I went to Le Mans when I was stationed in the Army in Germany. If you're a car guy, you will never forget the atmosphere, the crowd, the carnival of the place. I can still see in my mind the glowing red hot brakes of the Cobras trying desperately to slow down. And then, the explosion coming out of a turn. The locals were shocked at the level of brute force sound of Shelby's masterpiece. Ah, the memories of an old man.
I’m with you ‘old man’, cuz I’m an OLD MAN too. When the world goes electric, we will lose the incredible sound associated with high revving ICE’s. Absolutely heart thumping pleasure. As a young man I went to races at Goodwood, Ontario back before the UOP SHADOW days. Back then you could get pretty close to the action. The atmosphere was ‘electric’, IRONICALLY…
When I had dinner with Carroll Shelby after I won his driving championship and the food came, the table got quiet. So, I asked him a question that's bugged me since the '70s: "Hey Carroll, which do you think was better? The big-block or small-block Cobra?" He replied, "The big bock was a BASTARD of a car! Go like hell in a straight line, but that's about it. The small-block was a MUCH better car." I said, "Thought so." Rumor has it that before he went to AC, he went to Brian Lister to convert the Knobblys. But, when Brian Lister asked how many he expected to sell, Brian told him he couldn't possibly produce that many; hence, we got the AC Cobras. Now, Mr. Lister is making the aluminum Knobblys again since Mr. Chuck Beck sold so many of the replicas, he saw the demand was still there...I currently own Beck's #007, the first of only 2 lightweight racers.
...must have been a long time ago... today, the cars are boreing and ugly... more people come to the "Le Mans Classic" than to the real race... the "millionaire's parade" is more popular than the actual race.
I saw this movie at the theater with my dad when I was 9, and I left as a life-long Porsche enthusiast. I started my subscription to Road & Track then and knew all the specs of the 911's from all the reviews. I was able to club race a Porsche for 20 years, and my current street Porsche is a 991.2 GT3 (with a rear muffler bypass of course for that Cup Car sound!), and it all started because of this movie way back then
I watched the Woodstock movie😅 with m'y brother and I still play electric guitar in 1968 lol....I also saw the 1973 french F1 GP with pescarolo Jackie Stuart François cevert Emerson fitipaldi jack Brabham etc...
Road & Track In the John Bond Era . It was the best car magazine in the business. I used to walk up to a local newsagncy every 4 weeks waiting for it to come in . 70cents it cost me. The local magazines about 30 cents I lived in Melbourne Australia.
@@bmw128racer But the filming! It was real art 🤩 The way they had the cameras mounted to the cars so they could pan from the actor to forward view… Groundbreaking real action footage with real actors behind the wheel. Obviously not taking anything away from McQueen, but James Garner was a real racecar driver in his own right as well… Big respect 🫡
@@GordonScottYankeeEngineer - Grand Prix was an epic document, and the watershed film about car racing. Just the effort to get Il Commentadore to sign on is worth a read. These two films together revolutionized film making about auto racing, and paved the way for lesser films such as 'Winning' - Paul Newman, 'Heart Like a Wheel' - Bonnie Bedelia, etc.
The film's producers even got the first lap's timing right, at a bit over three and a half minutes. It's those little details which add to the film! And I always enjoy that tweeting bird atop the Mulsanne's Armco barrier.
The Porsche 917 is one of the most beautiful vehicles ever built, and a real engineering marvel. Love this movie! I also just noticed after all these years that McQueen’s arch rival driver also portrayed a German army intelligence officer in the movie, “Patton”.
Steve McQueen and my father will forever be the reason I got into cars. I watched Bullitt for the first time when I was 8 with my dad (mind you, I'm only 31, my dad just has great taste in all things film-related). Not realizing what a monster he had created, he showed me this film as well as every other car-related movie he could come up with. Over 20 years later, I have a 1973 Mustang Mach 1 that is anything but stock, still frequently search for old cars anywhere I find myself in, and still regularly watch Mecum and Barrett-Jackson with my dad when he and I get together. An expensive hobby, but there is no replacement for it.
One of the greatest scenes EVER >>>> Saw it on the BIG screen back in the day ... When I left the theater it had been raining .. You should have seen the people leaving the parking lot !!!!!
First time watching this movie was on the roof of our house watching the drive-in on the other side of the interstate highway. Dad and I sat up there watching these incredible racing scenes in silence. Didn't matter.
When Le Mans went to a rolling start they took away one of the great moments in racing. Watching the cars approach the start line doesn't come close to matching the tension of the silence leading up to the flag drop.
Running to the cars was a bit hazardous. Some drivers would put their belts on _after_ starting down the track. Having them in the cars, engines off, at the flag drop is fine. After all, *starting* the car is part of racing.
Our English housekeeper took me to see it when I was 8, because her son was a racer for Sterling Moss, and I became obsessed with it, begging to see it whenever I saw it on a theater marquis. When I found it on DVD, I ran it on Loop for about 2 weeks... until my player burned out.
I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out. It was fantastic stuff. I haven’t seen a clip from this movie in years and it stands the test of time. The rawness of the race and the daring of the spectators and marshals standing so close to the action risking their own lives with nonchalance is a time capsule never to be replicated! I was a Steve McQueen fan from here on out. The coolest actor who ever lived!
I agree, but Paul Newman gives him a pretty good run for his money. And was an actual LeMans podium racer in 1979. I'd have loved to see the two actually drive against each other, no movie, just the track and two legends.
McQueen made a racing masterpiece with this classic film, he probably never realised it at the time though. Fifty years later has proved he was way ahead of the game 👍
Glad I bought Le Mans on Blu-ray several years ago. I'm probably will watch it again after Memorial Day weekend races (Indy 500, Monaco, and Coke 600).
The way they filmed the start of that, with absolutely NO SOUND, was brilliant! It's the LOUDEST SILENCE ever, capturing the intensity and concentration of the drivers. It also amplifies the sound of the cars once they start.
I attended several Grad Prix races in Europe in the late 60's and early 70's, and all that was missing from the Le Mans race movie was the smell of the racing cars thrown in. There's nothing quite like it.
