and know nothing about cars or racing). It added more to my knowledge, and out of nostalgia my parents liked the time period it was set in, along with informing them about something they had no idea about growing up.

This film is particularly weak on the personal life of Fangio. Actually weak isn't the right word, absent would be better. No mention of his personal life, relationships, illegitimate child and later exhumation to demonstrate paternity, and only a brief mention of his weird kidnapping adventure in Cuba. This film is essentially a chronological story of his racing career. I'm not expecting a trashy, modern, celebrity-trashing expose, but neglecting his personal life entirely makes the film rather flat. The background music (or whatever it was) didn't bother me, but I guess I can see why it would be annoying to some people. You will definitely get more out of this documentary if you're already familiar with the lead characters and important names and events in automobile racing (or have somebody to explain them to you),but I still think many people may enjoy this look back at life in the 1950s anyhow. In some ways, life was really better then, although, of course, one must be careful with the rose-colored glasses.

On the other hand, if cars aren't your thing, and especially if you're on the younger side, this film is likely to seem slow and dry. As a matter of fact, if I was going to be perfectly honest, I'd say that for your average person, this documentary will probably only a 3 or 4. It's only because of my personal interests, prior knowledge, and my parent's ages that I rated this so high. My rating is therefore highly idiosyncratic and likely not a good guide for most people. Forewarned is forearmed. Still, I'm ending the positive comment that my parents and I had a great time watching this.

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