Genius Maverick Outsider Superstar Legend

I have always had a problem when sports are depicted in film. They are always stylized and never really create the actual sport. Some have come close, like Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday" which uses fast editing to create the franticness of american football just as the ball is snapped. 

The last time I remember motor racing (of any kind) been depicted on screen is the 2001 film Driven, directed by Renny Harlin and staring Sylvester Stallone. Which was a terrible film with I felt was more an insult to racing. Of course most people who care to remember the film only remember the scene where Stallone races through the streets of Chicago in his racer car. 

So when I heard about this time last year that they were planning a film about Ayrton Senna, I was somewhat apprehensive. I knew that it would be a documentary and would use archive footage. But even knowing that still made me worried about the film. 

Where Kapadia's 'Senna' documentary works is in its ability to appeal to wide array of audience members. For the fans of the Formula 1 racing there is a copious amount of footage documenting select races and the events taking place around his career. Rather than use cutaway segments to show various celebrities and sports men and women discuss their memories and recollections of Senna, Kapadia instead utilises a voice-over to accompany the archive images on-screen. By allowing the voice-over of the various people associated with Senna (most notable this consists of McLaren's team principal Ron Dennis, his mother, father and sister, F1 team Doctor Sid Watkins, and Brazilian commentator Reginaldo Leme) to supplement the footage, it both preserves he power of the on-screen image and provides the audience with additional information regarding the situation or event that is being presented.

To the regular viewer, you feel emotionally attached to a man who affected the lives of millions positively in his home country of Brazil. A perfect mix of a movie, in which you can watch as either an auto-racing fan, or someone who has never heard of Senna; It delivers on a highly emotional level, surrounding you in the warmth that he brought to many.