Grand Prix

The plot is ho-hum, the acting is superb, with Jessica Walter and James Garner especially terrific, but the movie is about formula 1 racing, and there has never been anything like it. The racing scenes merge image and movement and music and become transcendent. Even on the small tv screen, this movie is remarkable. But if you ever find it playing in a theatre, you'll be amazed.

Readers may not remember (or possibly even know) that when this movie was released in 1967, it played in theaters equipped with CINERAMA, and let me tell you, that was an eye popping experience! The movie played for eight solid months at the Mann Cinerama theater in Minneapolis and they packed them in every night for the entire run. I think I saw it about a half dozen times in this format (not to mention some 20 more times in other theaters, television and VCR/DVD). 1967 was also such a wonderful year in motor sport. Dan Gurney won at Spa in his Eagle, one week after winning LeMans with AJ Foyt, who had in turn won Indianapolis a week before that.

Going to a Cinerama theater in those days was a big event. You got dressed up. I still have the playbill type program for Grand Prix that you got with your ticket. I also have Maurice Jarres great sound track album as well as an interesting record associated with the movie featuring Formula One engine sounds from Monaco, Spa and Monza with narration by Phil Hill. Great stuff.

Without a doubt, the greatest motor racing movie of all time! Steve McQueen's Le Mans doesn't come close. The storyline is OK but where this movie excels is in the groundbreaking cinematography. The shots of the old tracks particularly Spa and Monza are truly superb. Ever wanted to know what it's like to blast along the Masta straight down to Stavelot at Spa, you'll see it here. Want to know what driving on the steep Monza banking was like at 160+ mph, you'll see it here with in car footage. On top of that you've got circuits like Zandvoort in Holland which is not used for today's F1. These were the days when drivers partied the night before and after the race, when the sport was glamorous and exciting. The soundtrack is also brilliant. When oh when will we get the DVD version?

Forget about cinematic technique or even plot: This movie will blow you away. Yeh, the plot is cookie-cutter, but they took the trouble to hire performers who could make it work well enough to not detract from the outrageously realistic action sequences. Part of the whole point is that personal lives become somehow smaller (and thus dearer) next to something like the Grande Prix F1 circuit.

I don't recommend pairing this in a screening with _Days of Thunder_ for two reasons: First, GP is LONG; second, DoT will pale by comparison.

BTW, if you can rent it in DVD, get it that way and watch it on as big a TV as you can find. The soundtrack is incredible and the widescreen work is like nothing you'll ever see anywhere else.

If you are a car racing fan, you'll love this movie automatically. If you are a cinephile, you will appreciate it technically. If you are a writer, you will spit on the script. No matter.

"Titanic" wasn't about that pathetic love triangle story. It was a vehicle to get you into the night the great ship was lost. Grand Prix uses a relatively lame storyline about the private lives of the drivers to get you into their circle. I think it's all just a part of putting the audience into the car.

And I DO mean the car. Not a green screen half car and a CGI effect. A car. Several cars. At high speed, with cameras mounted and actors trained to actually drive them. No phony backgrounds projected. Watch NASCAR or INDY coverage on the SPEED Channel any weekend and you will see on-board shots from vidcams in real time. We're used to that now. Prior to "Grand Prix", there was NO such thing. Grand Prix stands with "Bullitt" and "The French Connection" as the greatest "cut to the chase" movies of all time.

Nothing is done like this any more. If you want to see the masters at work, rent these movies. This is pure analog fun at it's best, and it just doesn't get better with the switch to digits, because the thrill leaves along with the risk factor.

So tolerate the maudlin romantic claptrap. Laugh as you watch some of the stars of Formula 1 racing standing around grimacing into the camera at the infidelities of the British driver's wife (it is a riot), but stand and applaud in awe at the astounding achievement of John Frankenheimer and company at shooting a fictional Grand Prix season against the background of an actual Grand Prix season. It is awesome and worthy of your viewing time, even though the basic story falls short of Oscar caliber scripting.