can't wait to see this movie!

for sure this ain't no Fast and Furious! leave that to the tiesto swedish mafia mickey mouse hat fan boys.

 

it helped me that i was a teen in england in the 70's before leaving.

 

Saw "Rush" and liked it a lot. The medical scenes were a little hard to take and it could have used more racing footage.

I also like "Grand Prix" (1966) which features a lot of good race footage from cameras mounted on race cars running with real cars on the real Grand Prix circuit tracks. You even see some heel-to-toe foot work. Comes with boy-meets-girl plot and nice music.

I also like "Le Mans" (1971) also with a lot of great footage with cameras mounted on the real race cars on the real Le Mans track. This movie is largely unencumbered by a plot and mostly follows the race. Loved that 914 tooling around in the background for the whole race.

I would not say I like Rush better than either of these.

All three deal with safety but Le Mans was less focused on that and more on the race.

Good stuff.

 

Great movie for its day, in '66 it was the first movie to attempt realistic track footage. It's a must-see for race fans. Director John Frankenheimer was one of the first to come out of a TV background to helm action movies. What he did with camera placement on the cars and the visual montage set the tone of all racing movies since. If you realize most big racing movies prior to "Grand Prix" were based on undercranked (producing artificially fast motion) camera work and rear-screen projection backgrounds. Frankenheimer's realism, shooting modified F1 cars (with F3 engines) on track, intercut with real race footage, was definitely groundbreaking. Now what passed for a plot was largely an awkward soap opera, but race fans generally ignore it.

Without much attempt at a script, "Le Mans" is more of a dramatic documentary of a single race that features even more on-track footage than Frankenheimer's film. Under the guidance of Lee H. Katzin, who came from a background similar to that of Frankenheimer, the gritty realism of a 24-hour contest becomes the film. Steve McQueen was originally to appear in "Grand Prix", but had difficulties with the producer, Edward Lewis, and backed away - much to his later regret. Five years later he would make "Le Mans".

While "Grand Prix" is probably the flashier of the films, "Le Mans" is probably more appealing to fans of the sport. McQueen at his sullen best here, but clearly the cars - the Ferarri 512LMs and particularly the Gulf Porsche 917's are the stars.

Buy the DVDs, and a HT audio system if you don't already have one. Shut the windows and lock the doors - prepare for an ear-bleeding experience . . . .