I was at this race, it was amazing....They used a 908 Porsche during the race as a camera car to get some of the actual footage...we could actually walk thru the woods to the Mulsanne straight and stand just feet away from the track. The sound was amazing !!
@@johnharris6655 right, isn't that crazy. If they hadn't have to stop to change film, they could have done better. But if it wasn't an official entry, how did they even allow it on the track?
I was sixteen watching this movie in the theater. Great movie, but the best part was leaving the theater and so many cars burning rubber getting out of parked lot. That was great
Same here. It made me a sports car, road racing, and endurance racing fan all at once. It's STILL one of the best racing movies ever! I saw my first 24 hour endurance race in person at the Nelson Ledges Road Course (Ohio, USA) in 1983. It was "The Longest Day of Nelson" 24 hour SCCA showroom stock race. It's not LeMans, but it was lots of fun, and I went back four times after that.
I found this to be true when I was road racing. " But WHY is it so important to go faster than anyone else?" " It's important to those that do it well. Racing is life! Anything before, or after...is just waiting". I won the local Division 1 GTP championship by winning every race but one. And sneezed a motor that time.
I was 6 yrs old when this movie came out, and it change my life. I started racing mini moto-cross and carts shortly after and graduated to racing a 1972 Datsun 510 in SoCal SCCA B Sedan auto-cross. It was a complete blast. I still have a 510 in my garage today.
@@spikespa5208No, not driven much these days because I lost my vision, but my brother and I take it out a few times a year. Here's a car review channel that did a vid of it a few years ago. ua-cam.com/video/GZtp6PiFlTI/v-deo.html
Damn, I'm going to have to re-watch this movie! I forgot how good it is. As a child of the seventies, i grew up with a poster of the three 917 short tail cars running 1, 2, 3, in the rain above my bed. I also wanted to BE one of the guys driving this level of mayhem. Although I've made a living driving race cars a couple of brief periods of my life, I've never got to this level.
@@greatloverofmusic1 No that came much later as i recall, and that chikane it is a insult to me. late 80ties i think it was. In the 60ties the Mulsanne ended in a scary R turn, with a little gravel and a few feet tall earth embankment, where men found glory or death. Before that in the really old days. OMG the grim reaper was hanging out there. I simply can not respect race drivers of today, such pampered boys, that drive a little faster than men did in the good old days, with no seat belt and a flappy leather helmet and motor goggles.
I saw this movie as a car mad kid (about 10yo) and while i enjoyed it, I didn't understand it. The race start and the crash scenes left me bewildered. I went on to race in a couple of different motorsports. I stumbled across it late one night and couldn't resist watching it all these years later. I was dumbfounded by it ,i fully understood those scenes because i had experienced similar. I now consider it a masterpiece that sadly probably isnt fully understood by the majority of film buffs.
I first saw the movie at a drive-in movie theater when it first came out and about 4 times in theaters in the late 1970s. In 1982 I traveled to Europe and spent 1 day traveling to Le Mans. No race but a drivers school was in progress and I got a instructor to drive me around the the short Bugatti Course. Fantastic experience!!!! All thanks to the movie!!!😊😊😊❤❤
Also saw it 1st time at a drive-in, age 19. The scary part was how folks drove coming out of the drive-in and heading for the freeway, A straight 1 1/2 miles away.
"Racing is a blood sport,its life ,anything before and after is just waiting"Steve McQueen. I remember my order sister taking me this movie 1970ish when it came out about 8 years old,i loved it,i also remember people walking out of the theater.i whent straight home after the movie too play with my hot wheels cars.LOL🤣
There was a famous Key Grip that mounted the cameras. Forgetting his name presently. And they spent time with remote cameras too. It was ahead of its time.
Not to argue, but Frankenheimer's Grand Prix is easily its equal. Extensive footage of 4 of the actual '66 season's races (Monaco, Spa, Clermont (?), and Monza - with the banks), footage inside Ferrari's Maranello workshop, bit parts by Graham Hill and many of the season's drivers as extras, and (like in Le Mans) a plot derived from the events of the season.
Grand Prix is also a classic, with Jackie Stewart racing Jim Rockford. Another film with good racing sequences is Checkpoint (1956) with Anthony Steel driving some classic cars, and John Wyer (who was really instrumental in making both the Ford GT40 and the 917 winners) as advisor. One overlooked scene of Le Mans is Steve-O driving his stock Porsche 911 on the track before the racing starts. They were so dainty and elegant, while they only had 130hp. Today they are muscular monsters that look more like a transgender athlete.
Interesting factoid. This film was originally written by Alan Trustman who at the time was maybe the biggest screenwriter in Hollywood. He had co-written Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair, etc. He didn't want to write the script Steve McQueen wanted, and they had a big falling out. The film had a difficult shoot, with original director John Sturges basically fired. McQueen himself was almost replaced early on by the studio with Robert Redford, but McQueen had enough clout. He wasn't just a top actor, he was a movie star, and a powerful one. So much so, after McQueen's frustration with Trustman, poor Trustman barely worked again in the business. Iroically, his replacement, Harry Kleiner (who co-wrote Bullitt with Trustman, as well as other top films, Fantastic Voyage, etc.) took a lot of blame for the film's weak story, and his career quickly sank to the bottom as well. He had one TV script that was already sold (about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg), then a long, long time in the cold, sixteen years exactly, seven years after McQueen had died, before he sold another script (Extreme Prejiduce, starring Nick Nolte). The maddening part is that while the love story and McQueen's character aren't very good, this is a unique, interesting film, impeccably shot, with it's place in history well received. Crazy business.
The most iconic scene that synthetize the motorsport of that period ( and what motorsport should be) is when the mother covers the ears of her little daughter from engines roaring. Masterpiece movie !
Actual ambiance of cars / footage / sounds of 24 LM race + a bit of drama = Great movie. Depicts the true character of a 24 LM race, particularly of that era. Terrific prototypes, among my all-time favorites. McQueen's involvement is memorable. 👍
That may be due to the refresh rate of our digital screens, laid on top of the frame rate of the original film plus the digitization that made it possible for us to view it this way. We'd have to see the film as was shown in theaters to know for sure. My distant memory in seeing it as a kid in a theater was that the was no jumping in the images as we see here.
