Senna

Senna is a documentary about the Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna from Brasil (1960-1994). It chronicles the career of a man whom many F1 drivers consider to be the greatest driver in history of Formula 1.

To say that I am not much of a Formula 1 guy would be an understatement. My father loves watching every weekend when there is a Grand Prix: Warm-up, Qualifying, Race…. and so on. People going in circles for what seems hours and then it ends and you have people showering each other with Champagne.
The reason I bough this film was because of the immensely good reviews and because I know that my father might be interested. Instead of watching it together he was so excited that he watched the movie the day he got it and when he told me how amazing this documentary was my curiosity grew even bigger.

So we sat down and I watched Senna after having heard for weeks how good it is from film critics and from my dad, the Formula 1 freak.
And despite the hype I was still overwhelmed. Senna is a gripping documentary about an idealist who came into a system that became less and less about driving. Senna is not about guys going in circles, it allows to look past the races, the political decisions, the personal loss and the danger these drivers were and are facing.

Think of Senna as Speed Racer but without the nice colors. I was baffled about the way Senna got into this political intrigues and how higher forces tried everything to stop him from winning (again, just like Speed Racer).
The documentary is well structured and continuously exciting, the way events are foreshadowed or previewed makes this seem like a thriller instead of a documentary and despite my father “spoiling” the ending for me I was still immensely impressed.

Senna is definitely a documentary worth every cent and is available on DVD.