I’d waited for over a year, but on Friday, “Senna” finally opened here in NY. Sold out screening – in fact, there was so much demand that at around 10pm, the movie theater decided to add one more screening at midnight. I’ll bet that got sold out, too.
Of course: it’s goddamn “Senna”.
Admission: I’m a wannabe F1 hipster. I wish I could say, “I’ve loved watching Ayrton Senna race since day one.” I wish I was some sort of authority on Senna like a ton of F1 fans are. But in truth, I got into F1 long after Senna’s demise. I have no first-hand knowledge about Senna. I have never watched him race. I have never watched even a video of a complete race with Senna in it. I have watched the occasional video highlight, and I’ve read many stories about the man in the early ’90s. But I cannot claim any first-hand experience on this person who is universally considered the single-greatest racing car driver in the history of mankind. Certainly in F1. And for a slightly obsessive F1 fan like myself, there’s a slight hollow feeling from not having “been there” when Senna was racing.
So when this film was announced over a year ago, I was expecting this to help “fill in the gaps”. I had secretly hoped that it would help me get up to speed on the one driver whom F1 fans still worship, get the inside scoop, be in the know like those who really did watch him race in the early ’90s, those who speak of him like they know him. I wanted to be as well-informed that those whose fandom pre-date me. But because I never watched him race, I don’t feel I’ll ever be part of this Senna “inside circle” I’ve conjured up in my head. Still…
It’s not like we’re talking about an athlete (that’s right, fuck you, racing drivers are athletes, deal with it) who rocked the sport in your grandpa’s day. It’s not like all the footage of Senna out there is in fuzzy black and white. Senna was current, Senna was this generation. Senna, technically, was my generation.
But one of the first things that hit me about the film was the immediate reminder that I have outlived Senna. Like I’ve outlived all those rock stars in the 27 Club. He was 34 when he died. 34!! Fucking hell.
But as the film unfolded, I realized that I’d come into it all wrong. Here was a film about an F1 driver, right? F1 film = lots of racing action, lots of grand prix cars fighting it out on the track, lots on loud screaming engines wailing by, that sort of thing. It’d be like a 100 minute collection of awesome YouTube F1 clips, but in higher quality and on a massive screen. I thought it’d be an action movie. I couldn’t be more wrong. This was a film about the construct of a person. And not just any person – this was a person who received god-like reverence and fear; who in turn, had such unshakable faith in God that he probably thought that God had made him somewhat immortal. He raced with absolute abandon. Of fear, not of responsibility.
The race footage in the film showed me just how frighteningly quick he was. I never really had a proper appreciation for his ability to really thrash his car around the track and make his rivals look like they were standing still. I never properly understood just how he overwhelmed the entire sport with his speed. But what I walked away with most of all was a firm grasp of Senna’s unbending will. An action movie doesn’t get you these things. This film was much, much more than that.
This film also showed a side of the sport I had never known – the chaos of pre-race driver briefings, the I-don’t-give-shit attitude drivers had about wanting to race for other teams because they didn’t think their current team was any good, the anxiety drivers openly expressed to their team.
And the anxiety of the audience… watching “Senna” is quite like watching “Titanic”: you know exactly how things are going to turn out in the end. And the foreshadowing of Senna’s end puts a good and proper knot in your stomach. You want to reach through the screen when Senna says that he wants to leave McLaren to drive for Williams, grab him, and say, “No, for the love of God, don’t go!” Your heart sinks the moment Williams announce Senna as their new driver. The second you see him in that Rothmans-sponsored race suit, it’s like watching a countdown, you know that you’re watching the beginning of the end. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it. And every second leading up to the moment is agonizing, sad, and frightening, all spun together.
But that said, the dork fan in me also walked away feeling like there were lost moments in the film. Stuff that I knew about, but wanted to see covered in the film. Like when Senna walked down the pitlane to punch Eddie Irvine in the face because he’d had the balls to pass him on the track. The 1993 Donington opening lap. When Nigel Mansell gave Senna a lift after Senna ran out of fuel on the track. When Senna pulled over to help another driver who’d crashed.
But that’s not the point, is it. Those were single episodes in the grander course of Senna’s life. Interesting markers along the way, not life-defining milestones (OK, maybe the Donington lap – correction, definitely the Donington lap). Was the film a lesser film for their omissions? Of course not. And besides, I was already quite well versed in those episodes. I needed this film to “fill in the gaps.” What this film did was explain the meaning of Senna.
This film will inform. And this film will make your heart bleed. And that’s why this is the most important film of the year.
I just read about this movie- and found out about this man- today. The reviews for the film are excellent and even though I have no interest in racing, I can’t wait to see this film. Well written and interesting take. Thank you!
Cheers. Appreciate the kind words. I hope you get as much out of the film as I did. This may make an F1 fan out of you yet.
Nice take on the movie – you are quite correct about how it feels to watch the ‘moving on to Williams’ section of the movie. He looks wrong in the blue-and-white Rothmans overalls because there are no achievements to go with them, only the awful finality. With the improvements that Williams made to the car during ’94, to the point where Hill almost won the title, it was a season which could easily have seen Senna fight back against the (probably illegal) Benetton and win the title. If only………
While I think that the US release is probably good for a general audience, there really needs to be a longer cut for people who are into racing at all (I believe the cut shown at Cannes was over 3 hours). While I loved the movie, and I’m glad that, for a general audience, they concentrated on making sure the audience understood the man as well as possible, the lack of racing footage really surprised me.
I knew that they concentrated on a few specific races (Monaco ’84 and ’88; Japan ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91; Brazil ’91; Imola ’94), but even those have just a few clips (Imola by far the most, for good, if heartbreaking, reason), and none are very long.
If you want to try to hunt down a couple races to watch in full that don’t appear on most “best of Senna” lists, try to get ahold of Italy ’87 and Germany ’89. He didn’t win the first, but it was a truly heroic drive, and he did win the second after the most mesmerizing mano a mano duel with Prost, after a botched tire stop cost him the lead. Both great examples the ‘unbending will’ you referenced.
Cheers, thanks for sharing such useful history and insight. Completely agree that longer cut would be brilliant. Fingers crossed that the DVD/Blu-Ray will contain heaps more content. “Senna: Cannes Edition” – I’d pay a premium for that!
Love the review….
I’m curious to know from which country u r…
I’m from Brazil and only a brazilian has the dimension of waht he ment for this nation…
His funeral was something out of this world, people crying and running to see him one last time…it was like a family member died.
He was one of the best drivers but here he is known for his heart, kindness, charisma…
I am in New York, and I’ve only been following F1 for about 11 years. And that was part of the point of my post – I can never feel how others felt about Senna. Because I never sat down on a Sunday afternoon to spend two hours watching him do the impossible on the race track. I will forever be envious of those who did.
Cheers.