Journey to Le Mans

Journey to Le Mans is a documentary presenting team Jota's quest to win Le Mans in the LMP2 division.

Much of the race footage is presented in slow motion, and the melodramatic soundtrack is unrelenting. These aspects betray the innate excitement of high-speed racing. The film doesn't even present a summary of the race in any desirable form. I have to believe an under-produced bland documentary would have been much more interesting.

What it does somewhat well is profile the drivers of team Jota. The raw footage is top-notch, alas the actual racing clips are very short.

My one word summary would be "boring", which is a very unfortunate description of the pinnacle of high-speed auto racing.

I know nothing about Le Mans so I had no preconceived ideas about what to expect from this.

To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement!

A fantastic insight into the event and what it takes to get there and to compete.

Some have said it was very one sided as it only followed one team, and that is correct, but that is what it was meant to be about anyway. Enjoy it for what it is. (Warning: TT3D is the same, so don't complain about that one when you see it!!!!)

What really made this a great watch though was the cinematography! Superb camera use, footage and techniques. Loved it!

If you're a racing fan, then I highly recommend this....

When you are a petrolhead, a 'journey to Le Mans' movie will get you interested. And I am a petrolhead, with some Le Mans experience, and I can tell you this is nothing like a Le Mans experience. It really is nothing more than a personal story of the Jota team. Must be great to see for friends and relatives of those involved in the Jota team, but why releasing it to the general public? It puzzles me. Considering it's not that interesting for petrolheads, fairly boring for motorsport enthousiast and straight-out insulting for documentary fans.

Sure, getting Patrick Stewart (needs no introduction) and Tiff Needell (a car journalist) looks good on the poster, but honestly, the Jota LMP2 team is not that interesting. The documentary contains half kind of interviews with those involved, and half clips of racing action. Le Mans Radio audio-clips are edited to the racing video's to make sure you can follow what's going on with the Jota LMP2 team.

The title of this documentary is misleading and don't get your hopes up about it's quality.

So many horrible reviews! Wow. It's not that bad. I agree that there are scenes that are re-used, and the soundtrack is a mis-match, in my opinion. Maybe they had to fill a time slot and therefore put in extra/filler scenes? This should be a documentary that fits in a 60 minute slot, not over 90 minutes. That would help. But I still enjoyed journeying with the team members as they attempted to win races and then to make it to the top at Le Mans. Maybe since I'm an amateur racer I was able to get into it more easily than some viewers, I don't know. And I get tired the hype and glamour surrounding the zillion dollar F1 and LM juggernauts. Going along with a smaller team and vicariously experiencing their ups and downs as they go for it felt good to me.

For me this was a film filled with childhood nostalgia, going to Le Mans with my Dad and watching him race. I think more than anything this captures the reality, the team spirit and drive of the individual man to win. It makes me sad to read comments about it being only about 'Jota' a small team - who wants to watch them? It is not misleading - read the synopsis, this film says exactly what it is, an inside story about a group of guys wanting to make it in the greatest race in the world. So it is OK for Audi to do it? What if it were Porsche? I think perhaps some have missed the point the filmmakers captured which is the authenticity of just a bunch of passionate chaps who take on the world. Surely THIS is inspiration beyond all else? Or perhaps it just let's an old guy think 'hey I could do that'. For me it is a ten out of ten.