Dogs on Senna: the racer's family-endorsed series was a flop
The six-part movie Senna is one of Netflix's most highly anticipated releases of the season. It is addressed to millions of fans of the legendary Formula 1 driver, and those who have only heard the name, but were not aware of the tragic and stellar fate of the great Brazilian athlete. The stronger was the disappointment: there are no new revelations in the series, it is built as a schematic and unconvincing enumeration of the merits of Ayrton Senna. And what is the worst: there are a lot of races in the series, but they all resemble one another like two drops of water. Who is to blame - it is unknown, but the creators of the series and Netflix suspiciously often said that the family of the racer was directly related to the script and the final result.
The Senna series is worse than the documentary about him
"Turns all the characters in the story into flat cartoons" (The Guardian), "contains not a single thought about why Senna became a living myth in Brazil" (Collider), "the series runs out of fuel long before the finish line" (Roger Ebert.com), "avoids touching the most secret corners of the character's personality" (Motor Sport Magazine). The series about Ayrton Senna's short life has received so much scathing commentary from critics that he himself is on the other side of the world: when he was alive, he was persecuted with about the same passion. But there's nuance, as they tend to say, and 20% "freshness" on "Tomatoes" is unfortunately a well-deserved mark on Netflix's new and much-anticipated series.
Even those who do not follow the races of "Formula 1", the name of Ayrton Senna is probably familiar. The Brazilian became world champion three times, he died at the age of 34 in an accident and remained a legend, a myth in the flesh. He is called the best racer in history, which was largely facilitated by his status as a daring, unsettled brawler with an uneven character, who did not appreciate his life on the track, but badly needed strong rivals and - speed, of course.
The cinematography first made a serious statement about Senna in 2011. The full-length documentary "Senna" triumphantly started at Sundance, then collected dozens of awards at festivals around the world, earned $10 million at the box office (a huge box office for a documentary) and is now considered a classic, one of the most successful non-fiction films of this century.
Particularly popular among fans was a collector's edition of the picture on disks, which included a model of one of Senna's bolides. That movie struck a sense of speed, drive, coupled with the disclosure of temperamental personality Senna. No wonder: it was shot by the outstanding director Azif Kapadia, who later made a wonderful picture "Amy" about Amy Winehouse and a very interesting movie "Diego Maradona". Kapadia has also made his mark in feature films, and David Fincher called him to co-direct his acclaimed series "Mindhunter".
Shusha instead of Adriana next to Senna
What happened to the series is generally typical of movies that grew out of super-successful documentary hits. And the aforementioned "Amy" was much more about Winehouse than "Back in the Dark," which also flopped this year. Examples of such failures abound, and the adaptation of "King of the Tigers," the top docudrama of 2020, was forgotten even before it came out.
What happened? It's all about the fact that the authors of the series decided not to argue with the family of Ayrton Senna and do exactly what this family insisted on. As a result, before us is not Senna's life, but his hagiography, a hero, devoid of pronounced flaws. We meet him when he has not yet taken his mother's surname. Young Ayrton Senna da Silva before our eyes first shows miracles at the championship in karting in Brazil, then quite quickly persuades his parents to give him the opportunity to continue his career in England. With him goes his loving fiancée.
Everything works out for da Silva, because he is talented. He is surrounded by mostly good people.
Yes, there are stereotypes that Brazilians are bad at racing, but da Silva fights them almost jokingly. He is honest, loving, courageous, resourceful, brave - you can list the positive attributes of the character for a long time. But for some reason, although Gabriel Leoni plays him with all his might, the character is not interesting to follow, because there is no conflict, no drama, no tragedy. Do not consider such, in fact, his arguments, whether or not to participate in the race in the ocean, if the family needs him so much at home in Brazil. Or his relationship with his wife, in which both he is flawless and she can be understood. He is a genius, she is a friend of a genius, and the characters do not go beyond this stereotypical couple.
Looking at Leoni, you remember another recent movie with his participation, and also about racing - "Ferrari" by Michael Mann (read our review here ). Leoni's role there is not very big, but important, and by temperament his Alfonso de Portago quite matches Senna. But why is Mann's "Ferrari" exciting, while "Senna" is able to put anyone to sleep already on the first episode?
Because Mann makes death the central theme of the movie.
Racing breathes death, Ferrari's business is linked to death, Mann focuses our attention on what little thing is enough to send even the most gifted driver to the other side of the world without a chance of salvation. This is a sport that doesn't tolerate mistakes, and those who practice it have to constantly look on the other side. Ferrari is surrounded by dead people, he is the one who sends athletes to their eventual doom, his cars carry danger, the wives and mothers of the unlucky ones look up to him. He lives in a situation of permanent stress, and this tension makes Ferrari's family drama a philosophical thriller. At the same time, Mann gives very dosed scenes of the races themselves, but when it comes to them, Mann bombards the viewer with such a flood of emotions that it becomes clear why each of these races is unique, why he and all involved remember each of these races. Simply because it is impossible to forget!
It is quite different in the series "Senna", where there are dozens of races for six episodes, and all of them are similar to each other, like races in some Gran Turismo on a console. It's impossible to take them seriously, because there's no nerve that ties them together. Senna just goes from victory to victory, coping with failures, working on mistakes, and he only lacks a halo over his head. Even where we could play with his celebrated qualities, such as his constant unnecessary risk-taking or the lack of discipline that made him perform poorly in races without strong rivals, we feel nothing.
We have a glossy picture in front of us, a comic book for children who will want to become racers after it, because there are only beautiful, brave, honest and tanned people there.
We do not know how much blame for the failure of the series is the Senna family, which supervised the work on the series. But, for example, Adriana Galisteu is practically absent in it, while the last year (even more) of Senna's life was spent in scandalous relations with her, and after his death she was not coming off the covers of Playboy as a beautiful widow. In the Netflix version of the hagiography, it is as if she was mentioned accidentally, and it is said that for the sake of this streaming service had to endure serious disputes with the family of the athlete. Moreover, a number of real-life episodes involving Adriana are played out in such a way that she is replaced there by Senna's past woman Shusha.
In general, it seems that in order to make a really bright film about Senna, you need someone as fearless and risky as him, who will not vizizizirovat biographical details, but will go his own way. However, the consequences of this step could be almost as disastrous as in the case of the legendary racer.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
