Part 2: https://www.documentarymania.com/video/Senna+2of2/

It’s a little biased against Prost and is very forgiving to Ayrton’s recklessness. A great watch none the less.

one of the greatest? didn't he kill himself driving round a corner? surely that disqualifies him from being 'great'?

Obvious troll is obvious.

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Not interested in F1 at all and didnt know who Senna was until I saw the documentary. This is without a doubt in my top 5 list of the best documentaries ive ever seen.

It's simply a gourgeuos portrait of Senna and the F1 circus in the 80's and early 90's. The story just pulls you in with amazing imagery and and behind the scenes footage that gives you an intriguing insight to the whole industry as such.

A must watch for any one interested in documentaries, no matter if you like F1 or not, or even sports in general.

I guess you better watch it to learn what happened.

Worth watching “Madness on Wheels”, made by the same team. Covers the infamous Group B rally class. Excellent documentary if you enjoy rally.

Greatest of All Time.

Incredibly well made documentary, no talking heads, no hokey re-enactments, just a great use of archival footage to tell a compelling story

Thanks for this one, I need to check it out.

Senna Trailer

It's very biased against Prost. I really enjoyed this when it came out, but the more I learned about both of them, I realized what a shame it is for Prost to be so vilified.

...and it let's you enjoy the imagery. There is no distracting audio, and the footage is able to play without the typical over-editing.

I think it does a really good job of showing Senna's perspective. But yeah, it would be wrong to make any conclusions, having only seen that side.

one of my all time favorite documentaries. the footage is incredible

I've seen it probably 5 or 6 times now and it's still so good. It really seems like someone filmed his life for the purpose of this documentary, even though that's of course not the case.

I remember watching all of this play out back in the day, Senna was renowned for engaging in dangerous intimidating tactics against other drivers and received a lot of valid criticism for it. I agree with the unwarranted vilification of Prost, he was one of the more sensible drivers back then.

I think Senna was a remarkable driver and it's unfortunate his life ended the way it did, but in my mind there have been, and continue to be other remarkable drivers out there.

Group B was utter madness, there's been a few good documentaries over the years that are worth checking out but the names of them escape me now!

My favorite biographical documentary. A documentary made with class, taste, empathy and solemnity, which did Senna justice. Outstanding from start to finish.

I know absolutely nothing about F1 or any of its racers and I could tell Prost was getting assassinated

That said I do think it was the filmmakers' intention to ground the experience as if you were viewing it from Senna's perspective, so them vilifying him is a method to achieve a sense of Senna's subjectivity vs. an objective stating of facts and reality

There are actually 2 versions of this movie. The second UK version is extended by almost an hour - 162 mins vs 106.

In that they have a far better and greater conversation with Prost specifically and it feels a lot more balanced than the shorter version. No idea why they didn't release the longer version everywhere.

I noticed this as well. There’s definitely two versions. I first saw the longer one on Netflix years ago. I re-watched this version before posting.

Parts I remember being edited out:

1. Details about Senna’s childhood, his start in go-kart racing, how his career eventually progressed to F1 and his father’s financial support early on
2. His marriage and divorce
3. Perhaps most important - a rather long scene where the drivers object to racing in the rain due to the increased risk of an accident. I forget which event this was at. The drivers request a meeting with the organizers to discuss the issue. I think there are parts of Senna talking to the other drivers and I’m pretty sure Senna walks out of the meeting at one point.

The longer one has an extended version of Prost's interview in the middle somewhere which provides a lot of context to the film that otherwise wasn't there. That is perhaps it's most glaring omission.

For the third point, you might be confusing that with the incident Niki Lauda had where he walks out based on exactly what you said, rain conditions. (edit: this is covered in the movie "RUSH" by Ron Howard - which possibly might be the greatest racing movie of all time).

In the Senna film (not sure which version) Senna walks out of the drivers meeting after a heated discussion about going out on the shoulder of the track by accident (there was a run off area in the chicane so if you missed the turn you didn't go into a wall). Senna was penalized for that and I think ultimately lost the championship because of that penalty. While other drivers freely got away with the whole thing as the F1 President wasn't a very big Senna supporter and personal friends with Prost. Senna walked out of that meeting - while his fellow drivers were in agreement with him.

Unbelievably, the fucking F1 actually wanted Senna to TURN AROUND and GO AGAINST TRAFFIC just to get back on the chicane.

Edit: One other fun fact, Senna excelled at racing in the rain. Him and Schumacher would run laps around the entire field when it rained. You can argue about what percentage the car wins races over a driver but when it rained those two drivers clearly proved they were exceptional drivers regardless of the cars performance.

> For the third point, you might be confusing that with the incident Niki Lauda had where he walks out based on exactly what you said, rain conditions. (edit: this is covered in the movie “RUSH” by Ron Howard - which possibly might be the greatest racing movie of all time).

Given that Senna and Rush are the only two F1 films I’ve seen I stand corrected. Funny as I was typing it out I was thinking to myself didn’t Senna like racing in the rain but I couldn’t recall the conflict so I went with what I thought it was.

Best ever!

Link or is doesn’t count. /s

Have you seen Gran Prix? Rush is the Striptease to Gran Prix’s Showgirls

I have not, but I see it's not only well regarded but also directed by John Frankenheimer.

I have put that on my list, thanks for the recommendation.

Edit: Turns out that movie is in HD on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5U98QpKRSI

Awesome documentary showing the raw power and sheer guts the group B drivers AND spectators had regardless of death occurring on both sides. A real testament to how dangerous and wild things got in the 80’s.