Posted on 06/11/2023 6:29:05 AM PDT by Rummyfan
If you're reading this column just after it was posted, the 91st Le Mans endurance race will be approaching its halfway point. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the three most iconic car races in the world, along with the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. Twenty-two drivers have died on the track and countless injured, and over 80 spectators were killed in a single horrible day in 1955. But far, far down the balance sheet of losses at the Circuit de la Sarthe is the marriage of a major Hollywood star obsessed with the race.
"The events that were to lead to the final disintegration of my marriage to Steve might have been averted had I not come to Le Mans that summer," wrote Neile McQueen in her 1986 memoir My Husband, My Friend, a remarkably forgiving account of her years as the first wife of Steve McQueen. She made her way across the Atlantic to the filming aboard the SS France, on what was the final voyage of the grand ocean liner; the French government was no longer willing to foot the bill for its upkeep. You might have called it a bad omen.
The summer of 1970 was when the actor, now the biggest movie star in the world after Bullitt, was finally able to make his passion project – the story of a driver at the famous 24-hour race. Not least among the film's many problems was that there was no actual story, but that never seemed to worry McQueen.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
I saw it in the theater as a kid. All I remember is some great racing footage. We painted some of my 1/24 scale slot cars with the Gulf colors.
The real problem was there WAS a story - and it was dreadful. The movie would have been better without one, because the racing action that year was spectacular, and the film work was brilliant.
Haven’t seen it but looking forward to it.
Paul Newman added Lemans, coming in second and placing first in class. The car he drove was a real beast to control too- very gast and hard to control, 3sp3cial,y given the power that it had
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/le-mans-2023/these-are-top-six-celebrity-le-mans-drivers
Sorry got my cars mixed up. The car in the movie with McQueen was the beast, not the one Newman drove.
My buddies and I were big fans of FIA endurance road racing from 1966 until 1970. We attended all of the Sebring 12 hour and Daytona 24 hour races during that time. So, for me this movie, among others, takes me back to the days of my misspent youth. Lol. Thanks Mr. McQueen for making it.
Considering the camera equipment available at the time & the effort it took to film something like that overseas, it’s still an interesting movie to watch.
If you’re a car person, Le Mans is no “flop.” It’s epic. Those 917s are just insane.
The opening scene:
The biggest problem with ‘Le Mans’ is it pales in comparison to John Frankenheimer’s 1966 cinematic masterpiece, ‘Grand Prix,’ which had an actual plot, rivalry, romance, and some of the most dramatic depictions of automobile racing ever filmed.
There was never a completed script and each day’s filming was whatever McQueen wanted it to be when he showed up. The studio eventually took away control of the film because he was WAY over budget and behind schedule, which ended any possibility that what finally hit the big screen might match McQueen’s vision.
McQueen insisted some scenes be filmed at full-on race pace. Which cost racing driver David Piper a leg when he crashed his Porsche 917K film car trying to maintain the proper camera angle of the action.
During the filming, McQueen crashed a car on an evening out and broke the arm of Mario Iscovich, his personal assistant. He was driving too fast in an old Peugeot on rain-slicked streets, missed a corner and rolled the car several times in a farmer’s field. Also in the car was Louise Edlind, McQueen’s pit-tootsie-of-the-week.
To avoid the scandal of McQueen having a crash at 2 am while out with a young woman (not his wife), nobody called for an ambulance, and McQueen talked Iscovich into claiming he had been the one driving the car.
The studio fired Iscovich and McQueen never so much as thanked him.
There are many real interesting tidbits in Steyn's article:
[Le Mans] begins with a cramped field; last year's race fielded 62 cars, the most ever entered, and this year's race is scheduled to begin with the same crowded track. The winning cars cover a phenomenal distance: the record was an Audi R15+ in 2010, completing 5410 km over 397 laps. A single day at Le Mans covers more distance than a whole year's worth of Formula One races.That is astonishing that their camera car came in second in class and ninth overall even with all the stops to change film!...McQueen modified the Porsche 908/2 he had co-driven to a second-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring with millionaire gentleman driver Peter Revson (beaten by none other than Mario Andretti) and entered it in Le Mans as a camera car, where Porsche drivers Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams raced it 282 laps to a 9th place finish, second in its class despite frequent stops to change film.
I didn't realize the movie wrecked McQueen's marriage.
Fascinating bits of info...thanks for adding that to Steyn’s article. I’m surprised Steyn didn’t include those bits in his story.
It was a heck of a lot better than that pizza chit Days of Thunder.......that’s for sure.
I'll say!
My favorite movie of all time. One of few movies that I will watch more than once.
There was a *great* story here. It just wasn’t made into this film. It took another 45 years to make “Ford vs Ferrari.”
Haha - yes but most car guys like Days of Thunder too... lol.
I LOVE that movie.
I was in the infield the weekend they shot the Daytona footage.....I knew even then it was gonna be a stinker.
I remember people like Bennie Parsons and Ned Jarrett panned it as completely unrealistic.
Even Robert Duvall couldn’t save that turd.
Leave it to Hollywood to gay up auto racing. SMH
Blue Porsches versus red Ferraris.
Many people drive cars, so they feel some connection.
McQueen’s character has a fatalistic view of life.
It was the modern version of gladiators and chariot racing.
The stories in most racing movies are just there to fill in between the racing scenes. In movies like ‘LeMans’ and ‘Grand Prix’, the racing sequences are so spectacular that the rest can be forgiven.
Most racing movies don’t work as complete films. An exception is ‘Rush’, which had a good story and fine acting. Screenwriter Peter Morgan was friends with Niki Lauda and the screeplay was realistic (as much as a Hollywood screenplay can be). Ron Howard did his his usual good job directing.
Ford vs Ferrari is on my list...
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Yuppers!
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