Reviews
Senna review
June 3 2011
Senna may well have been a victim of F1’s politics in his time, but it’s also clear that he learned to play those games as well as anybody.
Asif Kapadia, the skilled and subtle dramatist behind The Warrior and Far North, has here taken a detour from introspective fiction and turned his hand to documentary. His subject is the late Ayrton Senna (and if that’s a spoiler, this film probably isn’t for you), the Formula One driver whose fatal crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 traumatised the sport.
Kapadia retraces Senna’s swashbuckling career through some truly astonishing archive footage. Having secured the cooperation of Senna’s family in Brazil, and somehow convinced Bernie Ecclestone to unlock F1’s video vaults, Kapadia has gained access to a rich haul of previously unseen material.
We glimpse Senna, the pure athlete, racing karts for the sheer joy of speed. We see inside his epic battles at McLaren with Alain Prost, team-mate-turned-arch rival. We witness his political struggles with the F1 bureaucracy, led by Prost’s fellow Frenchman Jean-Marie Balestre.
We follow the victories and defeats, the disappointments and vindication. We ride with him, onboard his Williams FW16, for those final, fatal seconds – to the Tamburello corner, where Senna’s car hit a concrete retaining wall at 135mph. Where he was swept off the course like a piece of debris.
The essence of Senna’s tragedy is how easily it could have been avoided. In this respect, Kapadia does an effective job of foregrounding the wastefulness of his death, rather than its facile romance. But there’s also something unsettling in his choice of footage – in our proximity to Senna in the moments before the crash. The desired effect may have been dramatic tension, but in reality it’s closer to ghoulish voyeurism. Just because the footage existed doesn’t mean it needed to be shared. It feels invasive, even transgressive.
Especially because the rest of the film is so tightly controlled. The payoff for getting his hands on all this juicy footage – including Senna at home, relaxing with his family or flirting with the women who found him irresistible – is that Kapadia has made an authorised biography.
It might not be a deal with the devil, exactly, but Senna is certainly hagiographic. Serious questions about his conduct, his disregard for safety and his racing tactics are airbrushed. Senna may well have been a victim of F1’s politics in his time, but it’s also clear that he learned to play those games as well as anybody. Just ask Prost.
The real disparity is Senna’s failure to achieve on film what the racing driver did in life: transcend the sport that made him famous. Senna was bigger than F1, especially in his native Brazil, where he was revered as a symbol of national pride at a time of intense political uncertainty. In death he achieved something close to martyrdom.
With more honesty, more complexity, Kapadia’s Senna might have told that story. As it is, it’s a consummately produced sports documentary and a credit to the power of research, but no more.
Anticipation:
Enjoyment:
In Retrospect:
Senna (text) by Matt Bochenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Have to say this review is way off mark. Senna is an extraordinary documentary filled with tension, a view of a man possessed by winning and a perspective of certain relationships not seen before. Voyerisim it is not. In fact many of us did not realise just how Senna must actually have been feeling on that fateful day. Even though we know the outcome the tension created is palpable. If you don't like formula one, don't worry. It's a must. The narration gives it an eerie feel, and no it is not always complimentary to the man himself!
Written by Claire on June 16th, 2011 at 07:33
I have to second the above comment, I watch a lot of docs and Senna is easily one of the best of the past five years or so. Matt's had a few off the mark reviews in the past, and a cursory glade at metacritic reveals this to be among his most misjudged.
Everything about this film works perfectly – the choice of archive, the access you get, the editing, the decision to forsake talking heads, the score, the pacing… It's just an astonishing piece of work, and so emotional. Played at Doc/Fest last week and when it got to the footage of him winning the Brazilian grand prix, the whole audience was in tears. Voyeurism? This isn't some private tape of a guy getting eaten by a bear – this is footage of his death that the whole world saw live on TV…
Ignore this review – the box office figures, other reviews and inevitable haul come awards season (it already won a Sundance audience award) will speak for themselves…
Written by James on June 16th, 2011 at 20:34
I have to agree with the original review to an extent. I found Senna enjoyable but was very concious of how manipulative it was, and I don't consider myself a documentary purist. It seemed the San Marino footage was used as a tragic climax, which it undoubtedly was, but I can't help feeling it was a little cynical within the context of the film.
Written by rme on June 17th, 2011 at 12:32
sure it was tense and emotional and entertaining. But as a knowledgeable F1 fan it felt a bit manipulative and contrived in its portrayal of Senna, Prost and everyone else. Senna was brilliant but he was also human and a lot of his behavior both on and off the track was highly questionable at time. Most famously Punching Eddie Irvine in the face. But like this and other things that would put a bad light on his image where all left out. So Would recommend this to senna fans and People who are not that knowledgeable of f1. However knowledgeable F1 fans and especially Prost Fans might not like it too much.
Written by steve on July 12th, 2011 at 19:32
Terrible review! Sure the author didn't live the 80's F1.
The only bad thing about this documentary is that it was too short to show all of Senna greatness.
He was agressive? yes, on track! And he admited more than once on the movie why he was like that!
Manipulative movie? Maybe if you're Balestre's son and don't want to know the truth!
Voyeurism? If you think that, you didn't see the movie, no CGI, no inteviews only REAL footage!
Eddie Irvine punch?He never punched him! He touched his head like you do with a small kid when he do some stupid thing, and if you do some research you will know why he did that!
This is probably the best documentary ever made, in all aspects. A "must see" for F1 fans and even for those ho hate F1. Simply atonishing!
Forget Matt Bochenski's review, just look to other serious review sites:
IMDB – 8.8
Rottentomatoes – 100% (this is probably the most critical site on all the internet, only a few movies get 100% and probably this is the only documentary to get that grade!)
Written by paniconotransito on August 2nd, 2011 at 21:09