A
film review by Shawn Levy for The Oregonian on August 25, 2011.
Ego,
courage, reflexes, endurance, brute will, a delicate touch, financial backing,
and some luck: these are some of the attributes of a champion race car driver. And
Ayrton Senna may have had more of
them all than anyone.
Hailing
from Brazil, which has a tradition of international racing champions, Senna won
the coveted Formula One title three times between 1988 and 1991, and finished
in the sport’s top four for nine straight years.
Among
his fellow racers, the stylish, feverish and sincerely religious Senna was
considered a little reckless, a little thin-skinned and a little too fond of
himself; and his rivalry with Frenchman Alain
Prost, a sometime teammate, was the stuff of legend. But Senna was
acknowledged even by his detractors as skilled and resilient, and at home he
was feted as rapturously as a soccer player or pop star.
Senna
died, famously, in a single-car wreck in the 1994 San Marino (Italy) Grand
Prix, passing into legend at the age of 34. That accident came in awful conditions
that Senna himself had decried before the race (his history of lobbying for
safety made him a thorn in racing authorities’ sides). And it ended prematurely what seemed liable
to become the greatest racing career of all time.
This
story is detailed in Senna, a
gripping, intimate and rich documentary by Asif
Kapadia, which uses volumes of interviews with friends, colleagues, rivals
and Senna himself to tell the story of the man and the athlete without
narration or interpretation. In some ways,
Senna is as pure and clean as the
man’s sport: as actor/racer Paul Newman liked to say, the winners of auto races
are determined, unlike movies, by objective criteria. And although it’s a subjective judgment, it’s
hard to see how anyone wouldn’t be absorbed by this fascinating film about a
formidable driver and man. [Levy’s rating: B+ or 78-80 in my rating system]
Blogger’s
comment: This is a fascinating documentary into the life of Ayrton Senna, one
of the premier F1 drivers in the 1980s and early 1990s, beginning with his
first season (1984). He was particularly effective in wet weather, but was able
to push his car just beyond its theoretical limits in any weather.
The
best F1 drivers are always driving at the limit, which means there is no room
for error and if they miscalculate, an accident (which F1 drivers call a shunt)
can easily be fatal. By deduction, if a driver makes a mistake from which he is
able to recover without accident, it means he is not driving at the limit, and
he will never be a F1 champion driver.
SPOILER:
Ayrton Senna was a highly spiritual individual and just before his last race he
related that God had spoken to him and that he would receive the greatest gift of
all. Senna was leading in his final race, the Brazilian Grand Prix, when he
left the course at a rather routine left-hand corner and crashed into the wall.
The suspicion was that his steering had frozen. The autopsy showed he had no
broken bones, not even bruises or lacerations, and that his only injury was a
suspension arm breaking and piercing his helmet. Had the suspension arm struck
six inches higher or lower he would have walked away from the accident.
Labels:
auto-racing, biography, documentary, sport, tragedy
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