A tribute to the stuff that makes life less boring.

30/07/2011

Senna (Asif Kapadia, 2011)



I was 5 years old when Ayrton Senna died, and I thought I remembered it.  Asif Kapadia’s  Senna showed me that I did not.  I had recalled that he met the wall at a right angle, and a dislodged fence post swung round and hit him in the temple.  This turned out to be a trick of the mind, my brain presumably warping the details and storing more of a half-memory.  In fact, although fearsome, the impact was not head on, and it was a piece of the car’s suspension that turned off the lights.  I remembered correctly that it has a direct hit to the temple that caused Senna’s fatal head injury.  You can say what you want about the inherent danger of motor racing, but Senna’s was a freak accident, an extraordinary piece of bad luck. The F1 doctor at the time, Sid Watkins, said himself that Senna didn’t have a bruise on his body. There is an unusual amount of mystique that surrounds Senna’s death, and intrigue has post-humously spread to Senna himself and the kind of man he was in life.  This is what Asif Kapadia’s film addresses. 

Senna uses the tragic death of arguably the greatest racing driver of all time as its summit, and the film builds towards this moment.  In the minutes before seeing Senna’s crash, the viewer is informed of the instability of that season’s Williams car.  Along with this, a rash of horrific accidents prior to Senna’s builds the sense of forboding.  One of the most shocking moments of this powerful film is when you see Roland Ratzenberger casually chatting about the way he is throwing his car round the track, and then the film immediately cuts to the grisly shunt that ended his life, complete with Ratzenberger’s lifeless head lolling on the side of his cockpit.  Along with everyone else, Senna is shown to be deeply upset after the accident.  More than this, for the first time in the film you see two things in his eyes that can ruin any racing driver: fear and doubt.  It is as if for the first time, Ayrton Senna realised his own mortality.

Ratzenberger’s died in qualifying for the 1994 European Drand Prix at Imola Circuit, San Marino.  It seems ridiculous today that the race was not called off.  Senna followed Ratzenberger the next day, leaving the Imola circuit at around 140mph on a corner where accidents had previously been unheard of.  There was speculation about the Williams car; specifically that a malfunctioning steering column was at fault.  I don’t think anyone really knows what happened.  The reportedly unstable nature of the Williams at that time, Senna’s natural instinct to push himself and his machine to the absolute upper limits of their capabilities, and the mental strain of the preceding events probably all contributed to the accident.

Ayrton Senna’s legacy is not only that he is a continuing inspiration today (ask Lewis Hamilton) but that his and Roland Ratzenberger’s deaths have resulted in vast improvements in the safety of motor racing.  At its core, Formula 1 is about individuals risking their lives for no good reason.  But today the risks are significantly smaller.  For me, the danger is part of the appeal.  When the risks are less so is the admiration for the drivers.  A massive part of the nostalgia for Senna’s era and those that came before it is that the dangers of the sport were more evident.  As a child, and still today, I enjoy seeing a car crashing at high speed.  I had crash videos when I was a kid - basically crashes set to music like Van Halen’s Jump! – pretty messed up, eh?  Senna has somewhat ruined this for me, because some of the crashes in it are horrific.  There are four accidents featured in Senna that have stayed with me, those of Martin Donnelly, Rubens Barrichello, Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna.  Barrichello broke a couple of bones after doing the only thing worse than hitting a wall – taking off, then hitting a wall.  Donnelly was thrown from his car onto the track, his leg visibly facing the wrong way – he sustained serious injuries that ended his F1 career.  On top of this, watching Senna means watching two men die – not characters, but actual, real people. It’s harrowing.  But it’s also awesome (in the real sense of the word) that someone would take such risks.  In light of these tragedies, it’s only right that since then pragmatism has prevailed with regards to safety in motorsport. 

I’m aware that this has been more of a reflection than a review, and that’s probably because my enjoyment of Senna was never in any doubt.  Since I was very small I’ve loved competition and cars, so I’ve always been interested in F1.  Motorsport brings out my inner child – I can’t help but gawp at a fast car.  Crucially, I completely buy into the way that Asif Kapadia has chosen to portray Ayrton Senna.  I get sick of careerists, whether they be politicians, sportsmen or whatever.  I like to see people with a passion for what they do, and so I’m only too willing to accept the somewhat romantic notion that Senna was born a racer.  The obvious contrast between Senna and Alain Prost, who was more conservative man on and off track, is highlighted in a very entertaining way. I felt strongly the sense of injustice when Senna was prevented from winning the 1989 Drivers’ Championship after being disqualified in Japan, the penultimate race of the season, on a technicality.  Prost went on to take that championship, and although he was a fine driver, the film portrays him as somewhat cowardly.  It was one of the great sporting rivalries, and one which is still irresistible today. 

Senna is a great film for numerous reasons, and it goes without saying that these reasons will be different for each person that watches it.  I can’t remember another film so instantly memorable, quotable and thought provoking.  There are some great moments, and Kapadia is masterful in his selection of the various testimonies and the way they are edited together with race footage.  Senna is a very rare film – I couldn’t think about anything else the next day, and I’m sure some of its moments will stay with me for a while yet.