Review of Senna (2010) by Allen G — 01 Jun 2013

I'm an F1 fan (though I wasn't watching at the time these events take place- I wasn't born for the most part.) but I've never been a Senna fan, as in, I respect what he was capable of, he was an outstanding driver, and what he achieved but his personality just never appealed to me. Regardless, this is an exceptional piece of work.

A must-see for any racing fan with a fabulous score to boot and some great footage if you are a fan of the sport. As if this wasn't enough, its presented in a new way that makes it feel like a real film rather than solely a documentary and its a story deserving of that.

Its biggest achievement for me though is its examination of faith and other questions that it only has to hint at here about the core of the sport and the nature of competition in general. We never really get inside Senna's head, we can see his thoughts but we don't know why he thought them. I suspect no one aside from himself ever really knew. Its beautifully crafted and very much one of the saddest documentaries I've seen, though, thankfully, its easier to watch a second time round.

While it could well appeal to people who don't have an interest in the sport, I think that due to its footage-based approach, you will have to have an interest in F1 to get the most out of this. You don't need to be familiar with Senna though- this will do that for you, in fact, I think this may have a bigger effect on modern-F1 fans particularly younger ones like myself who weren't around to see just how dangerous the sport was and just what it meant to sit in the cockpit of one of those cars .