@@olivierstultiens The footage where you can large crowds is from the actual 1970 race. The 'dramatic' clips used real racecars but with 'fake' bodywork to make them look like the various cars.
I think this is the 2nd best racing movie ever made. 1966's Grand Prix I give 1st place due to having more spectacular race footage and just raw racing, like shown here. McQueen's crash scene in this movie is superbly choreographed and edited. With the split real time speed and slow speed you feel the impacts and violence of the crash.
@@blacksquirrel4008 Grand Prix was an epic of racing movies. Over 3 years of filming. They can't replicate that level of racing footage nowadays. Everything CG now
@@geoleo2597 Paul was in the film Winning with wife Joanne Woodward. Definitely worth watching. Paul was also in Mel Brooks "Silent Movie" parodying Winning. The only spoken word in Silent Movie was by mime artist Marcell Marceau.
Aucun film, même récent, n'arrive à la cheville de ce monument ! La descente après la passerelle Dunlop 👌😍 Et puis ces voitures sont tellement belles, si pures dans leurs lignes... Intemporel !
This told a great story without saying a word for the first half of the movie. One of the greatest stories of man and his fight to be the best ever told. Secretly, I was on the edge of my seat for that first half of this movie. My opinion.
I love this movie. I've watched it so many times I lost count. Definitely in my top 10. It's like an ASMR file before there was ASMR. The lack of dialogue in no way detracts from this movie. As McQueen says in the movie, "racing is life. everythig else is just waiting." The film lives by this ethos. And you can't do better than the soundtrack courtesy of the 917.
Like the movie "Grand Prix", I have taken to only watching the racing scenes of these two movies. Brilliant work on the photography side, considering when these two movies were made. And then there's Steve McQueen.
Ford v Ferrari was very disappointing. Proves that CGI can't compete with the real thing. LeMans has the best racing scenes ever filmed and it will probably remain that way..
@@leemorris2127 Just remembered: Initial D (2005) movie had very decent racing scenes for such low budget (and poor acting). And that movie has real filmed scenes too. CGI is the worst thing ever for a race movie.
« Ford vs Ferrari » is a joke. Some beautiful pictures (let’s be honnest) for a Hollywood story, without any respect for historic facts (and some of the people who lived this race and this period and are Still Alive…)
The only true motor racing film, what a feeling it must have been to race on this track, flat out down Mulsanne at 200+ in a proper racing car with no electronic aids, just pure driver skill, feeling everything by the seat of their pants, before it all became sanitised
This short piece of footage is probably the best testimony there is to that era. Within a couple of years, because the Porsche 917s were hitting 250mph on the Mulsanne Straight, the rules were changed to slow them down. Once all of the chicanes were added I lost interest in Le Mans. The Start in the movie was the only year they ever used it. Up until the year before they used the traditional Le Mans start where the drivers ran to their cars. However, there were too many reports of drivers not buckling up on the start and at 200+mph steering with their knee while trying to do so. For safety the 1970 race was a symbolic transition where the drivers were already in their cars and started them when the flag was dropped. The following year they went to the rolling start they've used since. When Steve McQueen decided to make this film he said his goal was to show racing from the inside. I've talked with many people who don't understand this. The thumping noise on the start is exactly what a driver's heart rate does. Having crashed a couple of times in my driving years he has it right with the momentary confusion, spasms, etc. I almost got up and left when people were so ignorant they laughed at the Ferrari driver's "stop-jerk, back & forth" trying to run away from his crash. I'd like to see anyone not do same after a high-speed crash. Steve McQueen was a one of a kind. There will never be another.
Love this movie! I like the 917 as much as the mid/late 60's/1970 LeMans Ford's... I don't hate to say, but I also love the sound of the Mazda 787 LeMans entry. That Wankel screams!
My absolute favourite motor racing film! It still astounds me that, throughout filming, they had no idea of the story! They had the best GT drivers of the day and filmed right around the ACTUAL race!
I love the movie, but I especially love the first lap. The greatest crime in motor racing was removing the curve up to the Dunlop bridge from the start line. And don't let me start about those damn chicanes on the.... 😠
A friend of mine was one of the stunt drivers in this movie, a couple of years later and he got a call from the production company of another car film as S M had put in a good word for him, that film was “The Italian Job”.
Watching the cars pass the pits, with people standing feet away from cars going over 100 mph, very little guard rails or barriers etc on the opposite side of the track, no fencing, in fact very little had changed since the disaster in 1955.......
Thanks so much for this ! My dad took me to see this at Cinerama when it came out. The line I remember most is when Steve asked the beauty, "Do you want to dance? Do you want a drink?" She says "No, I don't dance. No, I don't drink." So Steve asks, "What what do you do?" I think I was just old enough to know where he was going with that! Edit: I think I have this confused with the movie "Gran Prix".
Of course not, but with all due respect, the Ferrari V12 is just over the top. Maybe the Matra V12 and the Rotative Mazda are in the same category. Just go to Le Mans Classic to hear this motors in « real race » conditions and hear them in the « S » after the Dunlop bridge, it’s just magical (of course a D Type Jag’ or a 917 is great too…)
Wonderful !!! There are 3 films that car race lover must see and this one belongs to this very private club. The 2 others being Ford vs Ferrari and Rush. These 3 film all focus on epic duels between car makers or pilots which is the basis of racing :). I do love this one ( I am French and I don t need to read a lot of subtitles :)). Thx for this entry scene even if a little jerky on my screen. I do like at 4:00 the car « parade ». In the film , the car crash is probably one of the best scene ever filmed. Thx for making all these memories go back… I will perhaps review it again :).
« Ford vs Ferrari » is just a historic joke, disrespect for so many greats drivers and actors of this era of racing… but some Nice racing parts. If you don’t care about historic mistakes.
