Le Mans the movie

[Psychographic]

Is on TCM Saturday at 6pm EST. Just thought some here might be interested.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067334/

Edited May 8, 2014 by Psychographic

[slusher]

I am a fan of Steve McQueen but have never seen all of this one. Thanks for the heads up...

[JTalmage]

I have a LOT of Steve McQueen movies on DVD, but this is the only one I have on VHS lol

[Danno]

Awesome movie, even as old as it is. Highly recommended.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Awesome movie, even as old as it is. Highly recommended.

Indeed. And the opening sequence of McQueen driving his personal Porsche was one of the reasons I fell in love with the 911.

[sjordan2]

Great racing movie. Too bad they forget to include an interesting story. I always thought this was a tax write-off allowing McQueen to pursue his racing interests. Despite this criticism, I view it repeatedly.

Edited May 8, 2014 by sjordan2

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Thanks, I will set the DVR!

[ZTony8]

It has by far the best racing scenes of any movie I've seen.It also has NO plot,no dialog until about 25 minutes into the movie, and those long scenes of the characters pensively staring at something are oh so late 60s movie making.

[sjordan2]

It has by far the best racing scenes of any movie I've seen.It also has NO plot,no dialog until about 25 minutes into the movie, and those long scenes of the characters pensively staring at something are oh so late 60s movie making.

True. But the best racing scenes in any movie are in the Senna documentary, which has more heart and drama than any scripted racing movie. "Le Mans" is totally hollow as any kind of movie.

[Ace-Garageguy]

True. But the best racing scenes in any movie are in the Senna documentary, which has more heart and drama than any scripted racing movie. "Le Mans" is totally hollow as any kind of movie.

Gee. With all those beautiful golden-age-of-motorsports cars, all those lovely engine sounds, and Elga Andersen to look at between car shots, I just totally forgot to notice that there was anything lacking.

From a review i particularly agree with:

"The film is set during a period in motor sports just prior to its almost total usurpation by corporate culture, in this case 1970, when there was still a tolerable balance between sponsorship and the particular form of nobility that pervaded racing. As a film, LeMans is remarkable for a sense of restraint that is so unwavering that even the incomparable Steve McQueen seems almost normal inside its cool envelope. No movie on the subject has ever equaled its transparency and authenticity. Motor sports have become so sophisticated and big-time that if you cut the average driver with a knife he might bleed only contact cleaner, or Mello Yello. Modern drivers are still courageous and skilled, but something essential has been lost to the hype and the inevitability of high technology. In LeMans, you can almost smell the 100 octane Supershell and the hot Castrol. People look at one another, not at computer displays. They converse directly over the rasp of tightly-wound 12-cylinder engines, not through headsets and mikes. It's a human thing. Overwrought genre siblings like Days of Thunder are ludicrous and crass compared to LeMans' pure, almost ascetic spirit."

(full text here) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067334/reviews

Edited May 8, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[mnwildpunk]

A true race car movie and one of very few true race movies

[kitbash1]

​I saw this movie when it first came out. Loved it then, still love watching it now on DVD.

[unclescott58]

Some say this movie is boring. Yet I still like it. Have the DVD in my collection. I find Grand Prix a more interesting and fun film over all to watch. But, yet there is something about LeMans and especially Steve McQueen I like a lot. LeMans like Bullit, is boring other than McQueen, and in the case of Bullit the chase scene.

Scott Aho

[Psychographic]

Some say this movie is boring. Yet I still like it. Have the DVD in my collection. I find Grand Prix a more interesting and fun film over all to watch. But, yet there is something about LeMans and especially Steve McQueen I like a lot. LeMans like Bullit, is boring other than McQueen, and in the case of Bullit the chase scene.

Scott Aho

Grand Prix has much more of a story to it and I think that is why it's more entertaining.

[Bernard Kron]

Michael Delaney (Steve McQueen):

A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it... it’s life. Anything that happens before or after... is just waiting.

Steve McQueen’s Le Mans movie documents the peak of an era in racing that a few years later would be gone, a time when the pay was poor enough that it was difficult to imagine racers did it for the money, especially since it was absurdly dangerous. Motor racing was held to be a blood sport, like bull fighting. Europe was just 25 years away from having been literally burned to the ground and was just emerging into some sense of prosperity. The dominant spirit of McQueen’s generation was a sort of downbeat skepticism, “existential” as it was called. You see it in all the auto racing movies of the era, A Man and A Woman, Paul Newman’s Winning, even in the otherwise corny and silly romance of Grand Prix.

