Finally got a chance to watch 2010’s Senna this past weekend with my father (the original car nut – I am only a pretender :)) This was a very interesting movie – although if you don’t care about car racing or F1 in particular, you may find it somewhat the opposite – be forewarned.

The movie details the rise of one of the world’s most famous and skilled car racers, Ayrton Senna of Brazil – who ultimately climbed to the top, claiming the F1 world title 3 times before his sad crash and death a few years later in the early 90’s. He was only 34 years old at the time.

Having been a perennial car mag subscriber at that time, what I mostly remember is that the press largely loathed Senna and constantly came to the aid (deserved or not) of his established rival, French driver Alain Prost. So as a result, I largely remembered Senna as a ‘bad guy’ who was hypercompetitive but largely an enigmatic jerk. I’m glad I watched this movie, because although it’s fairly pro-Senna in outlook, it’s a better look at the man himself, his era, the races and his rivalry with Prost.

While Senna, unlike some racers, did not come from poverty or even the middle class – his family was pretty well off before he started his career – he has to have been one of the most ‘driven’ [sic] car racers in history. There is even a scene in the movie where he all but tells off Jackie Stewart to his face about a controversial race, and manages to advocate for driver safety at the same time (which ultimately was his undoing in the crash, but inspired Stewart and others to force F1 to take safety seriously, and there have been no fatalities since).

What the movie also brings out (and the wikipedia article here) is that Senna had his causes too – he wasn’t just a rich playboy driver with the trapping of wealth to keep him amused (although he had some of that, too). He was an intensely personal man with strong religious beliefs, and it later turned out that he had donated literally millions to help poor children in Brazil throughout his career, especiallly when he became so famous and successful – but he did it very low-key, obviously because he cared about the cause and not the notoriety it would gain him.

And as observed by my dad – it’s kind of amazing the amount of footage in this movie – you’d think he had a camera crew on him the entire time he was in F1 nonstop – weird.

The movie doesn’t paint a positive picture of Prost – arguably he’s just as fierce a competitor – but he also reminded me of whiny NBA players complaining all the time when they don’t get their way – there are at least two major examples in the movie, one of which Prost actually managed to get a Senna victory overturned. It didn’t help (Senna) that the chief guy running F1 at the time was French – not at all (smirk). But as noted on wikipedia, even Senna forgave Prost in the end.

His end was pretty sad – but he certainly passed doing what he wanted to do, and ONLY what he wanted to do. It’s patronizing in some ways to say Senna was a complex man – because that’s what such personalities are always described as when we don’t completely understand them. But I’ll bite – he definitely was, and the sport was far poorer for his passing. Great movie!

R.I.P., Ayrton.

other voices:
Rotten Tomatoes
Metacritic
Christian Science Monitor

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