Australia's Best Movie Magazine

Film reviews

Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

search the site

Enter search term:

newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter

Enter search term:

Senna (Film)

by Joshua Blackman | August 08, 2011 14:54 | Edited August 08, 2011 14:57

Solely told through brilliantly edited archival footage, this intense and moving doco captures the allure and complexities of this hugely revered sporting hero.

Michael Schumacher and Fangio have better records, but there's no doubt in the mind of most racing drivers about who is the greatest and most gifted of them all: Ayrton Senna. Killed tragically in an horrific accident at The San Marino Formula 1 Grand Prix in 1994, he remains the quintessential racer: hot-blooded, competitive, precise and assured. He was also a humanitarian, a devout Christian, and a bit of a pinup, especially in Japan and his native Brazil, where he was (and still is) revered as a national hero.

 

Asif Kapadia's accessible documentary charts Senna's career from his astonishing performance at Monaco in 1984, to his swan song in Italy, a story which unnervingly follows a dramatic three-act structure. The film makes hugely effective use of archival footage (there are no talking heads), sprinkled with newly recorded audio interviews with the likes of McLaren boss Ron Dennis, great rival Alain Prost, and F1 chief medico Sid Watkins. Some of the later scenes were even filmed with multiple cameras, such was Senna's fame at the time, which has allowed Kapadia to edit the footage much like a conventional fiction film. This first-person perspective makes it even more moving as the inevitable tragedy begins to loom.

 

But don't think that the film is a mournful obituary - it's also exciting, dramatic and funny, especially in candid unearthed footage of the pre-race driver meetings, where Senna finds himself at odds with the bureaucracy and politics of his multi-billion dollar sport. The film justifiably idolises him, though it does casually acknowledge his occasional acts of questionable sportsmanship. But that's part of his allure: Senna had such compassion that he would risk his own life to attend to a fellow driver after an accident, yet he would do anything for victory. F1 fan or not, Senna is a must see.