Blu-ray Review: SENNA Is a Well Executed Triumph of Compelling Story Telling
Asif Kapadia's remarkable documentary portrait of Brazil's tragic racing icon speeds onto blu-ray, and cements its position as one of the greatest films of the past year.
Documentaries have a habit of getting under the audience's skin in a more pronounced way than a filmic work of fiction ever seems able. Go and watch films like Restrepo, Capturing The Friedmans and Super Size Me, and they will stick with you for longer than anything made-up, no matter how magical, because there is substance in truth that is enduring and durable well beyond the end of the film itself. Documentaries are also usually politicised in some way - no matter how objective they purport to be, it is almost impossible to spend time living with a subject without forming ideas one way or another, whether you're Louise Theroux or Nick Broomfield - so they tend to also carry a message that is more relatable, and which carries a heavier legacy than something we know to have been purely fabricated. The medium also confirms that there are a million stories in the world of fact, from the seemingly infinitesimal to the grandest and most profound, and the pick of the pack are usually devoted to human stories. And into that context comes Senna, a portrait of the legendary and tragic Formula 1 icon - a man whose life was as compelling a story as every dramatic episode of his racing career. Senna is not only the portrait of a sporting hero - a God even - who dominated the world of Formula One after unceremoniously barging his way onto the scene, and an early podium finish, it is the tale of a hugely charismatic, Brazilian legend; a conflicted genius who donated much of his winnings to his native land. It makes Senna - a legend reduced somewhat by the circumstances of his death in a horrific crash - more than the poster boy for the potential horrors of high speed sport that he became to some newer fans of the sport. Yes, Kapadia is committed to hero worship, but he's also committed to offering the more human side of Senna that it wasn't always able to get from his superhuman exploits on the track. 
The format is a familiar one for films of this type: voice-over interviews (and actually visible talking heads in the extended cut included here), waxing lyrical about their subject (a favourite in most cases by the look of it), combining with archive footage of the great man, on the track and off it. Director Asif Kapadia ditches the usual tactic of narration in favour of letting his extensive historical footage tell the story, along with those interviews, and it means the film moves along with a pace befitting the subject. But the strength of the subject makes the entire thing irresistibly watchable - I would even suggest that Senna would be as enduringly entertaining if it were twice the length. Kapadia and his editing team deserve a lot of praise for the way they have pieced together a coherent, linear narrative out of the vast number of sources used here. Such is that success that nothing feels forced or obligatory, and the film is cut in such a way that the narrative flows quickly, making statements that you wouldn't necessarily expect a documentary cut from archive footage to be able to achieve. And that's the thing: Senna is entirely unexpected. What appears to be a sports documentary on the face of it, with an inherent set of rules and expectations, turns out to be something entirely different: a fast-paced action film of sorts that creates wonder and entertainment, but which also establishes a sturdy bedrock of fact in remarkable fashion. The greatest indication of a documentary's success as a film beyond a portrait of a popular figure is that it has wider appeal to audiences who do not necessarily know the figure well, and Senna should achieve that with flying colours. It also stops short of attempting to be an advert for Formula One, which would surely have seemed disingenuous given how much focus is afforded to Senna's own fight against the politics of the sport. You don't really have to be a fan of the sport in the first place to enjoy the documentary, but there may be some fans who come away with a slightly bitter taste in their mouths for the manner in which their chosen passion is picked apart at times. 
This is not though an overt critique of the internal complexities of F1 racing: like Senna himself, the film is split between an overriding passion for the sport and a need to challenge the grubby politics that dictate it from within. You occasionally get the feeling that a more pronounced expose might have been equally compelling, but that contradiction fits so well with the film's subject that it would be churlish to suggest the approach was somehow misguided. There are undoubtedly flourishes of bias - it's understandable when we're dealing in hero worship - and Kapadia seems devoted to never advancing the grubbier side of Senna, even when the truth of certain events, like the 1990 crash with Prost for instance is now widely known. But it's never really enough to make this a case of the truth being superseded by the film-makers' commitment to telling a good story, and Kapadia achieves so much in his just under 2 hours of film that blemishes can be easily forgotten. As a documentary, it is a Grand Prix winner - and Working Title should be encouraged whole-heartedly to continue making docs after this incredible debut - but as a film without categorisation, it is compelling and entertaining in equal measure, telling an intriguing, tragedy pricked story that needed to be told. And the execution of the film, thanks to some impressive technical decisions and an obvious burning passion for the subject among the film-makers, makes it stand out as one of my picks of 2011. Quality
Because the film is made up of historical footage, there was always going to be a compromise in quality, and to try and strip away some of the years and over-gloss that footage would have robbed the film of both historical impact and authenticity. Thankfully there is no such attempt, and the footage does look good for its age - but it's not really a film that translates well to upper end high definition in its visuals. The sound is exceptional, with that iconic scream of the F1 engines punctuating forcibly, and interviews sounding as crisp and clear as ice. Music also sounds great: composer Antonio Pinto deserves a lot of credit for his score, and so do Universal for affording it the transfer it deserves.