Senna Blu-ray Review

• 19th Oct 2011

It was said when this Documentary was released in cinemas, and it is worth repeating again. You do not have to be a fan, or even an enemy of F1 racing to get to grips with this piece of work. It truly is a wonderful story about one of history’s fastest and best racing car drivers to ever grace the tarmacs.

It is also a testament to the editing skills of the film-makers who must have ploughed through an insurmountable amount of footage from various sources in order to piece this together a best they could. It really is an expert job that gets you front and centre amongst the personal life of one Ayrton Senna, the hopeful driver who went on to take the world by storm and bring a bit of pride and hope back to his home in Brazil.

Whilst we do get to see his own personal challenges in the racing leagues, up against the politicians on site as well as fellow drivers (some more than others); it is also great to watch his impact as a successful driver on the people back home and then the efforts he puts in to support the community. It’s these values that makes the film have a wider impact that just on those who love to watch a good race.

Don’t be mistaken, there is plenty of the car action to go around, but it is almost always used in context of the story being told.

The Blu-ray comes with a decent and informative commentary from the filmmakers and almost an hours’ worth of additional interview material from some of the important players of the time. The film itself runs just over 1hr and 40mins. What is amazing is that it also includes an extended cut that is almost a full hour longer. And we can pretty much guarantee that you’ll want to stop by that version after the theatrical cut.

It seems that 2011 has had most of his most surprising success with films about driving. The Fast and the Furious series being the most commercially viable of these, Senna brings it all back to earth with its thoughtful and touching true life story seen through the eyes of the actual footage from the time.

Steven Hurst