Grand Prix (1966)

Tom · Post 20 Dec 2006, 19:00

I'm sure this movie has come up before but I just saw it for the first time this week and it is amazing. I was expecting a 'Talladega nights' style film where the directors knew nothing about racing, however this is incredable. Within the first 15 mins we have a car in the harbour at Monaco!

Here's a clip I found. It gives away the ending so if you haven't seen the film avoid watching the end of this clip (7mins 30 onwards).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bytlc-cpsWo

The cars are fantastic, so are the camera angles, and the accents of the drivers are brilliant.

ketanpaul · Post 20 Dec 2006, 19:19

I know man, its an awesome movie

extremely realistic and so well done, never seen a racing movie like it. The way it also captures some of the personal stuff like the reality of not returning home after a race etc......its simply awesome

DaveKillens · Post 20 Dec 2006, 19:48

The movie "Grand Prix", by John Frankenheimer is definitely one of my personal favorites. It's a brilliant film about racing, the lives of the racers, and captures the atmosphere of that era of racing.

p.s. if youl ike that, I also recommend "LeMans".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067334/

Spyker MF1 · Post 20 Dec 2006, 19:55

I haven't seen "Grand Prix" but only ever heard good reviews of it. And like Dave said Le Mans is also a brilliant film and is also very realistic. I can't remember the main actor (Steve McQueen or McQueen is his last name I think) did all his own driving and stunts in the film as well

Tom · Post 20 Dec 2006, 20:38

I haven't seen Le Mans but it's on my list.

Steve McQueen starred in the film which presumably lasts 24 hours, and much of it was filmed at Bob Boundrant's racing school, with the man himself providing the lessons. He appears at some point in the film too where he is overtaken down Mulsanne straight.He was in a far inferior car to McQeen and was told that he needn't back off because the actor would overtake him easily. Many takes later he was told that he would indeed have to back off considerably as the film crew couldn't anticipate how fast Bob could be in this 'slow' car.

monkeyboy1976 · Post 21 Dec 2006, 10:24

Here is a list of the must have movies:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Driving-Racing- ... 78-6989507
Bit too late for Santa now though I think!

DaveKillens · Post 21 Dec 2006, 15:58

They all involve fast cars, but some have very little with racing. Personally, to capture the excitement and essence of racing, I suggest "Grand Prix", Lemans", and "On Any Sunday".

manchild · Post 21 Dec 2006, 18:11

I'd also recommend "Un homme et une femme" from 1966 (A Man and a Woman)

Even if you don't like the film you'll like the music and the cars

Contains shots from Monte Carlo rally, 24h Le mans and testing.

reviews and info:

http://www.caradisiac.com/php/actu_enq/ ... elouch.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_and_a_Woman

G-Rock · Post 22 Dec 2006, 17:27

You've got to see Talledega Nights. It's a parody of all of the above mentioned racing movies. The producers may not know much about racing but they sure did their research on racing flicks.
You can see touches of Lemans, characters from Grand Prix (albeit a gay version of the french guy in Grand Prix, played by Sasha Cohen)
Also lot's of witty stereotyping of autoracing in general which leads me to this question. Has there ever been a homosexual in F1?

DaveKillens · Post 22 Dec 2006, 17:47

Probably. Statistical averages tell us that over such a large base, there should have been a few with sexual ambivalence. But then again, they probably did/do have them in NASCAR too. In all fairness, probably everywhere.

Tom · Post 22 Dec 2006, 20:29

There have been many gay personalities in F1, just look for the subliminal messaging in the 'caption competition' topic.

P1 · Post 24 Dec 2006, 14:29

I just tried to watch Grand Prix a few hours ago. The cinematography of the race events was superb. You really got the feeling of actually being there. The off-track parts of the movie I found boring. After a while I quit really paying attention to those parts, and just started waiting for some more racing action. It's a pity that a movie that captures the spirit of racing so well has such an underwhelming script.

Interesting side notes I came across watching "The Making of" part that was on Speed Channel:

Frankenheimer, and more importantly, the race instructer for the film (whose name eludes me at the moment) both said that they belived that James Garner could have made it as a race driver had he applied himself to that field.

One of the guys was such a bad driver (which one I forget now), they had to use a double for him for the racing parts. They said he couldn't even change gears well.

The cars they used for the film were actually Formula 3 cars modified to look like the real thing. They believed Garner was the only one capable of driving a real, fully-powered F1 car.

Garner went through two insurance companies during the making the film. Towards the end he had no insurance at all. No one would cover him.

I know this is mostly Garner-centric stuff, but that's because the special had him talking most of the time.

Tom · Post 24 Dec 2006, 21:06

I thought there was something funny looking about those Ferrari, I wondered if alot of the footage was actually taken from GPs, apparently not, must have cost a hell of a lot.

P1 · Post 25 Dec 2006, 07:58

Tom wrote:I thought there was something funny looking about those Ferrari, I wondered if alot of the footage was actually taken from GPs, apparently not, must have cost a hell of a lot.

Yeah, none of the footage was stock, it was all the actors, plus that one double for the crappy driver. I think they said they only got 15 minutes to film the race at Monaco in the beginning of the movie, and that was right before the real race. Frankenheimer said that the movie cost 9 million to make back then. He estimated that if you tried to make the same movie today it would cost around 220 million. But he doubted it would even be possible to make a sequel now. He said that at Spa they had a helicopter flying 10 feet above the cars to get a good shot. It's unlikely today's spoiled actors would ever work under such conditions, or that studios would even let them.

I would like to see an F1 documentary based on one entire season, with camera work like Grand Prix. They already have cameras in the cars, so it wouldn't take any new technology.