This past weekend was the 92nd annual running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the No. 50 Ferrari squad of Molina, Fuoco and Danish driver Nicklas Nielsen took the win. Watching the real-life battles between Porsches and Ferraris made our decision to review Steve McQueen’s classic 1971 film ‘Le Mans’ an easy one for this week’s Fast Film Friday.
As far back as 1965, big-time movie star (and sometimes racing driver) Steve McQueen had a passion project in mind; to make a movie about a day in the life of a driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The concept was to make a movie with minimal plot, hardly any dialog, and just allow the story to unfold like a documentary. McQueen himself owned a Porsche 908 K race car and his plan was to enter it into the 1970 race with three movie cameras mounted on the car, like a National Geographic documentary about gorillas. Capture the racing action as no one had before; from within the race itself. This would allow audiences see and hear the machines and the circuit in a way no movie had ever managed before.
Riding high on the box-office success of his movies like ‘The Thomas Crown Affair‘ McQueen got a green light for his project, and his company Solar Productions set up shop within the Le Mans paddock.
Despite the compromised aerodynamics of the Porsche due to a massive camera on the hood (and two more on the rear fenders) the camera car driven by Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams actually completed 282 laps of the race and finished 9th overall. It would have been an even better finish if they didn’t have to stop so many times to change film rolls
Unfortunately, the movie shoot didn’t go as smoothly as the actual race. Months behind schedule, the movie ballooned over budget. McQueen lost creative control of his personal project and the Hollywood execs took over. The studio attempted to salvage the film by giving it a plot.
The flawed film that resulted focuses on McQueen’s romantic interest in the widow of a racing rival he accidentally killed the year before. They talk about life and love (hey…this sounds like ‘Bobby Deerfield‘) and McQueen has second thoughts about racing since he just crashed out of the race again this year.
But as he’s packing up his racing gear a plot twist sets up the third act. The team boss tells McQueen to get into the team’s other car and win the race. It’s just like Cruz Ramirez and Lightning McQueen in ‘Cars 3‘! That final act has McQueen is chasing down the Ferrari 512s in his Porsche 917. All the drama, suspense and action the ‘romantic’ middle part of the movie lacked is suddenly splashed across the screen. The camera work alone set a new high-point that Hollywood action movies would spend years trying to top.
The only truly bad part of the movie is that unlike in real life, the Ferrari loses to the Porsche. That’s Hollywood!
I’ve not seen this Steve McQueen movie but I do have Ferrari (2023) on my watchlist. Maybe that’s because you reviewed it, but I don’t remember for sure. Love the connection between this and Cars (or did you say Cars 3), a fine, fine Pixar film.
Yeah, you remember the end of Cars 3?
.
Lightning McQueen is past his prime, but he’s given the chance to continue racing ONLY if he beats the competition at the Florida 500.
.
He’s trying his best, but then gives up his spot in the race to his young protégé Cruz Ramirez.
.
There’s a movie moment when Steve McQueen replaces another driver in Le Mans to go for the win. Like passing a baton, I guess.
i bet Cars3 was giving a nod to ol steve there.
Well, why not? Lightning is Steve’s illegitimate half-brother’s grandson, right?
The behind-scenes of this movie can be as exciting as the movie itself. All the groundbreaking techniques used to get some of the shots are amazing from a time with no CGI whatsoever.
100% right, sit. Blown budgets, ruined marriages, bankrupted companies, driver injuries and a movie star who wouldn’t come to the premier of the film because he was so missed at what ‘they’ did to his passion project.
.
In a way, it’s surprising that Le Mans even got made!
It sounds like the movie faced a rough ride from start to finish. Production delays, budget overruns, and losing creative control must have been tough for McQueen. The storyline about his romantic involvement with a racing rival’s widow seems like an attempt to salvage things, but it sounds like it might not have hit the mark.
I can only guess that for Steve McQueen, a two-hour movie with zero dialog and all onboard racing action shots would have been just perfect.
.
But show business is still a business, and the studio had to make money on the project. Creating characters with personal lives gives the audience reason to care.
.
You’re right…probably didn’t hit the mark. But still one of the greatest racing movies of all time.