Schumacher
Through exclusive interviews and archival footage, this documentary traces an intimate portrait of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher.
- Released: 2021-09-15
- Runtime: 112 minutes
- Genre: Documentaries
- Stars: Michael Schumacher, Mick Schumacher, Corinna Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Rolf Schumacher, Gina Schumacher, Jean Todt, Bernie Ecclestone, Sebastian Vettel, Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill, Flavio Briatore, David Coulthard, Willi Weber, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Sabine Kehm, Mark Webber, Eddie Irvine, Piero Ferrari, Ross Brawn, James Allen, Gerhard Noack, Gianluca Pilot, Richard Williams
- Director: Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns, Michael Wech, Vanessa Nöcker
Comments
- wmfranken - 8 January 2022
Regarding Schumacher, the person
I'll be the first to admit this is a good documentary about what drove Schumacher during his career, always the perfectionist. From various interviews and disclosure we learn Michael did not ever consider himself to be responsible for (racing/collision) mistakes, we see he is almost fearless on the track, but insecure about what is expected from him. Other than that, the documentary implores the viewer to believe he was a very nice guy when (if) you got to know him, and a great family guy. Great, but also boring and to put it bluntly "fairly common". I think I was not the target audience here, because I don't care much about all this. I wanted to see legendary race moments summarised, the genius he displayed as a driver, the perfection when it was in a actuality faultless (and not just from his perspective). The almost 2 hours is frankly quite a chore to watch, it's not exciting, and it left me cold almost completely, except around the period when Schumacher started to near Senna, and eventually surpassed him, the tragedy that followed and the emotional moment when Michael reaches the milestone of equal F1 GP victories as his former idol. The Benneton period was when I myself started to really get into F1 so I remember it most fondly, and then there was Ferrari. The early period of failure at the Scuderia was amply covered, as was his ability to upgrade the car and motivate the team, but as soon as the leading man became unbeatable in the red car, it became apparently uninteresting to cover in detail for a story about the man, not the myth. The agenda of this documentary then seems more to underscore that Schumacher was really a human after all, a family man even, a nice guy to befriend privately, a flawed person like all of us, but one with an exceptional talent for racing. It doesn't, however, adequately, or edge of your seat excitingly, do his racing legacy justice. For that, it would need to scrap 45 minutes of (appraising) professional and (emotional) family talk, and replace it by a very carefully selected series of footage that shows him at his best as we all knew him: dualling on the track, battling for victory sometimes against the odds, sometimes at all costs. After watching it, I immediately YouTubed some footage of Schumacher, Hill, Senna, Häkkinen, and then some highlights of Verstappen VS Hamilton. If you simply love racing, I recommend you do the same. This story tells, but doesn't show.
