Le Mans (film)
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| Le Mans | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster | |
| Directed by | Lee H. Katzin |
| Written by | Harry Kleiner |
| Produced by | Jack N. Reddish |
| Starring | Steve McQueen |
| Cinematography | René Guissart Jr. Robert B. Hauser |
| Edited by | Ghislaine Desjonquères Donald W. Ernst John Woodcock |
| Music by | Michel Legrand |
| Distributed by | National General Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | Template:Film US |
| Language | English |
Le Mans is a 1971 action film directed by Lee H. Katzin. Starring Steve McQueen, it features footage from the actual 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race.
The film is today still popular among race fans as it is a relatively accurate depiction of the era, with a lot of racing but very little dialogue (Indeed, there is no dialogue whatsoever until approximately 35 minutes into the film). Due to this, and partly to the American market's general low awareness of the Le Mans 24 Hour race, it was only a moderate success at the box office there. It followed in the wake of the similar 1966 film Grand Prix.
Story
There is very little plot; the movie entertains primarily by the sight and sound of Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s, iconic racing cars with lots of visual and audio appeal to racing enthusiasts. There are, however, some elementary plot devices. The race itself is a fierce competition between the Porsche and Ferrari teams. Since it is a 24-hour race and the cars must have at least two alternating drivers, there is time for the resting drivers to have some human interaction. The main character, Michael Delaney (McQueen) has a strong rivalry with Ferrari team driver Erich Stahler. Delaney was involved in an accident the previous year at Le Mans, an accident in which a driver named Piero Belgetti was killed.
Early in the movie Delaney spots Belgetti's widow Lisa (Elga Andersen) buying flowers, and drives his 1970 Porsche 911S [1] to the scene of the accident and has a flashback. An interesting film technique is used at the start of the flashback. Perfectly round circles of perfectly white light do a jerky dance against a perfectly black background to the sound of 12 cylinder engines straining at high rpm's, slowly blending into a real scene with real darkness and headlights and cars winding their way toward Maison Blanche, and the viewer. This demonstrates that Le Mans is not a fair weather or daytime-only event. Belgetti, while slightly ahead of Delaney, seems to have lost control of his red Ferrari due to going too fast through this area. Delaney in his white Porsche suffers a lesser crash an instant later caused either by the distraction or having to avoid the wreck. Lisa Belgetti however may think that Delaney is to blame.
Lisa is at the race because of her new relationship with a driver named Claude Aurac, although it appears they are friends, rather than romantically linked.
The plot develops in the thirteenth hour of the race, just after 5 a.m. on Sunday morning. Erich Stahler spins his Ferrari at Indianapolis Corner, causing his Ferrari teammate Claude Aurac to veer off the track in a major accident. Delaney is distracted by the flames of Aurac's car and suffers an accident of his own. He tries to avoid a slower car and collides with the crash barrier, writing off his Porsche. It is announced that Porsche number 20 and Ferrari number 7 have been involved in an accident. Although these are separate accidents, they were so close in time and place that it appears to the spectators, the pit crews and notably Lisa Belgetti, that the accidents are linked. Delaney and Aurac survive, but Aurac's injuries are far worse. In the hospital after the crashes, Delaney consoles Lisa Belgetti and rescues her from a hoard of reporters. After he puts her in a waiting car, a journalist asks Delaney whether the his and Aurac's accident can be compared to the one with Belgetti in the previous year's race. Delaney stares the journalist down and does not respond.
A subplot involves Johann Ritter and his beautiful wife Anna. He senses that she would like for him to stop racing and take up other employment. He suggests it, thinking she will be overjoyed. She demurs and says she would like it only if he likes it. He chides her a bit about not being entirely honest. Later the decision is taken out of his hands when the team manager replaces him for not being "quick enough." Anna tries to comfort him, reminding him that he was planning to quit anyway.
Meanwhile, Lisa Belgetti is strangely drawn to Delaney. She seems to want him to quit racing because of the danger, but he finds the thrill is too addictive. During their conversation, the Porsche team's boss enters and asks Delaney to take over driving Ritter's car. He agrees without hesitation.