@@alexandreboyenval3140 I don t agrée about the historic joke… this « war » did exist. Of course the scenario is a little caricatural (holywood doesn t know how to avoid it :)) but Ford wanted its victory at Le Mans and put a big amount of dollars on the table and they did it. But still now Ferrari stays the best winner in car racing
@@philmtx3fr They transform a real fact (rivalty between Ford and Ferrari) in a battle between the nice lonesome cowboy and the rest of the world. They have completely forgotten the other cars, the other teams, completely zapped Dennis Hulme, Chris Amon, Jean Guichet, and the other drivers, some of whom have given their lives to this sport, for the very Hollywood pleasure of an Italo-American war (transforming by the way the pure gentleman driver that was Lorenzo Bandini in a kind of caricature of a revengeful troll...). When you love motorsport and this period in particular, it's hard to watch this film "based on real events".
@@alexandreboyenval3140 Ok I think we say more or less the same and Hollywood is not a info channel (and some info channel are not saying the truth either) and they did what they do the best which is telling a good story based on true events… based is important there and doesn’t t mean a realistic history movie :). Nevertheless the film is for me pleasant to see even if the world described seems a little manichean…
My parents took me to this release. I watched but didn't really understand what I was seeing. The same with The Blue Max for example. Once I was old enough and these childhood memories could be explored again at home, I was finally able to really enjoy them.
Die Langheck 917 was such a wunderbar beast .. there was never a more proper racing car.. it only took a third of Hunadiers to lead the pack, as you can see here. Imagine making 380 kph at night, barely lifting at the kink - balls of steel. Now the racing got so pussified.. I wish the real racers like Hamilton could stretch their muscles like in those times of glory. Nothing is like that anymore.. the last one of my heroes were Jody Scheckter and Montoya.. those were the last real racers. And - thanks, Steve McQ.. for being able to enjoy the real stuf.. 😍
I went to Le Mans when I was stationed in the Army in Germany. If you're a car guy, you will never forget the atmosphere, the crowd, the carnival of the place. I can still see in my mind the glowing red hot brakes of the Cobras trying desperately to slow down. And then, the explosion coming out of a turn. The locals were shocked at the level of brute force sound of Shelby's masterpiece. Ah, the memories of an old man.
I’m with you ‘old man’, cuz I’m an OLD MAN too. When the world goes electric, we will lose the incredible sound associated with high revving ICE’s. Absolutely heart thumping pleasure. As a young man I went to races at Goodwood, Ontario back before the UOP SHADOW days. Back then you could get pretty close to the action. The atmosphere was ‘electric’, IRONICALLY…
Nice comment Larry 👍
What year was that Larry? Thankyou.
When I had dinner with Carroll Shelby after I won his driving championship and the food came, the table got quiet. So, I asked him a question that's bugged me since the '70s: "Hey Carroll, which do you think was better? The big-block or small-block Cobra?" He replied, "The big bock was a BASTARD of a car! Go like hell in a straight line, but that's about it. The small-block was a MUCH better car." I said, "Thought so."
Rumor has it that before he went to AC, he went to Brian Lister to convert the Knobblys. But, when Brian Lister asked how many he expected to sell, Brian told him he couldn't possibly produce that many; hence, we got the AC Cobras. Now, Mr. Lister is making the aluminum Knobblys again since Mr. Chuck Beck sold so many of the replicas, he saw the demand was still there...I currently own Beck's #007, the first of only 2 lightweight racers.
...must have been a long time ago... today, the cars are boreing and ugly... more people come to the "Le Mans Classic" than to the real race... the "millionaire's parade" is more popular than the actual race.
The sound of the 917 in car after negotiating the s bends and accelerating past the stands... when he shifts up... that sound!... goose bumps.
It was and still is one of the most eerie, and sinister sounding race cars of all time. A true racing film.
It got a audible 'ohh' from me.
We will never again hear the sound of so many flat-12 engines together in full song.
The 917K and 917LH are still my all-time favorite Porsches. ❤
Yes Porsche dominated listen to that engine
I saw this movie at the theater with my dad when I was 9, and I left as a life-long Porsche enthusiast. I started my subscription to Road & Track then and knew all the specs of the 911's from all the reviews. I was able to club race a Porsche for 20 years, and my current street Porsche is a 991.2 GT3 (with a rear muffler bypass of course for that Cup Car sound!), and it all started because of this movie way back then
but have you ever seen a carrea 6 spyder?
I had my first ride in a GT3 a few months ago. That PDK tranny is f'n amazing!
That is amazing!
I watched the Woodstock movie😅 with m'y brother and I still play electric guitar in 1968 lol....I also saw the 1973 french F1 GP with pescarolo Jackie Stuart François cevert Emerson
fitipaldi jack Brabham etc...
Road & Track In the John Bond Era . It was the best car magazine in the business. I used to walk up to a local newsagncy every 4 weeks waiting for it to come in . 70cents it cost me. The local magazines about 30 cents
I lived in Melbourne Australia.
I love how it captures those moments of silence, watching "the pack" coming at you. All race fans know that feeling of anticipation.
Still the best movie ever made about auto racing. Props to Steve McQueen for going all in to get it made. 👍
Grand Prix was pretty good to 🤔
@@GordonScottYankeeEngineer The racing was good, but the melodrama dragged the entire movie down.
@@bmw128racer But the filming! It was real art 🤩 The way they had the cameras mounted to the cars so they could pan from the actor to forward view… Groundbreaking real action footage with real actors behind the wheel. Obviously not taking anything away from McQueen, but James Garner was a real racecar driver in his own right as well… Big respect 🫡
@@GordonScottYankeeEngineer - Grand Prix was an epic document, and the watershed film about car racing. Just the effort to get Il Commentadore to sign on is worth a read. These two films together revolutionized film making about auto racing, and paved the way for lesser films such as 'Winning' - Paul Newman, 'Heart Like a Wheel' - Bonnie Bedelia, etc.
@@CreekyGuy You sir know your stuff 😉💯
Legendary 1970 LeMans, unsurpassed circuit, top 917s and 512s. What a beauty!
And a movie made with great racing taste!
Unsurpassed circuit?
Nördschleife #️⃣1️⃣
Never gets old. Not ever.
50x's😁😁😁😁
EVER!!
The film's producers even got the first lap's timing right, at a bit over three and a half minutes. It's those little details which add to the film!
