Senna
The build up to the Senna movie with its high profile publicity campaign and uniform top reviews meant that I had no option but to go on the opening night last Friday. Having got hooked on F1 during the late 1980’s a film about Ayrton Senna seemed a hugely exciting prospect. Added to this the talk was all of extensive unseen footage, full access to the FOM archives and exclusive interviews. In short my expectations were high.First of all Senna is a very good film, it is interesting well-paced and the wealth of footage used is startling. For me the highlights are the sequences from the drivers meetings which I didn’t know existed. The exchanges between Senna , Jean-Marie Balestre and the other officials are worth the admission alone. Likewise some of the pitlane footage from the Imola weekend is staggering and really captures the event. However I do have a number of reservations about the film. Firstly there is far too little race footage. In all the interviews with the producers they defend this as being superfluous to the narrative structure of the movie. Whilst I can sympathise with this, the effect is actually to sell-short Senna’s ability as a driver. There are times when you have to take on faith from the interviews the level of Senna’s talent. This is particularly noticeable for the 1991 and 1993 parts of the film where Senna was at the peak of his talent. Not including the Donington first lap from 1993 is inexcusable. For an F1 fan this is fine as we know about his abilities, but if I was watching as a casual observer I may come away questioning just how got Senna was as you don’t get to see much of his talent on track (I personally have the same issue with Gilles Villeneuve as the footage I have seen doesn’t tally with the written accounts of his ability) Secondly the film’s tone is odd. Although much of the film celebrates Senna’s achievements I found the tone throughout very downbeat. This may well be because I know how it ends, but generally the film doesn’t paint F1 racing in the late 1980s/early 1990s as a fun, or particularly exciting, place to be. Of course that’s true and the drivers were under pressure, but watching at home I remember those races as being hugely dramatic, the cars thrilling. and the grid packed full of star drivers. There has been a lot of criticism of the film only focusing on Senna & Prost, and I agree, the F1 landscape of the time is not particularly well painted. Although the film is aimed at a broad audience and achieves this, if I was watching the film as a non-F1 fan I don’t think that there is enough to convert me to the sport, which is a pity. Thirdly this is not a balanced film, the narrative is hugely supportive of Senna. There is no mention of his dark side, although there is a clip of Jackie Stewart challenging Senna about his contact with other drivers no footage of these incidents is included. Likewise Alain Prost is painted as villain which isn’t really the case, both drivers had their strengths and weaknesses and this isn’t reflected. There are times when the film elevates Senna to demi-god status, whereas in reality many of those reporting the sport at the time are still mixed in their views. The key strength of the film is that it stays with you long after the event, but that on reflection I see the film as bit of a missed opportunity. The producers have had a clear vision for the film and kept to it, but as a result the film is a doom-laden account of an exceptional life, rather than a celebration of Senna’s talent and a thrilling era of F1 when the drivers raced on the limit. As more footage became available to the producers I think a shift of focus would have been beneficial. I appreciate that as an F1 fan I was not the target audience for the film, but after coming home I stuck on the highlights of the 1993 Donington Grand Prix, and that 40 minutes better captured the Senna enigma than the film. Finally my other source of frustration after the film was that a lot of this race and behind the scenes footage is not available on DVD through season reviews. Given the wealth of footage available I am at a loss to understand why new season reviews from these years have not been released. There would clearly be a market for this action and it seems disrespectful to the fans to keep it locked away in the vaults. This is especially the case for the season reviews which have now even been deleted from VHS release. I can only hope that the success of Senna will prompt a re-think and we will start to see some long form season reviews emerging onto the market including some of this footage.