In the closing minutes of the race two Porsches and two Ferraris closely compete The Porsches are driven by Delaney (now in car #21) and Larry Wilson (#22). One of the Ferraris, leading the race, suffers a flat tyre and is out of the race, leaving just one Ferrari driven by Delaney's arch rival Stahler (#8). Wilson is in the lead, but Stahler and then Delany quickly catch up. Delany passes Stahler for second place.
Delaney, on the right, sees slower traffic ahead in his lane and must slow down, letting Stahler pass him, and then follow Stahler in the left lane around the slower car. Then they both catch Wilson. Delaney could remain in the left lane to follow Stahler around Wilson and then try to pass Stahler, but he wants to gain both the top two positions for Porsche rather than winning himself.
Instead of remaining in the left lane, Delaney switches to the right lane immediately behind Wilson's bumper and alongside the overtaking Stahler. The drafting maneuver speeds up both Porsches, and they pull away from the Ferrari. During the maneuver, Delaney's Porsche bumps the Ferrari, and Stahler throttles back to avoid spinning out when his car goes partially off the pavement. Delaney then blocks Stahler, forcing him to remain in third position to avoid the guard rail.
Although Delaney does not win the race, he beats arch rival Stahler, and Porsche takes the top two positions, relegating Ferrari to third.
Quotes
The movie's most memorable quote is by Michael Delaney:
A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it... it’s life. Anything that happens before or after... is just waiting.
Some version of this is acknowledged to have first been said by 1950's French racing driver Maurice Trintignant.[citation needed]
Another memorable line was team manager David Townsend's very succinct guidance:
Michael, I want you to drive flat out. I want Porsche to win Le Mans.
Cast
- Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney
- Siegfried Rauch as Erich Stahler
- Elga Andersen as Lisa Belgetti
- Ronald Leigh-Hunt as David Townsend
- Fred Haltiner as Johann Ritter
- Luc Merenda as Claude Aurac
- Christopher Waite as Larry Wilson
- Louise Edlind as Mrs. Anna Ritter
- Angelo Infanti as Lugo Abratte
- Jean-Claude Bercq as Paul-Jacques Dion
- Michele Scalera as Vito Scaliso
- Gino Cassani as Loretto Fuselli
- Alfred Bell as Tommy Hopkins
- Carlo Cecchi as Paolo Scadenza
Production
Main parts of the film were shot on the circuit during the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans race. McQueen had intended to actually race a Porsche 917 together with Jackie Stewart, but the #26 entry was not accepted. Instead, in the movie, he was shown starting the race on the blue #20 Gulf-Porsche 917K, which in the real race was driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman. The race-leading white #25 Porsche 917 "Long tail" was piloted by Vic Elford/Kurt Ahrens, Jr..
The Porsche 908/2 which McQueen had previously co-driven to a second place in the 12 Hours of Sebring was entered by Solar Productions to compete in the race, equipped with heavy movie cameras providing actual racing footage from the track. This #49 camera car, which can be briefly seen in the starting grid covered with a black sheet (at approximately 17:51) and again at just before the 79 minute-mark (at 1:18:42) racing past the starting line, was driven by Porsche's Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams. It travelled 282 laps (3,798 km) and finished the race in 9th position <http://www.formula2.net/1970.htm>, but it was not classified as it had not covered the required minimum distance due to the stops to change film reels. It did, however, manage to finish 2nd in the P3.0 class.
Additional footage was shot after the race using genuine racing cars of the day, mainly Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 models, painted like the real competitors which staged the main rivalry in the 1970 season and the film. According to the rules, 25 of each sports car had to be built, so enough were available, compared to few if any of the prototype class. In the crash scenes, cheaper Lola T70 chassis were sacrificed, disguised with bodywork of the Porsche and Ferrari.
