Grand Prix (1966)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

John Frankenheimer

Writers:

Robert Alan Aurthur (screenplay)
Robert Alan Aurthur (story)

Release Date:

21 December 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot:

American Grand Prix driver Pete Aron is fired by his Jordan-BRM racing team after a crash at Monaco that injures his British teammate...

Plot Keywords:

Race | Automobile Racing | Formula 1 | Ford Mustang | Monte Carlo Rally

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 4 nominations

Cast

James Garner	...	Pete Aron
Eva Marie Saint	...	Louise Frederickson
Yves Montand	...	Jean-Pierre Sarti
Toshirô Mifune	...	Izo Yamura
Brian Bedford	...	Scott Stoddard
Jessica Walter	...	Pat Stoddard
Antonio Sabato	...	Nino Barlini
Françoise Hardy	...	Lisa
Adolfo Celi	...	Agostini Manetta
Claude Dauphin	...	Hugo Simon
Enzo Fiermonte	...	Guido
Geneviève Page	...	Monique Delvaux-Sarti
Jack Watson	...	Jeff Jordan
Donald O'Brien	...	Wallace Bennett (as Donal O'Brien)
Jean Michaud	...	Children's father

Runtime:

179 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Italian | Portuguese

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (Westrex Recording System) (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Brands Hatch racing track, Kent, England, UK

Company:

Cherokee Productions

Trivia:

The Formula 3 car's smaller engines could not spin the wider Formula 1 tires realistically on starts, so the tires were wet with gasoline for those shots, which not only allowed them to spin realistically but also caused them to smoke realistically as they spun.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Jean Pierre crashes he is helped out of his car. He pulls his goggles part way down as they are now just under his lip and covering his chin. The view then cuts to a close-up of Jean Pierre's face and the goggles are not over his face any more.

Quotes:

Izo Yamura: Why do you drive racing cars, or do you not think about it?
Pete Aron: Oh, Mr. Yamura, I don't think there's one of us who doesn't ask himself at least once in the middle of a race, "What the hell am I doing here?" Of course, when it's over, we conveniently forget that we asked ourselves that question. I think about it and a lot of reasons I don't know. Maybe to do something that brings you so close to the possibility of death and to survive it is to feel life and living so much more intensely.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Pushing the Limit: The Making of 'Grand Prix' (2006) (V)

A Technically Superb Film

I won't bore you with the plotline; you can get all that elsewhere. The main reason one should see this film is for the camera effects. And remember too -- these were all done the hard way; there was no computer imaging back in 1966!

If you get the chance to see this in a theater, DO NOT BE LATE!! The opening -- with the driver plugging his ears with cotton before putting on his helmet -- is aptly appropriate. The split-screen and multiple-image effects are first seen in the opening and crop up throughout the movie -- and always to good advantage, not just a "gee whiz, look what we can do" use of technique and technology. ESPN and the other networks, in their NASCAR telecasts, have just now started to adopt techniques first used by Frankenheimer 30-plus years ago.

One of the best scenes in the film is in the early minutes. You are actually *in* the cockpit of a F-1 car as it spins out of control, slides off the track, and launches itself into the harbor. I might add that this was *NOT* done with models, but used real, full-sized cars and took long hours to produce -- and these were truly "state-of-the-art" effects in 1966 (I won't give away the secrets here but will say that if you can locate a copy of the appropriate issue of "Popular Mechanics" [March 1966?] you will enjoy the article about the film and the techniques). The end result was about 15 seconds of some of the best racing footage committed to film. Needless to say, this is a very quick-running sequence!

I saw this picture in Cinerama in 1966, and I too echo the sentiment for a re-release of this picture to the large screen. More is the pity that Cinerama is no more. There are few pictures where Cinerama could be used to its fullest advantage; the in-car and on-track sequences of this film, however, were some of those.