'Senna' More an Experience Than a Documentary

To call "Senna" a brilliant documentary is not enough. You will get sucked so deeply into the life of motor-racing champion Ayrton Senna that you won't ever feel like you're watching his life from a distance. It also shows all sides of him to where he is shown to be complex and unlike any other race car driver in Formula One. His death during a race in 1994 still saddens many after more than a decade, and after watching "Senna" you will clearly understand why.

Director Asif Kapadia really lucked out as he had access to so much footage from Senna's life both in and out of cars. We have racing footage of course, but there's also home video footage showing him to be a sublime individual and a genuinely nice guy. Kapadia succeeds in making "Senna" feel like we are spending time with a friend and not just another racing superstar.

Compared to others in racing, Senna is seen as surprisingly humble and shy. No matter how many championships he won, fame never seems to go to his head. His personality ends up getting contrasted sharply with fellow racer Alain Prost, and their intense rivalry becomes a big focus. Prost at first comes off as full of himself opposite a female journalist, and we see that his biggest strength is also Senna's chief weakness: mastering the politics of Formula One. It becomes hard not to be on Senna's side as their rivalry becomes increasingly bitter. While he proves to be ruthless on the race track, he is deeply spiritual and not ignorant of the fact that he is as mortal as anyone else.

The racing sequences are exhilarating as we watch Senna do things with a race car no one else could. His brilliance while driving in the rain made him unique in Formula One, and it's astonishing he didn't get hurt in this weather. His donations to improve the conditions in Brazil never feels like a publicity stunt, but proof of how fiercely loyal he was to his native country.

But the documentary's most unnerving sequence occurs a day before Senna's tragic death when fellow racer Roland Ratzenberger was killed on the same track. He becomes deeply upset at what has happened and vows to improve safety on all race courses, something he sadly never got to live to carry out. Watching it feels very eerie as we know the fate that awaits this racing great.

What makes "Senna" unlike your average documentary is while most are far removed from their main subject, Kapadia brings you up close and personal. Throughout its running time, Ayrton Senna is alive and not just another dead racer from times past. It doesn't matter if you're a racing fan or not; "Senna" is as enthralling as any other great film released in 2011. You experience it more than watch it, and it gives you great respect for this racer while making us sad that he left us at a young age (he was 34). But seeing him here alive once again gives us a great opportunity to know a man many of us never got the chance to in real life.

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