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
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.
There was a *great* story here. It just wasn’t made into this film. It took another 45 years to make “Ford vs Ferrari.”
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.
Killed by asbestos.
“pleural mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure for which there is no known cure.”
Though a lot of speculation attributes its to his racing uniform and face cloth, he personally thought it was from removing pipe insulation aboard US Navy ships.
The single best auto racing movie every made. Simply brilliant. The cars are the characters. It does come off as a documentary and it is true there is no plot. Sturgis did walk off the production because it seemed a mess with no plot.
Yet I rewatch LeMans at least once a year, if not twice a year. It is like being at the race. It covers all aspects and makes you feel like you are in the pits with the team.
The movie flies by like nothing. One hallmark of great movies is that they seem brief. You are so caught up in the movie, suddenly it is ending and you can’t believe you have watched an entire movie. That is “LeMans”.
People knock it for having no plot, but they completely miss the point. The cars are the characters and the movie is just brilliant and has held up fantastically over itme. Grand Prix is weak by comparison.
In my college Freshman year, before the McQueen movie, the guy across the hall from me had a LP vinyl record of the sounds of Le Mans.
The entire record - about 40 minutes - was just race car sounds, from microphones placed all around the track.
We got stoned a couple times and sat around listening to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Coincidentally, I just rewatched “LeMans” last weekend. Just as great a movie as the first time I ever saw it. It holds up wonderfully over time, or maybe it just gets better every time I rewatch it.
I went to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1973, but left around dawn when it got to raining pretty hard. Never have seen the movie.
I believe the camera car was a Ford GT40 it can be seen in the early scenes in traffic entering the parking area. The Porsche 908 is leading the race early on and then is retired.
I haven't seen Grand Prix, but I expect James Garner to be more talkative, more of a character in a plot, and Steve McQueen to be less talkative and more of a brooding presence. I don't know how much Yves Montand I can take, though.