Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans

"The Man & Le Mans" is one of those many documentaries out there that had both its fair share of good moments, as well as its not-so-good moments, too.

You really have to be a pretty big fan of Steve McQueen (which I'm not) in order to fully appreciate this 2-hour presentation. Otherwise you're bound to feel somewhat let down by what you are being shown here.

Anyway - Give it a view and see what you think.

Steve McQueen was a movie star with a serious interest in motor racing. He aimed to bring his career and hobby together when he made the film 'Le Mans'. This documentary, about the making of that movie, tries hard to paint McQueen as a man with a vision, ultimately stimied by the system. But it also opens the way to another view: that like many of the rich and famous, McQueen simply expected to get his own way, a form of "integrity" that few of us can afford and which is barely indistinguishable from being spoiled. In places it seems the film wants us to join the crowd of admirers who consider McQueen cool for crashing his sports car driving recklessly in the rain, or for sleeping with a dozen women a week while married. Strip away the star-worship, and you do get a sense of his deep love for the sport, and of the risks taken by the drivers who participated in it in a time when few of the safety measures we are now used to were in place. It succeeds in making you want to watch McQueen's own film, even if (by general repute) it ultimately isn't very good.

This documentary presents, through the use of a few recently discovered audio tapes, the man himself speaking, and through both present day and period filmed first-person accounts of many others involved with the making of the 1971 commercial failure of an auto racing film, how the actor would find his - at the time - skyrocketing Hollywood career taking a momentary nosedive due to his single-minded passion to produce a motor sports movie sans the usual "personal/love interest" backstories to be found within most all of this sort of film genre. In other words, just a movie featuring McQueen's "love interest"...auto racing.

It also includes many filmed recollections of his first wife, entertainer Neile Adams, and their son Chad McQueen, and thus also attempts to bring the actor's personal and family life into focus at a time in which the marriage was coming to an end due to McQueen's persistent philandering and a seeming sense of his own personal career hubris.

This is probably going to be best enjoyed by fans of McQueen and/or auto racing and/or those interested in documentaries showcasing the business of film-making. I'm interested in the business of filmmaking and the careers and lives of the stars, and my opinion afterwards was that "The King of Cool" could be, under stress, very difficult, just like any of us can be. Also be warned that the language used gets pretty salty.