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Senna is a celebration of the life of Ayrton Senna, one of Formula One’s all-time legends. The documentary film charts his rise from smaller teams to the successful McLaren car, and his subsequent bitter rivalry with teammate Alain Prost.
Director Asif Kapadia makes all the right moves in this excellently put together documentary. His instinct for good filmmaking is apparent through his decision to include only archive footage to tell the story of the driver’s life, allowing the voices of talking heads to be heard but never visually interrupt the flow of the film. Credit must also go to editors Chris King and Gregers Sall, who achieve the unenviable task of putting together the grainy archive footage with masterful precision.
The film is not the story of Senna the person, but of Senna the racing-car driver. We learn much of his relationships with team principle Ron Dennis and rival Alain Prost, but little attention is given to his family, and there is no mention at all of the women involved in his love life. Yet the film is perhaps better off for this, as we still learn much of his character (especially his competitiveness, thoughtfulness and charm) but manage never to stray off-topic and into the undocumented areas of his private life.
It would be a mistake to dismiss this film on the basis of it being a simple sports documentary, for the drama and the human stories behind the racing are brought out expertly by Kapadia. He wisely takes a back seat approach and allows the drama of the footage to tell the story, and with Senna’s bold approach to racing and charismatic personality there is plenty of such drama.
Nowhere is this more the case than with Senna and Prost’s rivalry. The pair’s relationship is fascinating, with both possessing entirely different ideologies of racing, yet being equally talented. Then there are the high speed crashes, of which though spectacular in their own right are given substance by knowledge of the involved drivers’ lives and personalities. There is usually no dramatic indication that a crash is imminent, meaning each one is greeted with surprise and allows for the full shock of the incident to be relived.
Recurring themes in the film also relate to the Brazilian’s main passions in life; namely religion, love of his native Brazil and, of course, motor racing. Both his nationalism and religion seem to drive Senna to succeed in Formula One, as success is usually responded to with sincere thanks towards God, and the strongest outpouring of emotion we see in him is upon winning his home Brazilian grand prix for the first time.
Perhaps the most intriguing scenes are those showing behind-the-scenes footage of drivers meeting with senior formula one figures, as we see a tense, uneasy relationship between the two. The in-car cameras too are superb, which when viewed on the big screen make shockingly clear just how fast these cars travel.
Overall, Senna is an excellent sports documentary and a worth homage to a great sportsman, with an ending that, though most will see coming, will move even the most uptight.
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