Seventeen years after that fateful day at Imola, in which the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna was killed at the wheel of a Formula One racing car, Asif Kapadia’s documentary film reveal a fascinating insight into the three-time world champion.

With access to the Formula One Management’s extensive video archive, the producers – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, James Gay-Rees and Manish Pandey – tells the story of Ayrton Senna’s life and career through original video footage, much of it never before seen.

The uses of talking head interviews or a narrator were taken out, instead voice-overs from several contributors including journalists, former racing drivers and Senna himself, plus addition clips from television commentaries tells the story.

The film starts with Senna’s arrival in Formula One in the mid 1980s. Driving for Toleman at a soaking wet Monaco Grand Prix in 1984, the Brazilian demonstrated his amazing wet weather talent. The following year, representing Team Lotus in the classic black and gold John Player Special livery car, Ayrton Senna won his maiden Grand Prix at a rain-soaked Portuguese Grand Prix.

The film then shifts to his rivalry with Alain Prost, his team-mate at McLaren. The battle for on-track supremacy with his nemesis was intense, with the Brazilian determined to win at all cost.

Two important moments in the rising hostility between Senna and Prost are omitted in the film. These were the wheel-to-wheel duel at Estoril in 1988 and the row that erupted over the restart at Imola in 1989.

But the sequences of events at Suzuka in 1989 and 1990 prove to be the main focal point in the film.

In a bid to remain in the contention for the world title, Senna had to win the Japanese Grand Prix. The only problem was his McLaren team-mate Prost. He had to overtake his rival in order to win the championship.

Approaching the chicane, Senna tried an inside move on Prost. The Frenchman turned his car into the apex and the two McLarens ended up with their wheels interlocked in the Suzuka chicane escape road. Prost got out from his car and yet Senna got a push-start from the track marshals to re-join the race.

He took the lead from the Benetton of Alessandro Nannini and went on to finish first, only to be disqualified by the sport’s governing body for cutting the chicane after the collision and for crossing into the pit lane entry.

A large fine and temporary suspension of his Super License followed. Senna was furious and engaged in a bitter war of words with the FIA and its then President Jean-Marie Balestre.

Even though the film portrays Prost as his nemeses, in turns out that the FIA President is ultimately the main villain. The footage in the drivers’ briefing providing glimpses of Balestre’s heavy-handed and partisan interventions to do Senna no favours at all.

The following year, at the same circuit where the pair had their collision, Senna took pole ahead of Prost. The pole position in Suzuka was on the right-hand, dirty side of the track. Alain Prost made a better start in the Ferrari and pulled ahead of Ayrton Senna’s McLaren. Going into the first turn, Senna aggressively kept his line and never lifted the throttle, while Prost turned in and the McLaren ploughed into the rear wheel of the Ferrari at about 170 mph, putting both cars off the track, and sealing the championship to the Brazilian.

Twelve months later, after taking his third world championship, Senna explained to the press his actions at Suzuka 1990.

He maintained that prior to qualifying fastest, he had sought and received assurances from race officials that pole position would be changed to the left-hand, clean side of the track, only to find this decision reversed by Jean-Marie Balestre after he had taken pole.

Explaining the collision with Prost, Senna said that what he had wanted was to make it clear that he was not going to accept what he perceived as unfair decision making by Balestre, including his disqualification in 1989 and the pole position in 1990.

Prost would later go on record slamming Senna’s actions as “disgusting” and that he seriously considered retiring from the sport after that incident.

The film reaches a poignant and moving conclusion with that awful weekend in Imola, with the final sequence of events striking an emotional chord.

There are some astonishing moments in which we see Senna’s devastated reaction to the death of Roland Ratzenberger and the hospitalisation of Rubens Barrichello, which ironically inspired the Brazilian to recreate the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association to improve track safety, mere hours before his own death.

