SENNA : archive from 23rd August 2011.

Saw 'SENNA' last night and I can recommend this documentary movie to all of you if you follow F1 or not. Directed by Asif Kapadia, this is the story of Ayrton Senna - the Brazilian motor racing ace - the man, the Formula 1 three time World Champion, and the Legend whose life ended so tragically & prematurely in mid-1994. Using 15,000 hours of largely previously unseen footage this is a well crafted & fitting montage of the mans life in the fast lane, his determination, his struggles, his beliefs, his faith in God and the ultimate price he paid.


The film quickly propels the viewer into Senna's arrival on the F1 scene in 1984 and his brief racing partnerships with Toleman, then Lotus and then onto McLaren with whom he would drive to world beating form. The drama is as much on track as it is off it, with his arch-rival French racing ace Alain Prost with whom Senna shared an intense battle every race every season and often coming to blows when it mattered the most. Off track there were the arguments with F1's governing body, the struggles about safety, and his reactions to those of his racing colleagues when there were on-track incidents, accidents, near misses, and occasionally death - not the least of these being Roland Ratzenberger who was killed on the same circuit just 24 hours before Senna's own untimely death, and 48 hours after Rubens Barrichello was injured in practice that same weekend.

In what has come to be known as Formula One's darkest weekend, the film takes us up to that fateful moment on lap seven of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix when a freak accident took the life of this racing legend in front of a worldwide audience of 300 million viewers. There are no talking head interviews in this documentary, there is no real commentary throughout - just hours & hours of footage accumulated over ten years in the racing limelight that has been distilled down into moments of intense racing action, on track drama, off track tension, politicking, family life, social interactions and Senna's ever increasing concerns over car safety in the era of rapid change in F1 as computerisation took hold, and technological changes became more & more commonplace throughout the season leaving little time to adjust.

Despite their intense rivalry on & off track during their racing lives together, Prost was a pall bearer at Senna's funeral and their friendship grew in the months leading up to Senna's death. With so much archival footage available surrounding F1 over the years this film plays out as a live action drama of the mans life seen through his eyes and those closest to him, rather than a historical documentary of man who died tragically last century. The film takes us in and around Senna's contemporaries of that era including Alain Prost of course (without whom this story would not be complete), Gerhard Berger, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis and Sid Watkins amongst others.

As a big follower of Formula One Motor Racing since the early 80's and a big fan of Ayrton Senna and then Michael Schumacher subsequently, I still remain lost for words over the tragedy that befell the two greatest racing drivers of my time, and both under very different circumstances. Senna was and will always be a legend in the world of motor sport especially in his own country of Brazil where he is idolised still to this day. This film is a fitting testimony to the great man, compelling viewing, and an insiders view to this particular brand of motor sport that we have not seen before.

The film won two BAFTA Awards and was nominated for another, and all up it garnered seventeen award wins and another sixteen nominations. A must see film on so many levels.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-