Le Mans [DVD]

Little needs to be said about this movie aside from what I state in the title. This film is loved by racing fans, mostly, for if you're not into the spectacle of auto racing, there's little here for you. Perhaps we all would've been better served if Mr. McQueen had merely made a documentary film! As it is, the racing scenes dominate the show and the off-track action can't hope to keep up with the adrenaline rush of the brutally fast machinery. If I may steal a phrase, Mr. McQueen's acting can best be described as "wooden"... Not that McQueen can't act, mind you, but the character he plays is quiet and withdrawn. Hard to spice up the character much unless you put him behind the wheel, in which case he is a man possessed.Le Mans is much like the earlier movie "Grand Prix" in that the real stars are the stupendous racing machines that populate the film (though McQueen WAS originally slated to star in GP). The storyline is timid and occasionally embarassing to watch, but McQueen makes a good show of it. It doesn't hurt at all that he himself was at the wheel for many sequences, which adds authenticity to the picture. McQueen was a very competitive (and successful) prototype and sports car racer and his passion for racing is what propped up this film throughout its difficult gestation.The cinematography and the sound are top-notch, especially considering the fact that the movie is now 35yrs old. If you are a fan of the olde racing cars, fire up the subwoofer and enjoy. It won't disappoint. With the possible exception of "Grand Prix", this is as good as it gets when it comes to racing cars on screen... The authenticity is not 100% but it's certainly 99%. Watch this movie, and you'll see why race fan-types pooh-pooh the hackneyed "racing" films "Days of Thunder" and "Driven" (*bleccch*!!), both of which steal liberally from "Le Mans" and "Grand Prix" but don't even come close to getting it right.Some of the more recent reviews here have some comical errors of fact, so I'll try to set a few things straight (I'm talking to YOU, P. Lombardi):-The Ferrari 512BB is a ROAD car, not a car that raced Le Mans in 1970 (when this movie was filmed) or 1971. The Le Mans racers of this era are the 512S, 512F, and 512M.-The top speed at Le Mans in 1971 was NOT 291mph, nor was it EVER 291mph. You're high by about 50mph for the '71 race.-The battle "royal" between the Ferrari 512 and Porsche 917 did not run from '69-71. There was no Ferrari 512 in '69, and the 917s didn't even FINISH that year. The '69 race was won by a Ford GT40, and the second place car was a Porsche 908.-If you're going to quote the movie's most quotable line, at least get it right, man! It's: "Racing is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting".As for J.J. Lewis' review below, "Le Mans" is NOT about "Formula One racing"... Presumably just about everyone who reads this knows that "Le Mans" stars "endurance" racing cars, which are quite different from Formula 1 cars. As such, the movie does NOT "shows how stark and brutal F1 racing is". It does, however, show how stark and brutal endurance and Le Mans Prototype racing is.

I grew up near waiting 5 Glen which used to just the Grand Prix for years, and some buddies also studying engineering, from Clarkson, used to get together and meet at the race course. We weren't Harvard rich so we went camping but it let us see the GP in October or the Can Am (think of Bruce McLaren) and 6 hrs endurance race in July. While the Ford v Ferrari was a good movie that was about the players and not so much the race. I'm old enough to remember seeing this movie in high school when it came out again it is still the great actual race scene movie of all time although a preliminary review of the new movie trailer suggests it will be about racing itself. Pitt supposedly spent months training to race and they use actual F2 cars. At speed. McQueen (and Paul Newman) did some actual racing so in Le Mans they filmed real cars at real speed - but old man Ferrari was furious that his wouldn't win so in this film they had to use Lola cars made to look as much like Ferrari as possible. It's a great movie and I've seen it in DVD further but not Blu-ray. I just wanted the higher def that doesn't lose it in the action parts which are significant. I'll watch it before I go to the theater but I've seen it several times over the years including Netflix, but the raw Blu-ray will be nice to have. I rip things and use Plex on my NAS to make it easy to view as my DVD collection is substantial. I already know it's 5 stars.

A great movie that fail commercially, AND BANKRUPTEDThe production company, but it was a labor of love for Steve McQueen who bank rolled it.

About three years ago, I started watching Formula 1 Racing with my husband, just to see what all the excitement was about this form of racing. What I learned was it's an intense method of car racing. It isn't just speed. It's calculating how long your tires will last. How long will the fuel last. Remembering where your corners are at (each track in each location is vastly different). And, trying not to crash your very expensive car so you can earn points for yourself and your team.The one thing I've learned about car racing, no matter which method of racing you choose, there's a lot of hubris that goes along with it. The argument is that the more you lack in humility and the more hubris you have, the better the driver. Safe driver's don't do well, and, overly cautious ones die. As in life, only the strong survive.Le Mans racing is another form of racing with it's own unique set of calculations. Le Mans is a 24-hour race. Two drivers per car, each taking turns driving and resting at 1-hour intervals. Anything and everything can happen. Driver's share with their colleagues aspects of what the car is doing, corners/turns to be wary of, and warning them of what other drivers are doing. The movie, "Le Mans" takes all of these things into consideration with the filming.Let me be very clear: do NOT compare this movie to Ron Howard's "Rush." Two different types of racing. Two different directors. While both movies revolve around the 1970's era of car racing, these movies are approached very differently. There was no CGI in 1971 when the fictitious Le Mans movie was filmed (Yes, the Le Mans race has been around since 1923, but, the movie, "Le Mans" is a fictitious race. Portions of the film are said to be taken from the actual Le Mans race that year.). The budget for this film differs vastly from budgets uses today. Steve McQueen did most of his own driving in this movie! Some of the cinematography for the 1971 "Le Mans" film was way ahead of its time. Camera angles for some of the car racing sequences make you feel like you're right there in the race with the drivers.Both "Rush" and "Le Mans" are great movies that stand alone. But, "Le Mans" is a movie that will withstand the test of time. It was a great movie in 1971. It's a great movie now. Also, "Le Mans" is rated 'G,' a General Audience rating. Some of the driving/crash sequences might be a bit much for an audience under the age of 10. There's only one sentence where McQueen's character tell someone not to be a pain in the a--. Otherwise, no swearing.It's refreshing to watch a movie where the director doesn't have to rely on CGI, nudity/sex scenes, or harsh language to sell a movie. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is both a car racing fan, as well as a Steve McQueen fan.Enjoy