The mediocre pay obliged top drivers to adopt brutal travel schedules and compete constantly in a variety of different series and disciplines, from NASCAR to Grand Prix racing, from circle track and Indy to international rallying. It was the New Golden Age. Stock car racers seriously considered Formula 1 careers and hot rodders and drag racers like Gurney and Ongais went road racing. Auto racing was everywhere, even on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Of all the racing movies of the period McQueen’s Le Mans (and it is most definitely his project in every way) captures that racing world as no other film ever had or ever would again. But in so doing it lost its way. As the money men watched the dailies, particularly the staged racing scenes and the footage from race weekend, and paid the heavy bills that resulted, they realized the film’s makers had gotten so swept up in that world they had neglected to include a conventional plot. So the producers brought in their own man who took over control of the film and patched together a distributable product before any more money was spent.

The result is as pure a racing film as you are ever likely to see. If you’ve been to any endurance race, particularly in the pits, you know it contains long stretches of boredom punctuated by tension and excitement. For better or worse, McQueen’s Le Mans encapsulates that almost perfectly. And I don’t believe there have ever been any better racing scenes in any film. But I agree, you don’t watch Le Mans for the plot…

Edited May 9, 2014 by Bernard Kron

[simonr]

But,,,the Senna documentary its not a movie, that's real footage...Ypu can't compare one with the other and they are almost 25 years of differnce annndddddd, technolgy...

Simón P. Rivera Torres

True. But the best racing scenes in any movie are in the Senna documentary, which has more heart and drama than any scripted racing movie. "Le Mans" is totally hollow as any kind of movie.

[mikevillena]

It is what it is...entertainment especially for Steve McQueen fans. Here's another film that has engendered a few discussions during it's time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-vHxdBjC6Q

BTW, the title this person used on YouTube is incorrect but was probably necessary due to legal issues. Additionally, the filmaker admitted many years later that he didn't actually use a Ferrari and that the sounds were dubbed in. Still fun to watch for old guys like me.

Edited May 9, 2014 by mikevillena

[unclescott58]

OK. You know the true story about Rendezvous? A Ferrari driven at speed through Paris, as seen above. The film maker later admitted to the truth about making that film. The film is slightly sped up. And the Ferrari? Really a 70's S class Mercedes, with Ferrari sound effects added later. I remember hearing so much about this film before seeing it. When I finally saw Rendezvous I was very disappointed. Then finding out later yet, it was kind of a fake. Well, what can you say? I'm just glad I didn't pay the big bucks people were asking for this film years ago on VHS tape, before seeing. I had thought about it.

Though free on YouTube, it's worth a look.

Scott Aho

[sjordan2]

But,,,the Senna documentary its not a movie, that's real footage...Ypu can't compare one with the other and they are almost 25 years of differnce annndddddd, technolgy...

Simón P. Rivera Torres

A documentary like "Senna" can't be manipulated as much in story or cinematography, for dramatic effect, like a scripted film such as "Le Mans" or "Grand Prix." So, that's more of a challenge to deal with human drama, but it's still better. The producer spent years accumulating the footage and the interviews and editing it. That, and, yes, the fact that it's real, is what makes "Senna" better than other documentaries or fictional racing movies. It still has personal conflict and character development. The only real technological advance in any of the earlier racing movies was in "Grand Prix," with the pioneering use of radio-controlled cameras mounted on the cars -- no CGI, as in "Rush," plus typical oldtime special effects like cables spinning cars around and explosions. "Senna" is of course a movie, and a beautifully crafted one (and also featuring on-board cameras as pioneered in "Grand Prix" and used in all modern live race coverage). BTW, several years ago a Hollywood version of Senna's career was planned, starring Raul Julia, but it never got off the ground.

Edited May 10, 2014 by sjordan2

[Dave]

This was the first "real " movie I ever saw in a theater, I remember my brother taking me on a Saturday morning. Prior t that movies were Disney cartoons and Benji !

It definitely got me hooked on racing at the time.