Movie Review - "Senna" (2010) ****

     I have been a big fan of NASCAR racing since I was a young kid. I grew up cheering for one of my idols, Terry Labonte, and when he retired I became a fan of Jeff Gordon, one of Terry's teammates. I root for these guys almost as much as I root for my favorite baseball or football team. While I love racing, I have become well aware of the dangers that the sport can provide. I can't imagine what I would feel like should one of my two favorite drivers die while on the race track. I suspect that I would be emotional about that. In 2001, Dale Earnhardt, one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history was killed in a last-lap wreck at the famed Daytona International Speedway when his car collided head-on with the wall and Earnhardt sustained massive head trauma. I was not a fan of Earnhardt, while he was idolized by many, he was also the biggest antagonist on the track to many fans, me included. But his death did bother me and I felt bad for quite a while after. Just this past year, the Indy Car racing series lost arguably its best driver, Dan Wheldon, in a crash that occurred at the Las Vegas Speedway. I am not a big fan of that style of racing but I just happened to be watching live when it happened that fateful day. It took a good long while for Wheldon to be pronounced dead but if you have been watching racing for a long time, you just sorta of know when things are not normal. I knew that crash was bad and it was likely to result in the loss of Wheldon, but you always keep your hopes up that it will turn out okay. Usually it does, but when it doesn't you just feel terrible for the driver, his family and the racing community.

     While Earnhardt and Wheldon were arguably the top drivers in their respective circuits at the time of their deaths, there was no such argument for Ayrton Senna, a Formula 1 3-time champion from Brazil, who died in a wreck in 1994. The documentary Senna by director Asif Kapadia, compiles actual footage from Senna's career including many in-car camera shots from his races, including the race which claimed his life. Senna himself, along with other family members and colleagues, provide the soundtrack tracing Senna's roots in go-kart racing as well as his brilliant ten-year career in the Formula 1 racing circuit. During his decade in the sport, Senna won three championships, was robbed of a fourth and set many records which still stand to this day. The documentary details his strained relationship with fellow competitor Alain Prost, a French driver who worked the politics of the sport better than Senna, a fact which Senna resented during his entire career. Senna was of the belief that politics should not be a part of the sport and the drivers should battle to win at all times. Prost is not seen merely as an enemy, just simply a guy who approached the sport differently. If there is an antagonist in the film, it is Jean-Marie Balestre, the President of Formula 1 racing, who did bring politics into the sport on too many occasions and does not come out looking great at the end of this film. You get the sense on several occasions that Senna was fighting the people off the track more than he was battling with other drivers on the track.

     The film also shows the great impact that Senna had on his home country of Brazil, which was strife in political corruption and poverty during this decade that Senna ruled the sport. He was so beloved by ladies that there are a couple of instances shown when female reporters almost couldn't do their jobs because they were overcome by being near him. Some of these scenes are kind of funny and you realize what a huge figure Senna was. While not well-known here in the US outside of racing fans, he was an icon in Brazil and other parts of the world. During his funeral, the streets of Brazil are lined by spectators for many miles. He gave much of his wealth back to the community and in return, they showed him the ultimate gratitude of love.

Senna is one of the better documentaries I have ever seen. It's a genre I really should embrace more since the ones that I usually try out, I tend to like more often than not. While race fans, especially those of Senna or Formula 1, will get the most of this movie for obvious reasons, I still think there is enough here that would appeal to the casual viewer as well. The movie is an hour and forty-five minutes long and that was about the perfect length. It tells its story without getting bogged down in minutiae. I highly recommend it. I can remember watching the NASCAR race the same weekend that Senna died. Dale Earnhardt won the race and in victory lane he dedicated his win to Ayrton Senna. Looking back on that now, I like to think that the two of them are up in heaven somewhere talking about racing.