And I always enjoy that tweeting bird atop the Mulsanne's Armco barrier.
McQueen did that
And immortal hand wave at 3:00 .
3:52 -- 3:55 Best 3 seconds of the film.
Those engine sounds though 🤌🤌
And the engine could have been even more of an animal. The 917 engines were flat 12s. They were attempting to develop a flat 16 but it didn't pan out.
The Porsche 917 is one of the most beautiful vehicles ever built, and a real engineering marvel. Love this movie! I also just noticed after all these years that McQueen’s arch rival driver also portrayed a German army intelligence officer in the movie, “Patton”.
He was also Lee Marvin's German counterpart in the Big Red One.
No words, nothing said, all done. Pure action and adrenalin.
This movie is about a race, the star is the race, and it show!
God I love this movie. The 917 ‘bark’ is one of the most exotic sounds ever produced.
Steve McQueen and my father will forever be the reason I got into cars. I watched Bullitt for the first time when I was 8 with my dad (mind you, I'm only 31, my dad just has great taste in all things film-related). Not realizing what a monster he had created, he showed me this film as well as every other car-related movie he could come up with. Over 20 years later, I have a 1973 Mustang Mach 1 that is anything but stock, still frequently search for old cars anywhere I find myself in, and still regularly watch Mecum and Barrett-Jackson with my dad when he and I get together. An expensive hobby, but there is no replacement for it.
One of the greatest scenes EVER >>>> Saw it on the BIG screen back in the day ... When I left the theater it had been raining .. You should have seen the people leaving the parking lot !!!!!
Saw it at a drive-in. The way folks drove leaving the place and heading for and onto the freeway......... .
First time watching this movie was on the roof of our house watching the drive-in on the other side of the interstate highway. Dad and I sat up there watching these incredible racing scenes in silence. Didn't matter.
One of the best race movies I ever seen, my dad took me to see this film and I walk out a race lover for life.
When Le Mans went to a rolling start they took away one of the great moments in racing. Watching the cars approach the start line doesn't come close to matching the tension of the silence leading up to the flag drop.
Running to the cars was a bit hazardous. Some drivers would put their belts on _after_ starting down the track. Having them in the cars, engines off, at the flag drop is fine. After all, *starting* the car is part of racing.
Our English housekeeper took me to see it when I was 8, because her son was a racer for Sterling Moss, and I became obsessed with it, begging to see it whenever I saw it on a theater marquis.
When I found it on DVD, I ran it on Loop for about 2 weeks... until my player burned out.
I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out. It was fantastic stuff. I haven’t seen a clip from this movie in years and it stands the test of time. The rawness of the race and the daring of the spectators and marshals standing so close to the action risking their own lives with nonchalance is a time capsule never to be replicated! I was a Steve McQueen fan from here on out. The coolest actor who ever lived!
I agree, but Paul Newman gives him a pretty good run for his money. And was an actual LeMans podium racer in 1979. I'd have loved to see the two actually drive against each other, no movie, just the track and two legends.
@@thesoundsmith Put those two on a track together and the studio moguls would have had a heart attack.
He was my hero growing up
I can watch this movie and Grand Prix, over and over. Love them both.
McQueen made a racing masterpiece with this classic film, he probably never realised it at the time though. Fifty years later has proved he was way ahead of the game 👍
Glad I bought Le Mans on Blu-ray several years ago. I'm probably will watch it again after Memorial Day weekend races (Indy 500, Monaco, and Coke 600).
Ditto on the Blu Ray.
The way they filmed the start of that, with absolutely NO SOUND, was brilliant! It's the LOUDEST SILENCE ever, capturing the intensity and concentration of the drivers. It also amplifies the sound of the cars once they start.
Thank god for video so we can enjoy that sound never to be heard again of roaring 12 cylinder works of mechanical art with a voice like no other..
Between this movie and Grand Prix...some of the best filmed footage of racing. Not overdone. Just right.
It's really a trilogy though. Don't forget Winning, with Paul Newman.
I attended several Grad Prix races in Europe in the late 60's and early 70's, and all that was missing from the Le Mans race movie was the smell of the racing cars thrown in. There's nothing quite like it.
I was at this race, it was amazing....They used a 908 Porsche during the race as a camera car to get some of the actual footage...we could actually walk thru the woods to the Mulsanne straight and stand just feet away from the track. The sound was amazing !!
Yep, they said if we didn't have to stop to change out the film canisters, we could actually win! They were I think, in 4th. That idea was quashed
That car, if an official entry, would have finished 7th.
@@johnharris6655 right, isn't that crazy. If they hadn't have to stop to change film, they could have done better. But if it wasn't an official entry, how did they even allow it on the track?
@@CrackedCandy It was allowed but was not considered an official entry because it did not complete enough laps.
@@johnharris6655 so if they competed more laps they could have placed?
It still gives me chills 50yrs on.
Gorgeous scenes with the Porsche 917, that company's very first Le Mans champion.
Still gives me goosebumps all these years after seeing it for the first time in 1971.
Dto.
I was sixteen watching this movie in the theater. Great movie, but the best part was leaving the theater and so many cars burning rubber getting out of parked lot. That was great
I saw this movie late one Saturday night on the old console TV. I must have been 12 years old and it was life changing.
Same here. It made me a sports car, road racing, and endurance racing fan all at once. It's STILL one of the best racing movies ever!
I saw my first 24 hour endurance race in person at the Nelson Ledges Road Course (Ohio, USA) in 1983. It was "The Longest Day of Nelson" 24 hour SCCA showroom stock race. It's not LeMans, but it was lots of fun, and I went back four times after that.
@@snowrocket A Darrell Waltrip movie would have plenty of dialogue.
"Racing is life, everything else is just waiting..."
"It can happen to you.............then it can happen again."
I found this to be true when I was road racing. " But WHY is it so important to go faster than anyone else?" " It's important to those that do it well. Racing is life! Anything before, or after...is just waiting". I won the local Division 1 GTP championship by winning every race but one. And sneezed a motor that time.
