MovieChat Forums > Senna (2011) Discussion > Poor documentary, rescued only by how go...

Poor documentary, rescued only by how good story actually is...

posted 13 years ago by goatslayer2001
12 replies | jump to latest

As a UK based F1 fan I found myself rather disappointed overall by this documentary. I think the choice of people to interview was poor and the editing really wasn't up to scratch, especially near the end when some of the more heart breaking moments with amazing music were interrupted to go back to one of the ESPN guys.

The only reason I rated this a seven and not worse is because of the extent of the footage they found of Senna and how amazing his story was. Much of his life and what happened to him as a driver I didn't realise.

I think one day there will be another Senna documentary and it will be better than this.

(Also, some important moments were left out like him stopping his car and going back to the guy to check on him and some other race victories which would have been nice to see.)

she leads me through moonlight only to burn me with the sun...

[–] dukefett 13 years ago

It seems like everyone who's complained about this doc is already an F1 fan. I had no information on Senna at all, and very little knowledge about F1 and I thought it was put together incredibly.

'Cause a big nothin' it'll be for me

[–] xav1991 13 years ago

I'm a huge F1 fan, I have seen every grand prix since 1998, and I loved this documentary !

[–] srh_hogarth 13 years ago

Same here, been watching F1 since 1984 when Lauda won (and incidently, Senna joined F1). Watched it sporadically in 84, 85, and 86. Really got into F1 in 87 because of Mansell's burst tyre at the end of 86.

Haven't missed a race since the start 0f 87 except one......wanna take a wild guess which one? Yep Imola 94.

I was in college at the time and being a student I was broke lol. Anyway, a friend offered me some work at his bar/restaurant on the Sunday bacause being a Bank Holiday weekend it was going to be very busy.(If you're not from Britain it's like a national long weekend, if you are from Britain then i've just explained the bleeding obvious! lol). Being a poor student living with a couple of mates we only had a cheap Matsui video player, not a video recorder. Money was more important than a Grand Prix obviously so thought oh well, i'll have to make do with the highlights.

Got home about 8 that night and that's when I heard the news. Never sure whether to be happy or sad I didn't watch it, very mixed feelings. I don't know whether the whole race is available to watch anywhere, but to this day i've never seen the whole thing, just clips.

[–] xav1991 13 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0oyi2ooKv8

That's part one of the 1994 san marino GP, the following parts are in the related video section.

The commentary switches from the BBC (Murray Walker) to Eurosport during the red-flagged section right after Senna's accident, and returns to Murray for the remainder of the race once it restarts.

I have stumbled upon the full BBC broadcast, including pre-races interviews, but can't seem to find it at the moment.

[–] srh_hogarth 13 years ago

Thank you!

I wasn't actually asking for links, I was more just stating i'd never seen it, but thank you all the same. I'll put it on my favourites and at least that way I can watch it if I ever want to, just not sure if I ever will.

It's not like I haven't seen clips of the crash, seen that loads, that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is the fact that the race was restarted, but if you've ever seen some of the more graphic images then you'll know that it was obvious that he was never going to survive. He was surrounded by a huge pool of blood but still they decided to restart the race.

I'm always surprised that whenever they talk about Senna's death, particularly on the BBC, that they forget to mention that part.

The Americans got it right, look at what happened with Dan Wheldon recently. They stopped the race, after about 30mins they knew he was dead, though they waited a while after that to officially annouce it, and so they stopped the race. Then the drivers decided to do 5 laps in formation as a mark of respect.

Can't say that F1 showed the same kind of respect. Ratzenberger died on the Saturday, so fair enough that they didn't stop the race on Sunday. But a second death on the Sunday? Regardless of who it was, the race should not have gone on.

So you see why in a way i'm glad i didn't see it, it leaves a bad taste with me.

Mind you, it does make me laugh when I think that the one race i've missed in 25years was the most infamous race of them all! What are the chances of that!?

Like I said, mixed feelings.

[–] b_e3Kpi 13 years ago

He was surrounded by a huge pool of blood but still they decided to restart the race.

I totally agree with you that the race should not have been restarted, but the pool of blood that we saw came from the tracheotomy that was performed on Ayrton, not from the actual head injury.
.

[–] harrison_1 12 years ago

You know its quite amazing srh_hograth. You could count the number of F1 GPs I've missed since 1982 on one hand. But it just so happens that the week the Imola 94 was on occured during something called Tasmanian 'Television aggregation'. The tv station that showed F1 in Northern Tasmania lost the rights to show it and I needed a new UHF antena (which I didn't have) to pick up the brand new Southern based station. I managed to tune into a few minutes of really grainy picture just after Senna had crashed using my old VHF antena, but then lost the signal all together for the remainder.

[–] xav1991 13 years ago

The scene where Senna stops his car and goes to check on the other driver is featured in the film, during the end credits.

[–] strummer2808 13 years ago

The Director said he didnt want to make a F1 documentry , he wanted to make a senna documentry , hes story was more touching it just happens to be he is a F1 driver.

[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

It would had been better if there was more BBC race footage and comments from Murray Walker, as sadly James Hunt passed away a year or two before Senna died.

The ESPN guy, I never heard of him before and to me he does not have the gravitas of Murray.

Its that man again!!

[–] StickyDragon 13 years ago

I have never heard of Senna before, and never watched F1. I thought the documentary was very good and really kept my interest.

[–] omfg-pwn 12 years ago

Although it's a few years too long, it sounds like OP saw the director's cut of the film. The theatrical is much better.