The Porsche 917 which McQueen drove (chassis 022) would later be sold to a privateer for its last competitive year driven regularly by Reinhold Joest and Willi Kauhsen, before later being sold to race driver and film participant Brian Redman.[2] Redman then sold it to Richard Attwood, the 1970 winner and another film participant, who referred to it as "his pension". Attwood then resprayed it to his 1970 winning color of red with white stripes as well attending numerous shows with it. He later sprayed it to the Gulf colors for promotional purposes and auctioned the car off at RM Auctions during the Monterey Historics weekend for less than £1 million in 2000 to Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler, a noted collector. Chandler then sold the car to Bruce McCaw, and it was maintained at Vintage Racing Motors in Redmond, WA. Later, it was moved on to the hands of its current owner, Jerry Seinfeld.
The "Michael Delaney" racing overalls used by Steve McQueen in the film were acquired by an English Sunday newspaper[who?] shortly after the film and offered as a prize in a competition. The prize was won by a school boy. These are now available at a Toronto gallery, www.CollectorStudio.com.[citation needed]
Legacy
Despite the film's lack of success, the film now has a large cult following as it is considered difficult to replicate realistic racing scenes with the use of CGI and without an over-dependency on stunt doubles. Also the film tends to be used as a referencing point by motorsport and car media, when referring to the race itself. For example, at the time of the film’s release, a pitwall was added for the safety of pit crews as other circuits already had similar set-ups. Although the pit lane has been commonly used as a referencing point in the film, it was unpopular with both drivers and pit personnel for being cramped as well as difficult to get cars in and out of the pits, even when repairs were needed. It wasn't until following the 1990 race that the outdated pit lane was demolished in favor of a modern complex which is still in use today. In addition, the 1970 race was the first in which the famous Le Mans "running start", in which the drivers lined up against the pit wall and ran to their cars as the flag was dropped, was not used. Instead, the race started with the drivers already strapped into the cars. The previous year, Jacky Ickx had made his famous protest against the danger of the traditional start by waiting for all of the other drivers to run to their cars and start the race, before walking to his car and fastening his seat belt carefully before joining the fray and eventually winning the race with co-driver Jackie Oliver.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the wristwatch McQueen wore in the film as well as promoting the reissued edition and the LS, TAG Heuer released a viral video utilizing clips of the film titled "The Duel". Aside McQueen's dialogue being entirely replaced by a voiceover, a number of the following clips of the film were used as well that Delaney's rival Stahler was replaced by Lewis Hamilton: The scenes used are when Delaney encounters Stahler in the pit complex following their driving shift, telling him that the press are writing stories to intensify their rivalry; instead Hamilton is seen thanking McQueen for his invitation for their race; the scenes where Delaney and Stahler prepare themselves for the race prior to the start and the race on the final lap battle between Delaney, Stahler's Ferrari and Wilson was replaced by Delaney's Porsche taking on Hamilton's McLaren.[3]
Parallels
The inherent danger is realistic. Racing driver David Piper lost part of his lower leg in a crash during the shooting. The very close finish in the movie is unusual, but not unrealistic. Two years before the movie's release, the 1969 race was decided by just a few hundred yards.
The conclusion of the race in the movie is similar to races of the period. The 1969 Le Mans race was decided by a few hundred feet, the closest unstaged finish in race history. In the 1970 Sebring 12-hour race, McQueen himself and partner Peter Revson were relegated to second place after Mario Andretti took over the car of Nino Vaccarella/Ignazio Giunti.
The temperamental Latin style of the Ferrari team manager and the reserved Anglo style of the British team manager for Gulf Porsche reflect the image of the real teams. The movie's Gulf Porsche manager, David Townsend, is similar to real Gulf Oil team manager John Wyer.
Gulf and Wyer won Le Mans twice with Ford GT40s, and Gulf won once more with its Cosworth-powered Mirage car, but Gulf and Wyer never won Le Mans with Porsche.
See also
References
- ^ "car of the day". Carsinpedia.com. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
- ^ "Porsche 917-022". 962.com. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
- ^ “”. "Steve Mc Queen v/s Lewis Hamilton | TAG Heuer Monaco LS". YouTube. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
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