"Senna" the movie

[the foto fanatic]

I know we have a few F1 fans here, and for those of you who might not be aware, there is a biographical movie on Ayrton Senna starting this week.

Press review seems to be rather complimentary about it:

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/senn ... 1hejr.html

[Reschsmooth]

I saw this a few weeks ago and, whilst very sympathetic towards the great man, reinforced why I admired him so much. Sure, overly religious to a tragic end, he was purely passionate about his driving.

I may have told Gary at the Oaks the other week, but I will never forget being woken by my parents at about 5am 17 years ago to be told Senna had a terrible accident and was in a coma, to then come home from uni to be told the terrible news of his death. I was very sad.

That Prost is a trustee of Senna's foundation is to his credit.

It is definitely worth seeing when released.

[chrisk]

I saw this a few weeks ago and, whilst very sympathetic towards the great man, reinforced why I admired him so much. Sure, overly religious to a tragic end, he was purely passionate about his driving.

I may have told Gary at the Oaks the other week, but I will never forget being woken by my parents at about 5am 17 years ago to be told Senna had a terrible accident and was in a coma, to then come home from uni to be told the terrible news of his death. I was very sad.

That Prost is a trustee of Senna's foundation is to his credit.

It is definitely worth seeing when released.

as was normal in those chidless days i was watching imola with a couple of friends that night. it was a subdued night cos we had seen footage of roland's crash and subsequent death the day before in qualifying, so none of us was really in our regular excited mood before a GP.

when the crash happened we knew something wasn't right cos of murray's voice. there was something ominous about it...about the whole moment... although you're heart was begging for there to be a miracle, anyone who was watching would have known in their heart of hearts that this was the end. it wasn't until a couple of hrs later that the news was confirmed and 3 grown men gaped in disbelief, denial and then utter sadness.

i still get sad about it. the rest of the season was terrible to watch. every imola or monaco or brazil race is always tinged with a sadness and many a thought of the man that was F1. apart from family or friends, no one's death has ever effected me as much. cant wait to see this film.

[Reschsmooth]

... although you're heart was begging for there to be a miracle,

watching the crash in the movie, there was the tiny, irrational part of me hoping that my knowledge and memory were somehow wrong and he survived.

[Raskill]

Taking this slightly off thread... The whole event shuld have been stopped, by Italian Law following Ratzenbergers death the previous day, however, how do you stop a multi-million dollar juggernaut from taking place.... Ironic that by not following the law, arguably the greatest driver in the history of the sport was killed the following day.

Hope the movie does him and the sport justice.

[chrisk]

thought i might dig this thread up cos i just watched the film. it is outstanding. it is sad even if you arent a fan. it is very sad if you are a motor racing fan and it is devastating if you are a senna fan. so much footage. so many incredible moments captured on film i have never seen before. the in car footage is raw...grainy...noisy...spectacular.

the musical score is superb and has you hooked from the moment it starts. highly recommended viewing.

[Wink]

How long did the film you watched go for?
It seems there is a couple of versions. I've watched the longer of the 2 I've seen around and I couldn't imagine it being any shorter. I'm not sure what they would've cut out.

I'm an F1 fan and a Senna fan. I loved the film. It's success has started a run of similar film being planned. It remains to be seen if they'll make production, but at least film companies are willing to consider it.

[Reschsmooth]

My version goes for 101 minutes.

I have watched it 3 times now and can continue watching it over and over.

The sound of those cars 20 odd years ago is so raw compared to the mozzies we see now.

[chrisk]

Not sure how long it was. I got the boxed bluray set for xmas and I watched the extended version. I don't who else you could make a feature film of to be honest. Sure you could make docos but....this is something else. It's more than a doco about a racing car driver.

[Wink]

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/01/s ... k-and-usa/

The version I have is 162 minutes.

[chrisk]

Yepp that's the one. I'll have to now watch the theatrical version to see what they cut out.

[Reschsmooth]

The version I have is 162 minutes.

That is odd and I can only assume that the difference relates to the extras that appear on the DVD/Bluray. According to IMBD the running time is 106 mins.

[Reschsmooth]

Not sure how long it was. I got the boxed bluray set for xmas and I watched the extended version. I don't who else you could make a feature film of to be honest. Sure you could make docos but....this is something else. It's more than a doco about a racing car driver.

The first name that came to mind was Fangio - an indominatable force on the track with a record akin to that of Bradman's in his respective sport. The guy won almost every second race he started. However, for me, there is less relevance as I am. It familiar with the other drivers of that era.

[chrisk]

Not sure how long it was. I got the boxed bluray set for xmas and I watched the extended version. I don't who else you could make a feature film of to be honest. Sure you could make docos but....this is something else. It's more than a doco about a racing car driver.

The first name that came to mind was Fangio - an indominatable force on the track with a record akin to that of Bradman's in his respective sport. The guy won almost every second race he started. However, for me, there is less relevance as I am. It familiar with the other drivers of that era.

Absolutely true about fangios performance, even as a personality. The problem though is that you wouldn't have the footage with fangio. Those wonderful intimate moments in the garage speaking to Ron Dennis or listening in on driver briefings, or seeing his face in the cockpit to live thru those expressions. That's what I meant about feature film vs doco.