This film is a thing of exquisite beauty.
as the ruf porsche designer/tuner himself idolized the car and said "the 917 just has this sound, that's out of this planet." i couldn't agree more.
I was 6 yrs old when this movie came out, and it change my life. I started racing mini moto-cross and carts shortly after and graduated to racing a 1972 Datsun 510 in SoCal SCCA B Sedan auto-cross. It was a complete blast. I still have a 510 in my garage today.
Hope you're still able to drive it a lot. Wish I still had my '70.
@@spikespa5208No, not driven much these days because I lost my vision, but my brother and I take it out a few times a year. Here's a car review channel that did a vid of it a few years ago. ua-cam.com/video/GZtp6PiFlTI/v-deo.html
Such incredible raw power, beauty and majesty!
Damn, I'm going to have to re-watch this movie!
I forgot how good it is.
As a child of the seventies, i grew up with a poster of the three 917 short tail cars running 1, 2, 3, in the rain above my bed. I also wanted to BE one of the guys driving this level of mayhem. Although I've made a living driving race cars a couple of brief periods of my life, I've never got to this level.
Aren't those Porsches the reason for the chicanes down the Mulsanne Straight?
I had the same poster in my room as a kid.
Here most had the poster with the white LP400
On my wall there was a poster of the Lancia stratos,,,,,, even if its not a stunning looking car.
@@greatloverofmusic1 No that came much later as i recall, and that chikane it is a insult to me. late 80ties i think it was.
In the 60ties the Mulsanne ended in a scary R turn, with a little gravel and a few feet tall earth embankment, where men found glory or death.
Before that in the really old days. OMG the grim reaper was hanging out there.
I simply can not respect race drivers of today, such pampered boys, that drive a little faster than men did in the good old days, with no seat belt and a flappy leather helmet and motor goggles.
@Pliash Muldba , Dude, Allan Simonsen died not quite 10 years ago hardly 10 minutes into the beginning of the race
I saw this movie as a car mad kid (about 10yo) and while i enjoyed it, I didn't understand it. The race start and the crash scenes left me bewildered. I went on to race in a couple of different motorsports. I stumbled across it late one night and couldn't resist watching it all these years later. I was dumbfounded by it ,i fully understood those scenes because i had experienced similar. I now consider it a masterpiece that sadly probably isnt fully understood by the majority of film buffs.
All that plus the old track layout forever captured so well.
I first saw the movie at a drive-in movie theater when it first came out and about 4 times in theaters in the late 1970s. In 1982 I traveled to Europe and spent 1 day traveling to Le Mans. No race but a drivers school was in progress and I got a instructor to drive me around the the short Bugatti Course. Fantastic experience!!!! All thanks to the movie!!!😊😊😊❤❤
Also saw it 1st time at a drive-in, age 19. The scary part was how folks drove coming out of the drive-in and heading for the freeway, A straight 1 1/2 miles away.
"Racing is a blood sport,its life ,anything before and after is just waiting"Steve McQueen. I remember my order sister taking me this movie 1970ish when it came out about 8 years old,i loved it,i also remember people walking out of the theater.i whent straight home after the movie too play with my hot wheels cars.LOL🤣
Saw this at the theater when I was 12. The 917K remains my favourite car to this day.
Easily the best racing movie.All those wonderful racing sequences killed it at the box office, but it remains a joy to race fans to this day.
There was a famous Key Grip that mounted the cameras. Forgetting his name presently. And they spent time with remote cameras too.
It was ahead of its time.
grand prix with james garner is very good. Great shots of the old Spa circuit.
Not to argue, but Frankenheimer's Grand Prix is easily its equal. Extensive footage of 4 of the actual '66 season's races (Monaco, Spa, Clermont (?), and Monza - with the banks), footage inside Ferrari's Maranello workshop, bit parts by Graham Hill and many of the season's drivers as extras, and (like in Le Mans) a plot derived from the events of the season.
@@mortimersnerd8044 So true. These 2 films have better race footage than these modern race films.
Grand Prix is also a classic, with Jackie Stewart racing Jim Rockford. Another film with good racing sequences is Checkpoint (1956) with Anthony Steel driving some classic cars, and John Wyer (who was really instrumental in making both the Ford GT40 and the 917 winners) as advisor. One overlooked scene of Le Mans is Steve-O driving his stock Porsche 911 on the track before the racing starts. They were so dainty and elegant, while they only had 130hp. Today they are muscular monsters that look more like a transgender athlete.
The best scene of my favorite racing movie of all time. Simply the best movie racing footage ever! 😎
Incredible footage. And no one is talking, even better.
Interesting factoid. This film was originally written by Alan Trustman who at the time was maybe the biggest screenwriter in Hollywood. He had co-written Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair, etc. He didn't want to write the script Steve McQueen wanted, and they had a big falling out. The film had a difficult shoot, with original director John Sturges basically fired. McQueen himself was almost replaced early on by the studio with Robert Redford, but McQueen had enough clout. He wasn't just a top actor, he was a movie star, and a powerful one. So much so, after McQueen's frustration with Trustman, poor Trustman barely worked again in the business. Iroically, his replacement, Harry Kleiner (who co-wrote Bullitt with Trustman, as well as other top films, Fantastic Voyage, etc.) took a lot of blame for the film's weak story, and his career quickly sank to the bottom as well. He had one TV script that was already sold (about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg), then a long, long time in the cold, sixteen years exactly, seven years after McQueen had died, before he sold another script (Extreme Prejiduce, starring Nick Nolte).
The maddening part is that while the love story and McQueen's character aren't very good, this is a unique, interesting film, impeccably shot, with it's place in history well received.
Crazy business.
The most iconic scene that synthetize the motorsport of that period ( and what motorsport should be) is when the mother covers the ears of her little daughter from engines roaring.
Masterpiece movie !
The sound is so beautiful
24 Hours of Le Mans movie with Steve McQueen was auto racing at its best!
The iconic Gulf liveried Porsche 917 never won Le Mans except in the Steve McQueen film.
But nevertheless, the 917 won it!
Never gets old!
I've always liked this movie and the opening scene was very well thought out and executed.
