Revolutionary Reels: GRAND PRIX (1966)

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Imagine yourself as a Formula One enthusiast in the 1960s. Your enjoyment of the sport would be limited to black-and-white broadcasts on square televisions, blurry photos in newspapers, and if you could save up $20 you’d be able to watch a race live, once a year. And you’d really only get to see one portion of the track.

Now imagine you walk into your local theatre the night ‘Grand Prix‘ was released. All of a sudden you’re transported into the world of Formula One in Cinerama widescreen and full colour. The race cars are presented on screen at angles previously thought impossible. From the bird-eye-view over Casino Square at Monaco, through the Ardennes countryside at Spa Francorchamps, and atop the banking of Monza. Better yet, the film transported you into the driver’s seat, or right into the nosecone of the car as it flew down tracks at nearly 200 mph. What today would be considered standard aspects of a filmmaking were revolutionary, never before seen shots in 1966.

Today, the brilliance of ‘Grand Prix‘ isn’t diminished. The film serves as a time capsule of Formula One’s golden age, taking the viewer on the tracks, which are now now decommissioned or even demolished, Add in the 1960s era safety standards – hay bales and Armco – plus spectators only a step away from the live circuit. We get to watch the fictional drivers in very real Ferraris and BRM cars of the time, amidst the full-fields populated by legends of the sport. Drivers like Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Bruce McLaren, Jackie Stewart, and John Surtees can be seen on track, and milling about the paddock. Juan Manuel Fangio attends a party with Jean Pierre Sarti, one of the film’s protagonists. For modern fans of the sport, there is no better way to experience 1960s era Formula One than by watching ‘Grand Prix‘.

It’s been said that the plot is not as good as the action in ‘Grand Prix‘ but that’s not saying much considering how incredible the racing scenes and cinematography are. The film follows the lives of four drivers, fighting each other for the title.

• We have Jean Pierre Sarti the aging champion at Ferrari who has grown disillusioned with the sport, but is still consumed by it.
  
• American Pete Aron, dumped by BRM for a crash with his teammate, he is tasked with bringing the title to the new Japanese tam, Yamura.
  
• Scott Stoddard, whom Aron sends into a fiery wreck in the opening race at Monaco, struggles to recover from his injuries and deal with his unfaithful wife who leaves him for another driver.
  
• Finally, there is Nino Barlini the carefree young driver for Ferrari who spends less time pondering life and risk than his mature teammate, and more time cruising around in pedalboats with his girlfriend, played by the French singer Francoise Hardy.

What’s interesting is that there are four protagonists; there is no enemy. The film is not interested in shallow, one-dimensional stories like in ‘Driven‘ but rather, showing the real lives and conflicts of these drivers, who face death every time they get in the car.

The realism of this film is what sets it apart from other racing movies. ‘Ford V Ferrari‘ (2019), ‘Rush‘ (2013), and ‘Ferrari‘ (2023) are impressive in their own right, but they’re period pieces, presenting a fictionalized version reconstructed from memories and photographs. ‘Grand Prix‘ is right there, filmed during the 1965 Formula One season. We see all the little forgotten bits of this period, like the race fans climbing up the billboards to get a better view of the circuit, the farmer milking his cows in the fields next to the track at at Spa, and the terrible fire marshals at Brands Hatch!

While other racing movies might have had the benefit of modern computer graphic technology, there still hasn’t been a shot that matches the pure thrill of the BRM speeding along the straight at Monza into the high banked corners.

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