To the cinema yesterday, for a matinee screening of SENNA, the movie.
Can’t remember the last time we went “to the pictures” but it must be five years or more. On this occasion we went to the Vue screens at Cheshire Oaks. The attendance for a 3:35 programme was, as you might expect, pretty thin.
The film was good, though I wouldn’t have minded a bit more driving footage; but this movie is not really aimed at motorsport fans first-and-foremost — it’s obviously intended to have wider appeal.
It was particularly interesting to get the background to Senna’s life, to see the spiritual dimension to his personality (though I’ a bit dubious about his theology!), and to be shown something of the inside view of F1 motor racing as the context of his all-too-short time at the top.
The behind-the-scenes politics that affected his career, and specifically the influence and behaviour of the FIA president at the time, struck a particularly resonance in view of the present goings on re the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix!
Inevitably, the film has a bias in favour of Senna, and I have to say I think there are negative aspects to his attitude and approach that were played down. An interview with Jacky Stewart was especially relevant: in that interview, JS pointed out the astonishingly high incidence of “contact” in Senna’s overtaking manoeuvres, as compared to any other contender for the soubriquet “great racing driver”; Senna had no response beyond indignant bluster.
There is no question, though, that the man was a genius behind the wheel, albeit a flawed genius. This insight into his family, background, personality and influences, is on-the-whole well done; and well worth seeing for anyone with an interest in motorsport.
(update) Tiff Needell summed it up pretty neatly on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/tiff_tv/status/79303597136949248