That Elford/Ahrens 917LH...👍
@johnwagner4776 The white missile! 😄
Actual ambiance of cars / footage / sounds of 24 LM race + a bit of drama = Great movie.
Depicts the true character of a 24 LM race, particularly of that era. Terrific prototypes, among my all-time favorites.
McQueen's involvement is memorable. 👍
These cars were so fast that you can actually see real life struggle to maintain a solid framerate.
Great, I thought it was just my system!
That may be due to the refresh rate of our digital screens, laid on top of the frame rate of the original film plus the digitization that made it possible for us to view it this way. We'd have to see the film as was shown in theaters to know for sure. My distant memory in seeing it as a kid in a theater was that the was no jumping in the images as we see here.
Did they film this with the actual race cars? Not just kit cars?
@@olivierstultiens The footage where you can large crowds is from the actual 1970 race. The 'dramatic' clips used real racecars but with 'fake' bodywork to make them look like the various cars.
It being shot on film there would be no jerkiness in the original.
何度観てもマックィーンは本物のレースを映画に焼き付けたいと言う情熱が伝わってくる。
I think this is the 2nd best racing movie ever made. 1966's Grand Prix I give 1st place due to having more spectacular race footage and just raw racing, like shown here.
McQueen's crash scene in this movie is superbly choreographed and edited. With the split real time speed and slow speed you feel the impacts and violence of the crash.
Agree, Grand Prix was more visceral.
Completely agree! James with the first actor to do all the stunt driving, Steve and Paul followed suit. Mind you, I love all 3 films.
@@kenchristie9214 Paul? Newman? I don't remember him in a racing movie. 🤔
@@blacksquirrel4008 Grand Prix was an epic of racing movies. Over 3 years of filming. They can't replicate that level of racing footage nowadays. Everything CG now
@@geoleo2597 Paul was in the film Winning with wife Joanne Woodward. Definitely worth watching. Paul was also in Mel Brooks "Silent Movie" parodying Winning.
The only spoken word in Silent Movie was by mime artist Marcell Marceau.
The sound of that 917 at the end has been my ringtone for the past 10 years.
Flat 12 Air cooled Porsche 917 flat out is beautiful music 🎵
I agree but I prefer the sound of the Ferrari Flat 12.
@@STREET24000 picking nits but the 512 ran a 60* V12. And yes it could sing. Just not for very long.
The Prototype cars were the most beautiful ever
Very true , but they were accident prone. Break failure occurred to many of the J cars.
@@seanbannon7939 they lost a race cause they couldnt sort out the brakes 68 or 9
@@dancingtrout6719 I just noticed i kept spelling brakes wrong.
@@seanbannon7939 spelling can be confusing at times
@@dancingtrout6719 yes lol. I'd say though ford vs Ferrari is one of the best movies I've seen in the last 10 years
Aucun film, même récent, n'arrive à la cheville de ce monument !
La descente après la passerelle Dunlop 👌😍
Et puis ces voitures sont tellement belles, si pures dans leurs lignes...
Intemporel !
I don't know if anyone noticed but they added the little detail of the 917 LH (white) being faster than the 917k (blue) in the straights.
They had to match the footage from the actual race. The filmakers actually ran a Porsche 908 camera car in the 1970 race.
Vic Elford was driving the white long-tailed Porsche, I believe. That was a fact of the race (about 20 mph faster because of aero).
This told a great story without saying a word for the first half of the movie. One of the greatest stories of man and his fight to be the best ever told. Secretly, I was on the edge of my seat for that first half of this movie. My opinion.
I had the movie on VHS back in the 80's. No idea where it is today. This and Grand Prix were the best racing movies.
Ich hab's !!! Auf VHS LACH!!
Driven the Mulsanne straight in a VW Beetle in 1972 - tool 15 minutes but great fun!
I love this movie. I've watched it so many times I lost count. Definitely in my top 10. It's like an ASMR file before there was ASMR. The lack of dialogue in no way detracts from this movie. As McQueen says in the movie, "racing is life. everythig else is just waiting." The film lives by this ethos. And you can't do better than the soundtrack courtesy of the 917.
Carnography with a guaranteed eargasm every time
The Ferrari looks amazing
Like the movie "Grand Prix", I have taken to only watching the racing scenes of these two movies. Brilliant work on the photography side, considering when these two movies were made. And then there's Steve McQueen.
Leaps and bounds better than any CGI squence we saw in Ford V Ferrari....
More of that: ugly Ford v Ferrari is speeded up at race movie segments. shameful
Ford v Ferrari was very disappointing. Proves that CGI can't compete with the real thing. LeMans has the best racing scenes ever filmed and it will probably remain that way..
@@leemorris2127 Just remembered: Initial D (2005) movie had very decent racing scenes for such low budget (and poor acting). And that movie has real filmed scenes too. CGI is the worst thing ever for a race movie.
« Ford vs Ferrari » is a joke.
Some beautiful pictures (let’s be honnest) for a Hollywood story, without any respect for historic facts (and some of the people who lived this race and this period and are Still Alive…)
The only true motor racing film, what a feeling it must have been to race on this track, flat out down Mulsanne at 200+ in a proper racing car with no electronic aids, just pure driver skill, feeling everything by the seat of their pants, before it all became sanitised
and many times at night in the rain, just hauling ass!
This short piece of footage is probably the best testimony there is to that era. Within a couple of years, because the Porsche 917s were hitting 250mph on the Mulsanne Straight, the rules were changed to slow them down. Once all of the chicanes were added I lost interest in Le Mans.
The Start in the movie was the only year they ever used it. Up until the year before they used the traditional Le Mans start where the drivers ran to their cars. However, there were too many reports of drivers not buckling up on the start and at 200+mph steering with their knee while trying to do so. For safety the 1970 race was a symbolic transition where the drivers were already in their cars and started them when the flag was dropped. The following year they went to the rolling start they've used since.
When Steve McQueen decided to make this film he said his goal was to show racing from the inside. I've talked with many people who don't understand this. The thumping noise on the start is exactly what a driver's heart rate does. Having crashed a couple of times in my driving years he has it right with the momentary confusion, spasms, etc. I almost got up and left when people were so ignorant they laughed at the Ferrari driver's "stop-jerk, back & forth" trying to run away from his crash. I'd like to see anyone not do same after a high-speed crash.