To the credit of director Asif Kapadia, the final few minutes with Senna losing control of his Williams-Renault and the national mourning in Brazil are beautifully handed. It’s tragic that we have the lost one of the greatest Formula One driver in the history of the sport but how this film presented the Brazilian as a hero and a Saint (He donated millions to his native country to provide a better life for the poor) is a remarkable achievement in film making.

In fact, Kapadia’s film on Senna won the World Cinema Audience Award for documentaries at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and it fully deserves the acclamation. Highly recommended.

The world of racing has many big time races. Formula 1 has Monaco, NASCAR have the Daytona 500 and the Aussies have the Bathurst 1000. All need balls of steel and the endurance beyond what you think can be had. But these all pale into insignificance when compared to the complete the bike race that insanity is made of, The Isle Of Man TT.

While of course the other races are fast, hard and push the drivers skills to the limit, the 33 mile TT road race has always gone one step further. The complete disregard for safety. The other races to some extent have all been touched the hand of the Safety Police. Quite beyond comprehension and despite well over 200 deaths since its inception, the Isle Of Man TT has remain almost untouched by the people in Hi-Vis vests. Okay so they have been instructed to have a few hay bales thrown around the most vicious corners (and we are talking very few), some padding around lamp posts, but I think by padding they only meant some sort of thin carpet and well, that’s it! The riders are let loose riding on the public roads at some 200mph on the mountain pass and well over 150mph through the towns streets with the already mentioned lamp posts and many other very solid hazards, whizzing past just inches from the bikes and riders.

To the outsider seeing footage of this race usually generates just one question, why? Showing the 2010 race, this 3D documentary tries to show you just why these riders and their families go through this race once a year. Mainly following the incredible Guy Martin, we get to see the mentality of everyone involved and how they overcome the dangers of the TT.

Despite not actually winning a single race so far, it’s easy to see why Guy was the main subject in the film. Upon seeing other riders and their background and preparation for the race, it’s plain to see that they are nearly all the same as Micheal Schumacher. By that I mean DULL. Guy Martin on the other hand is a mish mash of Alex Higgins, James Hunt, Ronnie O’sullivan, and culminating with the greatest player never to have won the big one, Jimmy White. A lot of snooker players I know, but they all are a part of Guy. Massively charismatic (Higgins), a ladies man in the form of Hunt (though we get told in vivid detail that he isn’t a ladies man), a rule breaker (O’Sullivan) and of course the never quite able to win the big one, Jimmy White.

We follow is his run up to the race and get to see that he is a (very) down to earth, North Linconshire bloke who’d rather spend time fixing anything with an engine and getting covered in oil than lead the playboy lifestyle of a famous racer.

We also get to see how this race effects the families of those who race in particular Paul Dobbs’ life. Later it’s apparent why, when he has a tragic accident and leaves behind his wife and their two children. Yet as common among all attendees including the spectators, the complete acceptance that their time could be ended at 170mph, is fascinating to watch. So long as, with a few shown on camera, a tear may be shed.

Talking of watching, this film is an incredible visual feast. The 3D aspect brings the speed right in your face with on-board shots, superb set piece drive-bys and great artistic shots which really make this film worth catching wearing those silly specs. Also included are some brilliant still photos that are panned across showing you bikes being launched into the air. It is truly amazing to see the speed these guys ride at through the dusty, lumpy, cambered roads at such high speed and getting to see how much the bikes flex and twist with each turn, bump and jump. Brilliant stuff indeed. But of course this is the TT so we also get to see some horrific accidents. After the adrenaline of the rushing bike speeding past, there is nothing to make you think of the danger so vividly than seeing the results of getting a corner wrong or even just mechanical failure, especially when it’s all done in 3D or post production 3D.

Considering the subject though, this is not for bike lovers only however. It’s a great insight to how the human mind gets itself around the problem of death and why some of us volunteer to shake it’s hand with such passion and decisiveness that death almost doesn’t matter.

It’s truly great stuff and great use of 3D, but again it shows that 3D also has no place in the home. This on a small 3D TV would be nothing.

Film reviewed by Invisiblekid