Review of Senna (2010) by Ana B — 23 Sep 2012

Documentary about the life of the late F1 champion driver Ayrton Senna. Brought up in a life of privilege in his natal Brazil, Ayrton soon displayed talent driving Go-Karts, eventually this passion will evolve into a special skill driving Formula 1 cars. Senna will go on winning three World Championships. The movie shows us his professional career with only a few references to his private life.

The beautiful feature of this movie is perhaps its honesty. Very rarely we come across a documentary that is narrated with such a pace that seems fiction. Competition footage, personal films, photographs and interviews with friends and family are used to give us a full picture of a man that liked driving above everything else but disliked the politics that came with the teams and racing authorities. His sometimes vicious rivalry with Alain Prost is fully analyzed and documented with images of them racing, assisting to team meetings and talking to the press. Also we get to see his patriotic side, Senna loved his country and did his best to improve the lives of poor and uneducated Brazilian children, a task that went on after his death in 1994 through his charitable foundation: the Ayrton Senna Institute. His fatal car crash in Imola circuit is shown to us without pity but without spite, just a succinct and truthful explanation and a deep sadness.

This is an outstanding document of a man that passed away very young (he was only 34) but lived his life to the full doing what he liked and what he was really good at.