Steve McQueen was a one of a kind. There will never be another.
yeah, hey let's have a real race............................now slow the race down
You can tell he's at real race pace as his eyes are as wide as saucers.
I love the music when the rain starts
Love this movie! I like the 917 as much as the mid/late 60's/1970 LeMans Ford's... I don't hate to say, but I also love the sound of the Mazda 787 LeMans entry. That Wankel screams!
" turn the speakers 🔊 up loud!!" Laugh 😃 😀 😄 😁 🤣
Amazing footage! Much love for the 917's!
Race On!
My absolute favourite motor racing film! It still astounds me that, throughout filming, they had no idea of the story!
They had the best GT drivers of the day and filmed right around the ACTUAL race!
The fast and slow motion crash scene is great film making and terrifying.
I love the movie, but I especially love the first lap. The greatest crime in motor racing was removing the curve up to the Dunlop bridge from the start line. And don't let me start about those damn chicanes on the.... 😠
Ditto.
A friend of mine was one of the stunt drivers in this movie, a couple of years later and he got a call from the production company of another car film as S M had put in a good word for him, that film was “The Italian Job”.
I WISH YOU DOWNLOADED THE WHOLE FILM. THIS FILM WAS EPIC IN TERMS OF RACING CINEMATOGRAPHY. THUMBS UP.
was higher than a kite on mushrooms
the slow motion scene of McQueens wreck just absolutely got me
There is just something special about the shape of the Group C cars that can't be matched by current designs.
Watching the cars pass the pits, with people standing feet away from cars going over 100 mph, very little guard rails or barriers etc on the opposite side of the track, no fencing, in fact very little had changed since the disaster in 1955.......
Thanks so much for this !
My dad took me to see this at Cinerama when it came out.
The line I remember most is when Steve asked the beauty, "Do you want to dance? Do you want a drink?" She says "No, I don't dance. No, I don't drink."
So Steve asks, "What what do you do?"
I think I was just old enough to know where he was going with that!
Edit: I think I have this confused with the movie "Gran Prix".
The best music for relaxing! Nice symphony when hearing admission and exhaust singing together !
The film of my Life!
I'd love to see that in a good theater again.
With Dolby Atmos sound!
Blu Ray with a big TV and good theater sound sys. works. Sit close.
Excellent. Better than the real thing. Especially like the black tape around the headlamps
I was 1 when this came out. It changed my life, and is by which I judge all racing movies.
Oh! The sound! The barely contained fury! I have loved every sort of motor racing for about 50 years...But this is incomparable.
Elford in that longtail .......Holy fuck !!
I never get tired of watching footage of this movie. It's all BUSINESS!
You notice even among all that noise, you can still make out the distinctive sound of a Ferrari V12.
And the sound of the Porsche flat-12 is only "noise"?
Of course not, but with all due respect, the Ferrari V12 is just over the top.
Maybe the Matra V12 and the Rotative Mazda are in the same category.
Just go to Le Mans Classic to hear this motors in « real race » conditions and hear them in the « S » after the Dunlop bridge, it’s just magical (of course a D Type Jag’ or a 917 is great too…)
Agreed, the best movie ever and the announcer reading the qualifying driver makes it even better
Wonderful !!! There are 3 films that car race lover must see and this one belongs to this very private club. The 2 others being Ford vs Ferrari and Rush. These 3 film all focus on epic duels between car makers or pilots which is the basis of racing :). I do love this one ( I am French and I don t need to read a lot of subtitles :)). Thx for this entry scene even if a little jerky on my screen. I do like at 4:00 the car « parade ». In the film , the car crash is probably one of the best scene ever filmed. Thx for making all these memories go back… I will perhaps review it again :).
« Ford vs Ferrari » is just a historic joke, disrespect for so many greats drivers and actors of this era of racing… but some Nice racing parts. If you don’t care about historic mistakes.
Best non-race car movie, if anyone is interested, is the little seen Gumball Rally. Also, at its core, Shelby Ford versus Ferrari...
@@alexandreboyenval3140 I don t agrée about the historic joke… this « war » did exist. Of course the scenario is a little caricatural (holywood doesn t know how to avoid it :)) but Ford wanted its victory at Le Mans and put a big amount of dollars on the table and they did it. But still now Ferrari stays the best winner in car racing
@@philmtx3fr They transform a real fact (rivalty between Ford and Ferrari) in a battle between the nice lonesome cowboy and the rest of the world. They have completely forgotten the other cars, the other teams, completely zapped Dennis Hulme, Chris Amon, Jean Guichet, and the other drivers, some of whom have given their lives to this sport, for the very Hollywood pleasure of an Italo-American war (transforming by the way the pure gentleman driver that was Lorenzo Bandini in a kind of caricature of a revengeful troll...). When you love motorsport and this period in particular, it's hard to watch this film "based on real events".
@@alexandreboyenval3140 Ok I think we say more or less the same and Hollywood is not a info channel (and some info channel are not saying the truth either) and they did what they do the best which is telling a good story based on true events… based is important there and doesn’t t mean a realistic history movie :). Nevertheless the film is for me pleasant to see even if the world described seems a little manichean…
I saw this film 3 times in my hometown Luanda with my parents. It’s still the one who makes love this sport and in particular Porsche!
My parents took me to this release. I watched but didn't really understand what I was seeing. The same with The Blue Max for example. Once I was old enough and these childhood memories could be explored again at home, I was finally able to really enjoy them.
Die Langheck 917 was such a wunderbar beast .. there was never a more proper racing car.. it only took a third of Hunadiers to lead the pack, as you can see here.
Imagine making 380 kph at night, barely lifting at the kink - balls of steel. Now the racing got so pussified.. I wish the real racers like Hamilton could stretch their muscles like in those times of glory. Nothing is like that anymore.. the last one of my heroes were Jody Scheckter and Montoya.. those were the last real racers. And - thanks, Steve McQ.. for being able to enjoy the real stuf.. 😍