Review of Senna (2010) by Ethan T — 20 Sep 2011

The impressive archival film footage of Brazilian motor racing legend Ayrton Senna make this film of his career a treat for fans of motor sports. Senna emerges as serene, spiritual and supremely gifted, able to take tighter and faster racing lines than anyone else on the track and spurring himself on to ever greater feats of self-control and precision driving.

But when Senna is faced with the murky realm of Formula 1 politics his ambitions are frustrated, particularly when he is teamed up with the wily and calculating French driver Alain Prost, who swiftly becomes a bitter rival.

And later in his career, Senna is held back by inadequate technology, when arguably lesser drivers benefitted from superior gadgets like automatic traction control. But there is no denying the Brazilianâ(TM)s giftedness behind the wheel: witness the remarkable footage in which he wins a race despite crashing with five laps to go, or winning despite a broken gearbox jammed in sixth gear.

Near the end of his career, when Senna clashed more frequently with racing authorities over safety concerns, he becomes an uncharacteristically worried and pensive figure, aware that his own charmed existence was the preserve of good fortune and could expire without a momentâ(TM)s notice.

As the film reaches its conclusion, one is struck by the enormous importance of Ayrton Senna to the people of Brazil. No matter that he was a rich boy playing in a rich manâ(TM)s sport â" for the people of Brazil, poor and rich alike, Senna was a talisman of national pride and rebirth.

This film is a fitting tribute to his greatness.