As I’ve previously mentioned I’m a massive fan of Formula 1, however I’ve only gotten into it in the past 2 or 3 years. This month ‘Senna’ was released, a documentary directed by Asif Kapadia and based on the life of Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian three time Formula 1 world champion. On Tuesday I went to see it.
The film opens with footage of Senna in 1983 racing go-karts, he starts racing in Formula 1 the following year and the film tracks his progress from then on until his tragic death in 1994 at the San Marino Gran Prix in Imola.
I left the cinema in love with him. The film paints a picture of a man full of passion and emotion that will push himself to the limit to win.
His huge faith in religion is prolific throughout the film and I found it reinforced the idea that he was very much his own man with uncompromising beliefs. There is mention of Senna’s charity work, he quietly donated millions of his personal fortune to various children’s charities during his career and, before his death, laid the plans out for his own charity which later became the Instituto Ayrton Senna.
His passion is palpable throughout the film. In 1991 at the Brazilian Gran Prix, so desperate was he to win a Gran Prix in his home nation that 7 laps before the end of the race, when his gearbox jammed, he carried on despite only having 6th gear. At the end of the race he passed out and had muscle spasms in his shoulders which made lifting the trophy excruciating but he did it anyway.
He comes across as having such national pride at a time when his country was full of social and political unrest. The film not only shows his love for his country but his country’s love for him. There are so many clips of Brazilians talking about Senna and how he is their nation’s pride. When he died 3 million people lined the streets of
I think the sad thing about it is there was such a lot of material (about 15,000 hours); many things had to be cut. The incident where Senna stopped in the middle of a race and ran to the aid of French driver Érik Comas (in doing so risking his own life) who had crashed, only appears as footage over the end credits. Another omission is the fact that after the fatal crash, in the wreckage of Senna’s car the team found an Austrian flag, which the Senna had planned to wave during his victory lap in tribute to Roland Ratzenberger who had died the day before during a qualifying race. Unfortunately you just can’t include everything. What they did include was brilliant and by avoiding talking head clips and pacing the film perfectly, Kapadia has crafted something cohesive and cinematic to boot.
My one and only criticism is the fact the film makes a villain of Alain Prost. The Antagonists of the piece are Prost and former FIA boss Jean-Marie Balestre. It’s set up to appear that Balestre favoured Prost because he was a fellow Frenchman. I will concede that Balestre seems like a proper bastard and he seemed to make decisions that deliberately hindered Senna’s progress. I think the way Prost has been made to look was slightly unfair. He’s made out to be like some weasely awful bloke. In reality I doubt he was that bad but I can’t comment because I was about 1 at the time. Saying that it is the rivalry between Senna and Prost that gives the film its shape and without him the film wouldn’t be anywhere near as engaging.
This is a remarkable piece of work. Partly genius directorial choices and partly the fact that it is an extraordinary tale of a man who was arguably the best Formula 1 driver of all time. I don’t think it’s just because I’m a fan of F1 either, the setting is inconsequential really because he is such a magnetic personality, that’s what draws you in. It’s the best film I’ve seen so far this year.
Now it’s time for…
Reasons to be Cheerful
1. This is a quote from JJ Abrams on the new Star Trek Movie
"I think the studio agrees that the most important thing is that the movie be good. No one wants to make something that makes its date, but isn't worth your time. I want to make sure that whatever we do, whenever it comes out, it is something people will have a great time watching."
I cannot begin to tell you how much that statement fills me with joy. This is what I’ve been saying for ages, the story is what matters. JJ, on behalf of fans of your first Star Trek film I’d like to say, take as long as you want, we Abrams fans have ‘Super 8’ to look forward to in the mean time so go for it, write us something brilliant.
2. This weekend is
3. Trailers and pictures for the new Muppet movie are starting to trickle out :-) It’s out in the
Enough for today!
Goodbye till next time :-)
x x x x x x x x x x x x
No comments:
Post a Comment