‘Senna’ Movie A Marvelous, Gripping Look At One Of Racing’s All-Time Greats

When Senna begins, most of its viewers already know how it ends: With the life of Ayrton Senna, one of the greatest race car drivers ever to walk the planet, suddenly and tragically killed in a racing accident.

So it was with a sense of foreboding and slight apprehension that I settled in to watch a documentary which has already created worldwide buzz and been a success at the European box office.

All that soon vanished. I was drawn into the images and excitement and joy of Senna’s vibrant life, fascinated by his love and passion for racing and excellence. Even though I knew Senna’s time on Earth – and thus the film – would come to a sad end, I wanted both to keep going forever.

Senna is a marvelous, gripping, emotional piece of documentary filmmaking. You must go see this movie.

In full disclosure, I didn’t know much about Ayrton Senna’s life and career before the film. All I knew were the basics: He was perhaps the greatest driver ever – not just of his era, but ever – and his life was cut short.

So in many ways, the film was an education. And it certainly serves that purpose. But even for longtime Formula One fans who adored Senna or simply followed his career closely, there are many new things to see.

Senna is packed with rare footage dug up from Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 archives – the filmmakers had unprecedented and unlimited access to thousands of hours of film – and video from the Senna family’s private collection. It’s exhausting just thinking about the amount of research that went into putting the movie together.

Most documentaries lean on showing us modern-day interviews to fill the gaps between the archived footage; in Senna, though, we only hear the voices of the interview subjects as the film keeps rolling with shot after shot of the fascinating Brazillian.

It’s as if director Asif Kapadia doesn’t want us to take our eyes off Senna for even a moment; nor do we want to.

Senna is unlike most documentaries in that it almost seems as if the footage was shot as part of a major motion picture. It has all the elements of a blockbuster drama: Tension. Action. Conflict. Joy. Tragedy.

Without spoiling too much of the film, there are some jaw-dropping scenes of real emotion; it’s amazing that some of the incidents actually happened and were not scripted as part of some attempt at faux drama.

But everything in the film is very, very real – a fact we’re reminded of when Senna’s demise eventually arrives all too soon.

Senna took fans on a journey few had ever experienced before. The film bearing the same name does justice to the greatness of the man himself.

Below is the trailer for Senna: