Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If Ayrton Senna was not a real man Hollywood would have to have invented him. Senna charged up the ranks of Formula One racers, emerging as one of the best in the world in the 1980s. This movie has amazing footage of Senna's races, with scenes of his exciting victories and also film of his crashes. Senna's rivalry and alliance with Alain Prost is also heavily detailed in the film.The documentary also weaves in Senna's personal life. It is fun to watch Senna go from young racer to a worldwide celebrity, dating models and appearing on TV shows, even if that complicates his Catholic faith.If you know Senna's story you know how it ends, with him dying in competition and possibly because of mechanical problems with his car. The film does a good job of addressing these issues too but leaves it to the viewer to make up his or her mind.

Although I'm a paid up petrol head I put off buying this DVD until I saw it at a knock down price in a supermarket. The reason being I was sceptical it would be anything but an in-depth look at the character of an extraordinary sportsman. That is chiefly because I noted the UK producers were Working Title, a successful British production company, but also one with a reputation of taking non-American stories and americanising them for greater profit abroad. I'm not criticising them for that but it sort of underpins my feelings about this film.I found it a curious experience watching this film and sort of difficult to explain, but let me try by saying imagine a film about a legendary driver in the US's favourite motor sport NASCAR where say most of the narration was provided by a non NASCAR loving nation say the UK, and the presence of the host nation had been reduced to almost non-existent. Confused? Let me again try to help you out. In the opening sequences and throughout the film Senna talks or is described as moving to Europe to further his driving career. Well since all of the teams he drove for in all formulas were British couldn't they be a bit more specific and say the UK? I wouldn't visit Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Belo Horizonte and say I visited South America, I'd try and narrow it down a bit and say I visited Brazil!Please don't get me wrong I'm not some flag waving nationalist with union jacks tattooed all over my body but as soon as I heard this I knew where exactly this film was going. In films aimed at mass appeal there is only room for two nations, two warring groups, and since Senna was Brazilian (the good guy) and the French had been chosen as the bad guys there was no need to go confusing things – so Europe it was!That brings me onto the disgraceful way Alain Prost was treated in the film. He was never my favourite driver, but he didn't deserve this carve up. All that was missing was a black cape and a fiendish moustache! But he is French and so fair game for the majority of the American viewing public. Take the needless scene of Prost being verbally abused by race goers at the Brazilian GP (handily translated into English, just to make sure we all know he is a 'Cheese eating surrender monkey!') Formula One is historically a European and South American sport and we shouldn't treat our former champions like that not even when we are prostituting ourselves for the American audience. I suppose an audience that was assessed as having no interest in learning that by the time the average driver makes it into Formula One they have all stuck knifes into peoples' backs and lots of other dirty tricks besides.'Saint Senna's' real character was only touched on when in one of the few honest scenes in the film he considers his own mortality after Martin Donnelly's awful crash, but we hear nothing about his 'game of death' with Martin Brundle in a Formula Three season (after one encounter Senna ended up parking his car on Brundle's head!). Or the revealing episode when he vetoed Lotus hiring Derek Warwick because he didn't want the team to split their resources between two top drivers, (surely a dirty trick only those nasty French people would do?). Of course in dramas when establishing character you can't provide a 360 perspective – you've got to have your good guys and your bad guys, but this isn't a drama, it's documentary about a racing drama – so couldn't we have been a little more honest? My biggest surprise regarding this film is the praise it has received from the F1 insiders, but then I got it – it's in their interest to get the US interested in F1. So all-in-all a disappointing film about my favourite racing driver of the eighties and nineties. Yes Senna was my favourite driver and I'm sure if he was still with us he would view this fawning, selective audience production as an unworthy testament to his genius.

Sometimes is difficult to understand the Legend without a trip in his personal life, this documentary is a touching voyage of a man who fought for his legacy, F1 politics, the pride of a country in need of happiness... and the casuality of how some incidents can change a man. If you loved Rocky as a motivating movie, you can't miss this treasure, you'll see how a man with a huge love for God, never forgot his people. The fight with Prost, Jean-Marie Balestre's punishment, the leadership years and the continuous voice against some awful politics.This documentary for F1's fans, this film will appeal mandatory... for movie or non F1 fans, a really good detailed biopic and exclusive footage of his personal and professional life.You need to watch this documentary and be prepared to approach the goal of his last years, the happiness for his victories and the joy of Brazil and the 'Special" moment when his sight show us the doubt, fear and some kind of divine augury before his death. The music has been perfectly chosen, the official footage, audio, conversations and the transformation of the epic battle between he and Prost, to Alain Prost's pain and deep sadness of Senna's funeral.Is amazing how destiny can show us another heir, Schumacher appears in the huge pain of Senna's death as a sign... Destiny.

When former F1 World champion James Hunt died at the age of 45 in 1993, Senna paid him a handsome tribute. Hunt by that time was better known as a F1 commentator for the BBC. Hunt was also one of the relatively few F1 champions to have died of a natural cause. He might have had a heart attack at the age of 45 but it was not the fate that befell Senna just a year later.Senna commonly raged against F1 politics whether it would be the organisers, administrators or F1 teams themselves. When he moved to Williams he might have hoped for a new start with a team that had maybe the best car in F1 at the time but fate was not so kindThe documentary focuses on Senna's racing career in F1, from his debut in the 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix to his death in an accident at San Marino in 1994. It relies primarily on archive race footage, home video provided by the Senna family, rather than retrospective interviews. The film has no formal commentary.This documentary directed by Asif Kapadia also deals with his battle with great rival (and sometimes team mate) Alain Prost, the wily racer known as the Professor. It was the natural racer against the more methodical, cerebral driver who might even resort to underhand tactics to get on top. But then again in F1 underhand tactics are common whilst racing or behind the scenes such as getting a drive on the best team, living on the edge of the rules regard the setting up of the car and even trumping your team mate.Still despite the great and bitter rivalry, Prost was a pall bearer in Senna's funeral.The documentary gives a good account of an era of motor racing from the mid 80s to the mid 90s and there is some great behind the scenes nuggets of information that people who watch F1 on TV might not had been aware of. If you are not fan of racing this might not be to your liking.