A little movie called "Senna"

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD

As James Hunt so aptly stated, I will never forget the "arrival" of Ayrton Senna.  

I had been incredibly fortunate to discover "Grand Prix International" (what probably remains to this day the greatest F1 magazine ever published) on the shelves of Atlanta's Oxford Books in 1984.    It just so happened that over the following two years I monthly carried home carefully selected pristine copy after pristine copy of this sacred publication . . . at a time which charted Senna's meteoric rise and his 1985 season at Lotus.

Among numerous demonstrations of sheer jaw dropping skill, Senna's dominant first victory in the rain at Portugal, his immediate attack out of Tamburello into Tosa at Imola, and his literal "drive the wheels off," bonsai performance in the season ending Australian GP at Adelaide stand out in my memory.

Senna grabbed my attention, for certain.   By the time 1985 past, he'd already blipped my "all time greats" radar.   Senna, however, was still learning.   By the time his third and final season with Lotus in 1987 arrived, it was clear success at the pinnacle of motorsport came not on sheer skill alone.

Things grow a bit foggier for me from that point forward.     Senna arrived at McLaren . . . and fortunately for me this is where "Senna" the movie picks up.    No doubt I was still following F1 with the same zeal I have now, but for some reason . . . perhaps life . . . I could not devote as much energy to the pursuit and therefore lost some of the fascination with Senna the driver that I'd started out with.

How odd; I was practically asleep during one of F1's most memorable eras and thanks to "Senna," I've a worthy retelling of those lost memories!     This brings up an important point about the movie, one of which I will elaborate on shortly . . .

. . . in the meantime, I wanted to use the film's recent wider release to stimulate some discussion on the film and the driver.     To get the ball rolling, I am soliciting your thoughts on the film.    Make no mistake, I've got plenty . . .