"Senna" Discussion Pt 1

CAUTION SPOILERS!


"Senna" the movie, much like Senna's own journey cut way too short, is at once captivating, mesmerizing, yet an incomplete document of an individual who transformed the sport he loved.

The film introduces a complicated and complex provocateur to those who may have never followed F1, and does so in a fashion fitting of the man and those who competed against him.

Yet for everything the film does so well, it leaves more questions about the three time World Driving Champion than it answers, and fails, IMHO, to adequately define the significance of the proscenium in which he excelled.  

I would find it impossible to fully distill Ayrton Senna within the scant confines of a two hour movie.   Here we have all the ingredients for a story long overdue to the big screen, but movies rarely succeed following divergent story lines, characters which can not be simplified, and far less as audio/visual cliff notes.  Ironically, it is in fact the filmmaker's requirement to identify and extrapolate a manageable narrative from Senna's broad impact on motor sport (albeit executed here with methodical technical precision) that left me somewhat unfulfilled.

Sensational endeavors unfortunately provide more easily condensed narratives.    Thus it is no surprise that the narrative here centers on Senna's openly public feud with Alain Prost.    Those of us who have followed F1 know this story well and understand why it would serve as the eye in this storm of documentary.

On the surface it provides the most obvious path toward condensing Senna to the screen.  The stage was simple.  Alain Prost was the man to beat.   Senna placed Prost on the highest pedestal above all others.  Even as he entered the 1988 season as Prost's teammate at McLaren, Senna could not hide his desire to defeat this man.   He lived and breathed that quest as if it was the only manner in which he could find his place in the world, perhaps even peace within his soul.

There we have it.   A protagonist, an antagonist, and a catalyst:  Jean Marie Balestre!  

Given the miles of material under which director Asif Kapadia must have almost drowned (that would be some problem to have, huh?), he manages to champion and include amazing glimpses behind the curtain that are shocking, funny, human.   The movie treats us to absolutely stunning behind the scenes footage of driver meetings, pre-race briefings.

Kapadia and his editor put us in the room in a manner I'm dead certain that even the most ardent F1 fan has never seen.   We see Senna navigating his way with trepidation into the political side of a sport where his adversaries were serious, both competitively and politically.    No doubt, this is what many of us came to see, and on that count the film does not disappoint.

In these moments, I saw these F1 "gods" as not quite gods at all . . . but instead pawns who also live and die by the political sword . . . yet the irony is through fully exploiting the objectivity of time, the film at once shatters and rebirths the epic myth through this incredible footage.  

The film also takes advantage of the conflict between Senna's passion for the purity of racing against the politic of human endeavor . . . but too conveniently sidesteps the fact that those same politics afforded him the opportunity to earn millions of dollars in the process.    

Herein lies the dilemma.    As F1 fans, we know it.  We know it because this story is repeated every single season.  It may take different forms, but it is always there.   Senna was not the first to meet it head on, however he might have been the quickest to adopt its practice to his own advantage.

I contend it is fair to say that Senna was not stupid.    Once he snapped from naivete to realize he could summit on talent alone, he utilized every opportunity to point woeful scrutiny and political tides against his adversary.

I believe Senna so despised the political realities of the sport that he was probably unaware that he'd subscribed to their practice.   Perhaps unwittingly, he was fighting fire with fire.

Unfortunately the film does not question Senna's motivations in a completely objective fashion.   I also wonder if those outside and now being introduced for the first time to Ayrton Senna, F1, and his impact on the sport any real depth on the matter?