A documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34.A documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34.A documentary on Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the F1 world championship three times before his death at age 34.
- Won 2 BAFTA Awards
- 20 wins & 19 nominations total
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (voice)
- Self
- (voice)
- Self
- (voice)
- (as Neide Senna)
- Self
- (voice)
- Self, Fuji TV
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (voice)
- Self
- (voice)
- Self
- (voice)
- Self
- (voice)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Self
- (voice)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is the first film about Ayrton Senna that had the approval and support of his family and also the organization of Formula One Management, which gave unprecedented images of Senna.
- GoofsWhen the caption introduces the scene as "Monte Carlo Grand Prix, 14th of May 1988", the onboard footage from Senna's McLaren is infact from the same race two years later. (1990) This becomes apparent when Senna is seen lapping the Brabham car driven by Stefano Modena, who in 1988 drove for the Eurobrun team. Static interference appears to cut the clip short to indicate Senna's race ending crash at Portier. There is then a cut to the aftermath of the accident which is footage from the 1988 race; the camera we were watching the onboard from has now vanished, because the MP4/4 that Senna drove in 1988 didn't actually have an onboard camera, unlike the MP4/5 of 1990. Also noteworthy is that the Hugo Boss logo on the side of Senna's helmet inverts from being black text on a white background during onboard footage (1990) to white text on a black background when Senna climbs out. (1988)
- Quotes
Sid Watkins: [after the death of Roland Ratzenberger] Ayrton got very, very upset and cried a bit, and that's when I said to him, you know Ayrton you've been three times world champion, you're the fastest man in the world, and you like fishing. So I said why don't you quit, and I'll quit, and we'll just go fishing. And he said Sid, I can't quit.
- Crazy creditsWhile the credits roll, we see home movies by the Senna family.
- Alternate versionsUK blu-ray edition includes extended version at a running time of 162 minutes
- ConnectionsFeatured in Breakfast: Episode dated 3 June 2011 (2011)
- SoundtracksRequiem
From the motion picture "Collateral"
Written and performed by Antonio Pinto
Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Ayrton was a genius in the rain.
On the driving/racing side the fascination comes from learning how Senna pushed himself to greatness, a very driven man who was never shy in coming forward. He challenged authority when needed and his on going career spat with Alain Prost often made the news for the wrong reasons, these are insightful and excellent splinters of the film. Incredible feats achieved in the car, like how he finally achieved one of his greatest ambitions, and won the Brazillian Grand Prix with a broken gear box stuck in 6th gear! Things he did seemed like magic to his millions of fans, very religious he felt very close to God, some of his driving had the air of a deity about it! Of course it's all building towards the tragedy, where it hits hard and even there there's a mysticism about proceedings. Foreboding warnings that came when Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger was killed the day before Senna, the Brazillian's reaction unerringly prophetic.
He would take the car beyond its design capabilities.
It's not warts and all, Kapadi has said that the Senna family oversaw production and much of the maverick driver's persona has been smoothed over. It's also worth mentioning that it's no rags to riches story, Senna was no Slumdog about to become a Millionaire. But this is real, a real man with a real interesting story, a story strung together with real clips and real home footage, not some hack job where a number of people from the same field share their own thoughts on a star that no longer shines. The Blu-ray release offers both an extended cut and the theatrical release, the former contains an extra hour but nothing of significance is gained. That cut is probably more for die hard F1 fans. At 1hr 45m the theatrical cut does an exceptional job by always being compelling with not a dull moment in sight. Quite simply this is one of the best sports person documentaries out there. 9/10
- hitchcockthelegend
- Oct 22, 2011
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Life and Death of Ayrton Senna
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,612,430
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $73,497
- Aug 14, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $10,197,661
- Runtime1 hour 46 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1