“MUST SEE” – documentaries

I’ve been asked on more than one occasion “Have you seen the documentary about X?” and my answer was always regrettably “no, not yet, haven’t had time” – thanks to the recent pandemic, our calendar suddenly opened up and I found myself without any more excuses. The 3 documentaries in question are: “Framing John Delorean” (Hulu); “A life of speed: the Juan Manuel Fangio Story” (Netflix) and “Shelby American” (Netflix). WOW! There’s a lot to unpack there, and it became very obvious that if my spouse had to endure watching 6 hours of automotive history, she got to choose the viewing order, right? Up first…

Framing John DeLorean

“Framing John DeLorean” uses the same Hulu documentary style as “Becoming Bond” (The George Laserby Story) where interviews and real footage are interleaved with reenacted scenes by well known actors (Alec Baldwin as John Z. DeLorean (JZD), Morena Baccarin as Christina Ferrare and Josh Charles as Bill Collins) to help fill in the gaps between the archive footage. “Framing John DeLorean” takes it a step further by adding behind-the-scenes interviews with the actors, providing an interesting personal insight to the story.

Verdict: With a running time of 1hr, 50 min – “Framing John DeLorean” rushes through JZD‘s early accomplishments at GM, which are many, in the first 30 minutes. There is a heavy focus on the government sponsored “drug sting and entrapment case” for which JZD was acquitted. JZD‘s daughter Kathryn summarizes this part of the film by implying “DMC = Destroyed My Childhood.”

The big reveal came late in the film as an expose into the alleged “embezzlement scheme” between JZD and Colin Chapman of Lotus who partnered on the DMC-12’s development by way of a shell company known as “GDP.” Many might not remember, but JZD didn’t go jail for the cocaine, but he certainly served time for tax evasion. We found the interviews with JZD‘s son Zach DeLorean to be brutally honest but also an appropriate amount of unintended comic relief. Unlike many other Automotive documentaries, “Framing John DeLorean” did an excellent job of engaging petrol-heads and non-car-folk alike, with a focus more on the man than the car, making it an excellent “sharable” experience.

Shelby American

With a subtle nudge, I convinced my wife that she shouldn’t see “Ford v Ferrari” until she’s learned more about Carroll Shelby‘s legendary past. Carrying with that a strong recommendation from member Don C to also watch the documentary first, he said, “Shelby American fills in all the gaps the movie didn’t cover, you need to watch it!”  – “Shelby American” covers the entirety of Shelby’s life from birth-to-death: his early days of racing, wins & losses, chicken farming, LeMans, development of the Cobra, entanglements with Ford and Ferrari, chili cook-offs, Vipers, his 7-10 wives, and the return to Ford. #texas #murica #becauseracecar.

Verdict: Don C was right! – “Shelby American”  does follow a very typical documentary format, it’s 1hr, 58 min of archive footage + eyewitness accounts used to tell the entire story. But one key difference is that it also featured Carroll as the narrator throughout the film. My wife asked at one point, “How come we hear him, but never see him? When was this recorded?” A valid question considering the film debuted in 2019, and Shelby took the checkered flag in 2012 at the age of 89. The film does focus heavily and specifically on the events between 1962-1967, which is perfect if your next jaunt is (re)watching “Ford v Ferrari.” Overall, the film was a perfect retelling and homage to a great racer, and a greater man.

A life of speed: the Juan Manuel Fangio Story

Leaving “Fangio” as our last film was no coincidence. Even though my wife was a “Foreign Languages Major” in college, once she realized a good portion of the film was in Spanish (with English Subtitles) she said “let’s save this for when I can really pay attention.” – Unlike the other 2 films, there is no narrator or guide, it opens with a reenactment of Fangio driving his Chervolet Coupe during the Gran Premio del Norte (a race that runs from Argentina to Peru) while Sir. Jackie Stewart (Formula 1 champ ’69, ’71 and ’73) covers Fangio‘s early days. The film then switches to archive footage of Fangio (most likely recorded in the ’80s) recounting his rise to become a 5x Formula-1 Champion, during 1949-1957.

https://youtu.be/F1vm_qMDn-I

Verdict: Of the three, “Fangio” is the shortest film with a running time of 1hr, 32 min and keeps with a more traditional documentary format where the archive footage is our only way of moving the story forward. There are good portions of the footage that are still in black and white, or low quality, and others you could tell were filmed in the early days of color or carefully remastered. Peppered throughout the film you could feel Sir. Jackie Stewart’s influence as he continues to advocate for driver safety and how racing has evolved over the years. The producers help transition the content by breaking up Fangio‘s story telling with interviews with people like: Alain Prost, Mika Hakkinen, Nico Rosberg and other F1 champs. Most of this modern footage was used to create a “then vs now” and “what if” arguements, but in the end the consensus was always the same: Who is the best driver in F1 history? … Fangio. 

With ample time on our hands, it definitely makes for some long days and even longer nights. But with films like DeLorean, Shelby and Fangio to break up the evening, it was a much needed respite from “the normal shows” we’d usually watch. Admittedly, documentaries aren’t everyone’s cup-of-tea. In part, because of the content but also because of the way they are assembled. However, the newer style documentaries come off as “part news and part movie” making the overall viewing experience better, keeping the audience engaged and even incorporating some laughs. All three of the films mentioned here were a great way to share some time and Motorsports history with the family as well as spawning some great Q&A discussion. #movienight. 

#neverstoplearning.