The editing (by Kitano) moves the film quickly and seamlessly between moments of extreme tranquillity and hard violence, while Kitano's performance is quietly intense.

CNN: OT ONLY DID HONG

The urgent, frenzied images are matched by his visionary editing most of the film features screens within screens, with as many as five video channels, often reprocessed with the hallucinatory wash of a video synthesizer framed in postcard-like backgrounds suggesting the mad contrast of the idyllic rural school and the chaos within and beyond.

NEWYORKER: We Can't Go Home Again

The American strategy was to ensure the right television footage by using embedded reporters and images from their own cameras, editing the film themselves.

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The suspense of the film's last 20 minutes, created by the many angles at the director's disposal and the expert editing by Gregers Sall and Chris King, is such that when Senna's car flies off the track into a wall at 190 mph, fracturing his skull, it's almost a relief.

WSJ: Ayrton Senna | Aggression With Lucidity | By Richard B. Woodward