Let me start by making it ABSOLUTELY clear why I have deferred watching this documentary for so long: I find contemporary Formula One boring. I am unimpressed with the pedestrian nature of a sport in which one team's car can so dominate to the detriment of any entertainment. That said, 'Senna' is an amazing piece of work from Asif Kapadia. Using voiceover interviews and television material, it tells a story of a young man's meteoric rise to the top of his chosen sport.
Several things made an impression on me watching this Working Title production:
- The way in which the Brazilian footage is cleverly used to reinforce the way in which Senna's country embraced him understandably with nationalist fervour.
- That the political machinations of the sport so evident today on Ecclestone's watch have always been so deeply embedded in the competition.
- How badly the record shows the French FIA President Jean-Marie Balestre as prejudiced, deliberately snubbing Ayrton Senna and favouring Alain Prost who was subsequently (wrongly) crowned World Champion in 1989.
- The lack of value placed on the life of and the opinions expressed by combatants by officials until it was too late and F1's greatest natural talent of my lifetime was gone.
- The ego, limitations, suaveness but also brilliance of Alain Prost, and the antipathy then ultimately reconciliation between him and Senna.
- That cameras had access to (and so we have proof) of all of the aforementioned terrible attitudes and behaviour.
- The spiritual side of Senna that may or may not have caused him to race with such apparent aggressive fearlessness for his and others' safety.
- How much, after Ratzenberger's fatal crash and Barichello's accident at Imola, Senna seemed to be aware of the danger he was risking racing there even when his every instinct was telling him to walk away.
This is a compelling story, recounted with what comes across as a deft, light touch by a skilled documentarian. If, like I, you rarely watch a documentary, you cannot start any better than with this film.