What was a little disappointing was that there were things that were not included, that are in other senna docos, which I think could have been included, at least in the extended version. The racing is in my blood speech, the tearful comeback to Adelaide after the balestere nonsense, the Monaco onboard qualifying lap, including the VoiceOver where he talks about giving eveything you have, touching the limit and then give even more. Now it could be said that we have already seen this and it is elsewhere; I would have just preferred it all in one place and these were great insights into sennas personality.

Pat, on my bluray version I can select the theatrical version or extended version of the film, the version you have seen is the chopped down version released for cinemas which is why imdb quote the film as being 106min.

[Reschsmooth]

Pat, on my bluray version I can select the theatrical version or extended version of the film, the version you have seen is the chopped down version released for cinemas which is why imdb quote the film as being 106min.

Mate, I am so old school, I still watch DVDs

[Jeff]

I too think it is a great movie . I have watched only the version that is hired from the Video shop. My wife who has little interest in motor sport was enthralled by the movie.
You guys have better memorys than I, but was there a court case over Senna death,if so what was the result.

Jeff

[ATJ]

I, too, got the Blu-ray version of this (well, it was a triple pack with BD, DVD and DC, plus a book). I have only watched the extended version. I agree it is hard to determine what to remove.

My thoughts....

* It is difficult to tell if the story conveyed is biased or not, although I suspect there was some bias against Prost and Balestre (probably warranted). As I was watching it I got the feeling that the footage was fairly selective to paint the story they wanted to paint. But then again, it is a Movie rather than a documentary.
* It makes Ron Dennis look like a nice bloke - in contrast to the dickhead he became with Alonzo v Hamilton at McLaren.
* The scenes from the Martin Donnelly crash are sickening - and I had to look it up later to find out about his recovery
* I had either forgotten about Barrichello's crash in practice at the same corner at Imola or never knew
* I seem to remember there was some argument over a bump in the track being a potential cause of the crash and that he was seen to bottom out at the same point in the previous lap but it didn't get a mention, nor can I find it elsewhere
* They talk about how it was the last death in F1, which it was, but Massa was only a few cm from suffering much the same fate at the Hungaroring in 2009. While it probably wasn't relevant for the movie, I'm surprised how little follow-up coverage there was on Massa's incident, like how did the part come loose and what was done to prevent it happening again
* I don't think there was any mention about how Williams got their hands on the black boxes before the investigators and when returned the data was gone, supposedly destroyed in the crash even though the boxes appeared undamaged.

Anyway, it was a great movie and very thought provoking.

[chrisk]

I too think it is a great movie . I have watched only the version that is hired from the Video shop. My wife who has little interest in motor sport was enthralled by the movie.
You guys have better memorys than I, but was there a court case over Senna death,if so what was the result.

Jeff

i looked up the same thing last night after i finished watching the film.

The Williams team was entangled for many years in a court case with the Italian prosecutors over manslaughter charges, ending in a guilty verdict for Patrick Head. The Italian Court of Appeal, on April 13, 2007, stated the following in the verdict numbered 15050: "It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control". Even being found responsible for Senna's accident, Patrick Head wasn't arrested: in Italy the statute of limitation for manslaughter is 7 years and 6 months, and the final verdict was pronounced 13 years after the accident.[10]

A 600-page technical report was submitted by Bologna University under Professor of Engineering Enrico Lorenzini and his team of specialists. The report concluded that fatigue cracks had developed through most of the steering column at the point where it had broken.[11] Lorenzini stated: "It had been badly welded together about a third of the way down and couldn't stand the strain of the race. We discovered scratches on the crack in the steering rod. It seemed like the job had been done in a hurry but I can't say how long before the race. Someone had tried to smooth over the join following the welding. I have never seen anything like it. I believe the rod was faulty and probably cracked even during the warm-up. Moments before the crash only a tiny piece was left connected and therefore the car didn't respond in the bend."[12]
Senna did not like the position of the steering column relative to his seating position and had repeatedly asked for it to be changed. Patrick Head and Adrian Newey agreed to Senna's request to lengthen the FW16's steering column, but there was no time to manufacture a longer steering shaft. The existing shaft was instead cut, extended by inserting a smaller-diameter piece of tubing and welded together with reinforcing plates. Many surmise, based on the "yellow button tracking analysis" done in 1997 by CINECA that the movement of the steering wheel during the final seconds into Tamburello was abnormal.

[Jeff]

Thanks for the info . You would not be able to get away with such poor workmanship these days

Jeff

[Wink]

Andrew, I think the point of the movie is to show Senna's ability, personality, talent and his effect on the sport and the fans.
IMO diving into the nitty critty of the crash and trying to place blame would only detract from what the movie is really about.

[chrisk]

Senna and Williams together again.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 12929.html

not sure how its gonna feel seeing his name on the side of that cockpit and the camera flicking back to frank during the race...

[ATJ]

Senna and Williams together again.

Saw that today but I have not seen any announcement about Ruebens retiring.

[Wink]

James Allen interview with Bruno...

http://soundcloud.com/ja-on-f1/bruno-se ... ew-5live-1