Brabham (2019) User Reviews

Gone in a spit second.

[antiussentiment · 5/10 · 9 February 2022]

There are some really wonderful folk interviewed here, but you'll never hear them speak more than 10 words before your cut away to something else.. ..and you'll never get to see them ponder a question.

This documentary has almost epilepsy triggering editing. I feel it's made for US audiences, where if a scene lasts more than 3 seconds it's too long, as that's all the director thinks the viewers attention span can handle.

This is a subject that is well worth covering. But that Mr Brabhams story is covered like a music video aimed at sugar loaded teens is a tragedy.

masterp*ss

[vignesh-wireless · 6/10 · 8 August 2020]

Yes it is. take whatever you want out of my review title

Such a disappointment!

[philip-bradley · 4/10 · 23 August 2020]

I was so looking forward to this release, Jack Brabham being such a legend in the field. He was the first and only man to win both the Formula 1 World Driver's Championship AND the Formula 1 World Manufacturers Championship in 1966. This had never been done before and will never be done again....absolutely unique! He deserved so much more that this tripe.

Whilst I hold both David and Geoff Brabham in very high regard for their own outstanding accomplishments in motor racing, I would be disappointed if they had any idea what the makers of this so-called documentary were going to produce.

It seems to me that the producers/director were focused on trying to be 'smart' or 'artistic'; they were trying too hard and missed the point entirely. The animations were of poor quality and totally inappropriate to the subject matter. The bloody 'burning racing driver' walking through the bush??? The burning bush shed?? Ron Dennis hit the nail on the head when he said to the interviewers who were off screen, "Guys, guys, you gotta be professional!" as he scolded them for wandering around and distracting him whilst he was talking.

Who the hell is Grayson Perry? Poor Ron Tauranac seemed to barely tolerate what he was being asked to do and, Paul Newman.....??? And why did they use a soundtrack and film clips of Stevie Wright from 1975? Jack had been retired for 5 years!

On the other hand, Jackie Stewart is always worth listening to, Doug Nye was great, Ron Dennis was interesting and Tony Davis was very good. There was some very good and interesting information presented in the production but it was interrupted by clips and music and animations that did nothing but distract and annoy....they were just wrong!

If you want to learn about Jack Brabham and his era of motor racing, this is a poor place to go. Log on to YouTube and search for Jack, there are plenty of very informative videos about Jack and Ron there, that are much more satisfying.

This DVD was such a huge missed opportunity to do honour to a great and inspiring man.

Jack deserved better than this meandering mess!

[tony-19361 · 2/10 · 9 August 2020]

I was really looking forward to this documentary and settled in to watch it but it soon became clear it was going to be hard and tedious watch. I don't the makers quite knew which direction they wanted to take with it so we end up with a mash of clips and styles that just doesn't work.

We get animated cartoon segments, clips of Paul Newman talking not about Jack but racing in general and quite possibly the saddest part are the pieces featuring the very elderly Ron Tauranac, John Surtess and Stirling Moss (the latter seems completely confused about what is going on and is only there to tell us his name and that he drove all types of cars in all types of races). I don't know if it was the directors intent to show these fine gentlemen in their worst light but they all look moments away from death.

There are clips of Jack and others racing but most of these are shown on a tiny Tv screen in the middle of the screen that makes it practically impossible to tell what is going on.

Then to round it all off are all the nonsense ramblings of whoever Grayson Perry. It is never shown what his connection is with Jack or even with motorsport. I did google the guy and it just says he does weird art and likes to cross dress, is there anybody alive less qualifified to talk about Jack Brabham.

If you don't mind sitting through a rambling mess then give it go but if you want to see how a documentary should be done about a racing giant then watch the McLaren one instead.

Truly awful and depressing watch.

Terrible terrible insult to Jack

[stephenhopes · 1/10 · 19 August 2020]

This would have to be the worst jumbled mess of a great story that I have ever seen. And a classic example of the 'oh documentary is easy' I don't want to waste too much time on this but who tf is Grayson Perry...? Paul Newman!!!! Really poor filmmaking & the director should be banished from this industry. Honestly bad bad bad !!! And PS the narrator should have stayed home .

Very good, interesting documentary about Brabham

[rander-88123 · 8/10 · 25 August 2020]

Some of the reviews here didn't like it, but I suspect it's from fans of the driver. The documentary is very stylized, compared to recent racing documentaries. It plays more like a documentary from the 60's which make sense because it concerns that era, among others. Unlike a couple other documentaries I've seen lately, this one delves not only into the life of the person in question, but the racing technology. The evolution of the cars from the 50's on was quite interesting, and the fact that back when, a team of limited means could actually compete which faded as standards improved on the tracks. Though the portrait of Brabham himself left questions, perhaps that's in-kind with the man's personality as well? Hard to pin-down.

What a major disappointment

[peterdknowles · 1/10 · 20 September 2021]

The biggest thing missing from this mess is Sir Jack himself.

This is all about those being interviewed, some of whom have absolutely no reason to be there and gives no sense of who Sir Jack was.

Don't waste your time.

Disappointing at best

[hatyaiair · 4/10 · 9 August 2020]

I was hoping for so much more following on the heals of the recent Maclaren and Senna documentaries but this was a very poor attempt at a documentary of a racing ledged. The editing was very poor with constant scenes of a burning barn and tv's in a field. I really could not understand how any of that related to telling the story of J. Brabham. The edits were super fast maybe to appeal to a younger audience but then what younger audiences would appreciate a documentary on Jack? More time should have been spent on Jack as a driver that accomplished so much in his career - 3 time world champion is no small accomplishment but this film is a very poor representation of this amazing achievement.

Awful documentary

[harrmmbe · 1/10 · 1 December 2020]

Jack Brabham was a great Australian sportsman and often forgotten as our tennis players and Olympians take Centre stage. I was so looking forward to this tribute to Jack but the viewers and Jack have been let down. So much wonderful footage that is flicked on the screen for short amounts of time or shown on a very small old style TV set in an lounge room. Then we have Grayson Perry giving social commentary and lots of clips of Paul Newman. What's going on? Another disappointing thing was when they interviewed Brabhams collaborator ,Ron Tauranac. Ron then went on to get praise from others. We then flick to Jackie Stewart who couldn't remember Ron's name. Might have happened but was totally unnecessary to keep in the film and so disrespectful. Hopefully someone else will come up with a decent tribute!

Sir Jack and the family deserved better.

[overlord0108 · 4/10 · 22 August 2022]

I'm a big fan of motorsport biopics and documentaries and had high hopes that this would be another solid entry in the genre, the subject matter being top-drawer after all.

Alas, the way that the Brabham story is presented in this film is, at best, a meandering mess, at worst a pretentious excuse to show off disconnected artistic visuals in between compelling snippets of the history of this storied family.

A scene where the filmmakers show how they told the great Ron Tauranac to draw a line on a sheet of plexiglass summed up the director's misguided need to focus on producing something artistic, rather than telling a story that is undoubtedly worth telling. I lost count of the times I rolled my eyes at Grayson Perry's incoherent ramblings on his opinions of motorsport, rather than asking the drivers who actually raced these legendary cars (and who appear in the documentary all to briefly). Furthermore intercutting a historic sequence detailing F1's killing years with a stylistic rendition of a man on fire walking down a circuit is tone-deaf at best.

There's a great story buried in here and hearing David's journey to get the family name back and get the Brabham BT62 launched was fascinating, albeit brief, I just wish the story had been properly told and detailed. Sir Jack, David and the family deserved much better.