Senna Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Senna Blu-ray Movie Review

Biographical Collage

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 12, 2012

You don't have to know anything about the world of Formula One racing to enjoy this biographical portrait of Ayrton Senna, the charismatic Brazilian champion who remains a national hero in his native land today, almost twenty years after his death. Senna cut such a distinctive figure, and so much film and videotape exists of his exploits, that the makers of this documentary— director Asif Kapadia, writer Manish Pandey and producer James Gay-Rees—have successfully fashioned a compelling drama out of the extant footage, painstakingly assembled from all over the world. The film provides dramatic structure to the critical period of Senna's career, when he pulled ahead of a pack of competitors to distinguish himself as a champion, despite resistance from a clubby racing establishment that considered him an outsider. Kapadia, Pandey and Gay-Rees are all Formula One enthusiasts with a fan's intuitive grasp of the sport's nuances, but they've been careful to include enough information so that a novice can understand Senna's "plot" as it unfolds. Call it "documentary exposition".

Senna was born to wealthy parents in a suburb of São Paulo in 1960. His interest in cars began in childhood. As a teenager, he raced go-karts, but at age 21 he moved to England and began driving single-seat race cars, eventually qualifying for a Formula One team in 1984. Over the next ten years, he won three World Championships and set numerous records. He also became a controversial figure, primarily for his long-running and frequently acrimonious rivalry with French driver Alain Prost. Senna and Prost had two much-debated collisions on the race track. Prost is thought to have caused one deliberately, and Senna the other.

Senna died on May 1, 1994, from a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix held in Imola, Italy. An estimated three million mourners turned out to greet his coffin when it arrived home in São Paulo.

(Note: This U.S. disc contains only the 106-minute theatrical version of Senna. The extended 162-minute version included on the European disc reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov has not been included.)

The film provides brief background on Senna's early career, but it quickly moves to its most dramatic phase when Senna joins the McLaren team in 1988, where Alain Prost is the number one driver. Nicknamed "The Professor" because of his calculating approach to the sport, Prost is like a more charming and duplicitous version of Top Gun's Iceman; he cares less about winning individual races than about racking up points under the Formula One scoring system so that his season total wins him the championship. He has already won two championships when Senna joins McLaren.

Senna approaches the sport with an entirely different spirit. Like Maverick, he "feels the need for speed"—or, to be less flippant, he has a unique gift for sensing, and a dedication to studying, the nuances of cars and tracks, so that he can extract split-second advantages beyond anyone's expectations. And like Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, Senna places himself in God's hands when he races (though not so much that he won't race on the Sabbath).

Though initially friendly rivals, these two opposing temperaments eventually become bitter opponents, especially after Senna wins his first world championship in 1988. Their battle culminates in a famous incident on October 22, 1989, at the next-to-last race of the season in Suzuka, Japan. Prost has accumulated enough points to secure the championship, unless Senna wins the race. In the 46th lap, Prost turns his car into Senna's path, locking wheels and effectively taking both drivers out of contention, or so onlookers thought at the time. Instead, Senna gets a "push-start" from marshals back onto the track, makes it to the pit for a quick repair, and wins the race anyway. Meanwhile, Prost is seen hurrying to the marshals' office, presumably to share his detailed knowledge of Formula One rules. After much debate, Senna is disqualified on a technicality for the manner in which he rejoined the race. When he appeals the decision, he is suspended and fined.

A critical factor in these decisions is Prost's personal relationship with fellow Frenchman Jean-Marie Balestre, then-president of the FIA, which oversees Formula One competition. An imposing, larger-than-life figure, Balestre is described in the filmmakers' commentary as the kind of character one couldn't invent. The footage of him at press events and presiding over drivers' meetings bears out the description.

The tables would be turned a year later, when Senna and Prost (both now having moved on to other teams) would collide again on the track, only this time the outcome would be in Senna's favor. Prost angrily denounces his former colleague, and the incident remains controversial.

