In the last year I have done nothing with my degree at all.
Fast forward to June of this year and I went to see the Senna movie.
I was supposed to write a review on it soon after.
But life got in the way and at the time it seemed too late to write a blog post about it.
Then twitter reminded me that America and Australia still haven't been lucky enough to see the film yet.
So I think I have found my chance to do my review and remember why a degree in film could be still useful.
The review in brief is simple.
Senna was a beautiful, thought provoking and an emotional rollercoster
From hurt to anger. From love to war.
The Senna film had something else... as well something which most documentaries don't have.
A soul.
It showed you how a man who just drove a Formula One car actually... ticked.
It felt like you saw how the clogs of how Senna's mind worked.
Not only just through the voices of family, friends and colleagues but through his own words.
That was one of the biggest emotions for me.
Hearing Senna talk.
I didn't watch Formula One when Senna died. So hearing him talk for such a long period of time. Was strange because I felt like I knew him personally when I clearly didn't. That made the pain even more unbearable because you knew what was coming next.
It's wasn't just Senna's crash that draw the biggest silence in the cinema.
I have watched Formula One for thirteen years and I thought I pretty much youtube-d every Formula One crash.
Then I saw Martin Donnelly's crash for the first time.
There are no words for that.
At all.
In the cinema that needs to be seen to be believed.
This does take me neatly to the soundtrack, which was breathtaking. It matched the mood of all the destruction and emotion so well. It reminded me that a film could have so many layers and depth. If the Soundtrack doesn't win an Oscar come next year. I'll be shocked.
To me the film was perfect.
But of course the film has drawn some criticism for being biased. For not putting Alain Prost or Jean Marie Balestre side over more clearly and for forgetting talking heads of other characters in Senna's life like Michael Schumacher and Murray Walker.
But what people forget is two things. One. The film is only 90 minutes long. I have seen rough copies of the film at 145 minutes long and even that was amazing but the amount of footage that Asif Kapadia and his team have had to condense is mind blowing and a six hour documentary is not going cut it in the cinema.
I'm hoping for a directors cut on DVD instead, which I know would please a lot of fans.
Secondly time restrictions in the edit are going mean some people's Senna moments aren't going to be included even people F1 fans relate with Senna.
All that mattered were the major characters who were involved in Senna's life and career.
Of course it is going to be slightly bias.
It's about Senna.
The clue is in the title.
The Senna film. Did something no other Formula One film/documentary has ever done.
It appealed to everyone.
Because it didn't feel real.
The Senna movie felt like a fairy tale and people like Alain Prost and Jean Marie Balestre were the villians and Ayrton Senna was the hero trying to defeat them and he did defeat them.
It's just this story didn't have a happy ever after.
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