Some documentaries are like teachers; they can take something you might not be interested in and find a way to captivate you with it. My wife would never sit through a car race but she was crying by the end. It isn't just a matter of the film being well made. Senna was a genuinely fascinating person. From a purist racing point of view, things were arranged to tell a story of a battle between men and the lengths they go to for the pursuit of international recognition, so the two sides of every story weren't evenly covered. Proust fans may have some opinions about it. Still, it is worth it just for the gorgeous footage of the cars from that period including onboard footage.

Superb documentary on the racing career of Formula 1 legend, Ayrton Senna. Contains rare footage, racing, behind-the-scenes and personal life, all woven together to give us a great portrayal of the man. There is no narration - the entire story is told through archive footage, yet it fits together and works perfectly. The editing makes the movie.The build-up to the inevitable conclusion (if you know Senna's history) is very effective, chilling and moving.Only negatives is that it possibly isn't entirely objective, or balanced. Alain Prost is cast as a villain. Also, the Prost-Senna rivalry receives too much focus, at the expense of other rivalries (eg Mansell-Senna in 1992).

Who really is Ayrton Senna?, does he deserve a documentary feature all to himself?, those where two questions a asked myself the day i bought the DVD 3 years ago, so I decided to find out and boy was I blown away, all I knew is that he was a great driver, because is name was always in the news, I was not a formula 1 fan before a saw this feature, now I am, you don't have to be a fan to enjoy it, in fact, you don't have to be a fan of sports in general to enjoy this, it is the man and is personality that grabs you, is courage, the greater than life persona of this mystical man.Few sports figures command such respect and admiration like he does. So i guess mi two questions where answered beyond mi wildest dreams, what a great life and what a great man, we are all indebted to him, forever.

This brilliant, award-winning documentary by British director Asif Kapadia tells the story of the amazing life and unexplained death of Brazilian racing car driver Ayrton Senna. Driving for four different teams, Senna managed to win the Formula One World Championship three times, along the way having a bitter rivalry with the French driver Alain Prost and a variety of incidents and controversies. All this - plus aspects of his personal life including his devout Catholism and support for poor children - is told through a skillful stitching together of clips from interviews, races and commentaries with no narrator so, although it is not always clear exactly what is happening, the tale unfolds like the heroics and then the tragedy of a Greek drama.