What's remarkable about Senna is that none of these events are presented as recollections through "talking head" interviews. Formula One racing is exhaustively covered, both on the track and behind the scenes, and the filmmakers have reconstructed this story from actual footage taken from innumerable sources, so that it plays out almost in real time. The talking heads are relegated to voiceover, primarily Senna's family and friends, providing further explanation and insight for the events on screen. The approach lends immediacy and urgency beyond what one commonly associates with a documentary.

Perhaps because of his family's involvement, the film is somewhat more restrained when dealing with Senna's personal life. It omits any mention of his brief marriage and most of his girlfriends, but it does stress his extensive charitable efforts, many of which did not become widely known until after his death.

Senna Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

At first glance, Senna might seem an odd choice for Blu-ray, because the film has been meticulously stitched together from a diverse selection of sources of which the overwhelming majority are standard definition video, both digital and analog, along with what looks like 8mm film of poor quality and only an occasional shot that is 35mm. However, the edited final product has been processed on a digital intermediate, presumably at 2K resolution, in an effort to harmonize these disparate sources to the greatest extent possible through color correction, clean-up and no doubt some degee of up-conversion. The results are impressive. Although one is aware of the variety of source materials, the constant transitions are not visually jarring.

Since the DI colorist has gone to the trouble of creating an image suitable for the demands of large-screen projection, we might as well have the full quality of his work in a home video medium, and the 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray from ARC Entertainment delivers it. Detail, color and black levels are no better than the sources allow, but they are frequently surprisingly good; the DI process appears to have allowed for the extraction of every last iota of resolution from the various sources. No attempt has been made to cover up or repair obvious flaws in the material, e.g., routine instances of "break-up" in the driver's POV cameras installed in the race cars themselves. Contradictory though it may sound, the Blu-ray of Senna is a polished presentation of a rough-hewn image, and the paradox is appropriate to both the gritty but graceful sport of Formula One racing and the gentle soul who became one of its fiercest competitors.

Senna Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio on the Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is considerably more high end than the video. The filmmakers stress in the commentary that they wanted a much greater level of polish on the soundtrack, even if that meant searching for better quality recordings of Formula One cars and resynching them to existing footage. The effect is most obvious in the racing footage from the driver's POV, where the engine is loud and objects rushing by pan quickly from front to back.

Because much of the footage comes from news cameras, the voices aren't always as clear as one would like, and in many instances statements in English come equipped with subtitles even when all subtitles options are switched off. The voiceovers spoken in English are always clear, and I assume those spoken in Portugese (primarily by Senna's family) are as well, although I can't offer an independent assessment. (They, too, are automatically subtitled.) The understated score by Antonio Pinto (City of God, Perfect Stranger) is used subtly and presented well.

Senna Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Asif Kapadia, Writer Manish Pandey and Producer James Gay-Rees: This is a lively and informative discussion that provides substantial detail on the history and development of the film. Of particular note is the information regarding the worldwide research necessary to assemble and review the massive video footage, much of it never before seen, that allowed Senna's story to be told almost entirely as it happened, rather than through interviews and recollections after the fact.


• Interviews (SD; 1.33:1; 56:54): The interviewees are not identified, but all of them are featured throughout the documentary. Alain Prost is the most readily recognizable. The comments are edited and organized by topic in chronological order corresponding to key events in Senna's racing career. Several of the interviewees speak in languages other than English, and no subtitles are included, which is a significant oversight.


• Senna Family Home Videos (SD; 1.33:1; 2:57): In the commentary, the filmmakers emphasize the importance of the home video material provided by the Senna family. These appear to be additional excerpts.


• Trailer (SD; 1.85:1; 2:19): An effective trailer that captures the spirit of both the documentary and its subject.


• Additional Trailers: At startup the disc play trailers for Born to Race and Knuckle, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Senna Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In addition to being an entertaining film about an intriguing personality, Senna is a revealing example of just how flexible the documentary form can be in the hands of filmmakers with no preconceptions and a commitment to dig for source materials. I've seen a lot of documentaries, but never one quite like this. The U.S. disc can be recommended for its technical merits, but purchasers may want to consider the European version for its inclusion of the extended cut and a different selection of extras.