Starring: Ayrton Senna
Certificate: E
Running Time: 106 minutes (Blu-ray) / 101 minutes (DVD)
Release Date: 2 November 2020
Format: Blu-ray / DVD
Number of Discs: 2
No fear. No Limits. No Equal.
Ayrton Senna is widely regarded to be one of the best (if not THE best) Formula One (F1) drivers in the world, past or present – even with the great champions like Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton MBE. Senna is the true story of the Brazilian motor-racing legend. For those that have already decided this is just another film about fast cars driving around a track, Senna is much more and more than a film just for race fans.
Senna is a documentary film that spans the 3 times Word Champion Senna’s impressive Formula One career and his physical and spiritual journey, both on track and off, and his quest for perfection. Senna exploded into Formula One in 1984 racing for Toleman, ending his career in the most tragic of circumstances racing for Williams in Imola 1994, aged just 34. This film was made with the co-operation of the Senna family and Formula One Management. SENNA is the first official documentary feature about his life, featuring astounding archive material using home video, news video and race video (including driver race meetings), much of which is previously unseen.
Senna is a must for motor racing fanatics and documentary watchers as it covers a lot more than racing.
This documentary is available on Blu-ray (run time: Original 106 minutes / Extended Version 162 minutes) and DVD (run time: Original 101 minutes / Extended Version 155 minutes).
Overall, Senna is a very enjoyable film giving a good insight into Senna’s racing career, his relationship with the sport and God, his quest to be the best and his pursuit of perfection and his relationship and rivalry with 4 time World Champion Alain Prost.
Senna came from a background of privilege in his native Brazil but became a national hero due to his historic racing and flag waving. He was a very competitive and very race intelligent driver, starting in go-karts and moving his way up to the pinnacle of motor sport, Formula One.
This film follows his career from his young days and his 10 years at the top of the sport in F1, up to his fatal crash in 1984 (the safety rules have since been changed in F1 because of this and there has only been one fatality since (Jules Bianchi of France), although at the time on making Senna there had been no others). It is made up purely from over 150,000 hours of footage drawn from the vaults of F1 that Oscar winning director Asif Kapadia poured over and took four years to edit down to create this film.
Apart from the racing, this film also shows Senna’s fierce and bitter rivalry between him and Prost (despite their rivalry Prost became a trustee of Senna’s charity to educate children in Brazil).
Senna is an entertaining, fascinating and compelling documentary giving an insight in to one of the world’s truly great motor racing drivers, covering his racing, relationship with God, his pursuit of perfection, his struggles with the politics of the sport, changes that he made to the sport and his charity work to try and help children in his native Brazil. Senna is a true champion and hero, and this film is a must watch, whether you are a fan of F1 or not – it is a story of the man rather than the sport.
Senna is a two-disc set film featuring the original and extended versions of the film, Filmmaker Commentary featuring Director Asif Kapadia, Writer Manish Pandey and Producer James Gay-Rees, home videos, interviews, The Greatest Victory of All, “Lost” Radio Interview with Gerald Donaldson and trailers.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £19.99 (Blu-ray) / £14.99 (DVD)
For more information, visit www.fabulousfilms.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.
Disclosure: I received this item for free for the purposes of writing an honest and impartial review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This review uses an affiliate link which I may receive a small commission from if you purchase through the link.
