Now that was a movie!

That’s what I love about watching films with other movie bloggers – sometimes they can read your thoughts perfectly. SENNA is indeed more than just a documentary about the life of F1 Racing legend Ayrton Senna. It takes the vibrant colours of a both a hero and the very sport he competed in, and boldly paints them on to a giant canvas. From the pulse of the soundtrack, to the passion of the many Brazilian people we meet, to the roar of the engine as the cars fly around the track…SENNA is more than just a documentary, it’s a vibrant moviegoing experience.

The film introduces us to a young Brazilian named Ayrton Senna as he competes in an international go-karting championship in 1978. He has a passion for winning, and a beautiful communion with the sport. We quickly learn that Senna is a very religious man, and that he believes that it is through the grace of God that he is able to go so fast on a racetrack. From there we skip forward six years to the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix. That afternoon would be a coming-out party for Ayrton Senna as he would climb from 13th place on a rainy track to miss his first career victory by a mere technicality.

SENNA goes on to let us fully meet a person who has become more myth than man. In his native Brazil, his dominance of the sport turned him into a folk hero. For his people, he became what Muhammed Ali is to Americans, or Maurice Richard is to Canadians. Were it not such a devoutly catholic nation, I’d dare say they saw him as a god. What the film lets us see is that the god was a fiery competitor…that he was an easy-going charmer…and that he could do things with a racing car that no one else seemed capable of.

What makes the film so very powerful is the way it omits any “talking head” interviews. The movie is wall-to-wall archival footage, and instead of using new interviews for context, the film mines hours of existing interviews and footage from the scene to shape the story. Thus the feeling isn’t that we’re looking back on a life, instead that we’re watching a life unfold.

Its use of race footage will have you holding on for dear life as if you were sitting shotgun. Likewise, it’s wonderful sound design will make your chest shake as the cars roar by. As my friend said, SENNA is a movie. It has been designed for a big-screen experience just as much as any Michael Bay blow-em-up or comic book adaptation. It’s a thrilling tale of a modern hero, and provides true insight into the heart of an icon.

SENNA is being distributed by Universal Pictures and will be in theatres this summer