Review of Senna (2010) by David L — 31 Oct 2011

I don't particularly like Formula One yet was gripped by this documentary which is just as much about probing the psychology of Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna as it is about his championship winning drives. The family cooperated with the film maker so we see plenty of valuable early home footage of the young go kart driver who gradually works his way up through the racing world and then starts winning races. He slowly became involved in an ever nastier rivalry with the cool professorial Alain Prost of France, who was a very different and much more reserved man. Senna looks more and more stressed as the years go by and despite three championship titles, he changes teams when it appears he has a better chance of winning elsewhere. But the rules change and the car he thought would bring more victories turns out to be highly unpredictable. He is visibly broken up when a young driver is killed during practice for the Italian grand prix in 1994 and yet decides to take part in the race proper the next day.

The end of the film is so tense you can barely look at the screen. You know Senna is about to be killed in a crash and it takes a few seconds for it to sink in that you are looking at the video from his car and seeing what he saw. Senna takes bend after bend and accelerates into the straits and you know he will be dead in just a few seconds. Suddenly the car seems to slip out of control and then there is the shuddering impact and the screen goes black. I don't think I breathed much that last minute. The documentary is also good at highlighting Senna's importance to the morale of people in Brazil, who otherwise were having a very tough time.

Highly recommended.