Winning (1969)

Frank Capua is a rising star on the race circuit who dreams of winning the big one--the Indianapolis 500. But to get there he runs the risk of losing his wife Elora to his rival, Luther ... See full summary »

Director:

James Goldstone

Writer:

Howard Rodman

Stars:

Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Robert Wagner

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Paul Newman	...	Frank Capua
Joanne Woodward	...	Elora Capua
Robert Wagner	...	Luther "Lou" Erding
Richard Thomas	...	Charley Capua
David Sheiner	...	Leo Crawford
Clu Gulager	...	Larry the Mechanic
Barry Ford	...	Bottineau
Karen Arthur	...	Miss Dairy Queen
Bobby Unser	...	Himself
Tony Hulman	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bobby Grim	...	Himself
Dan Gurney	...	Himself
Roger McCluskey	...	Himself

Storyline

Frank Capua is a rising star on the race circuit who dreams of winning the big one--the Indianapolis 500. But to get there he runs the risk of losing his wife Elora to his rival, Luther Erding, and strains the relationship with his stepson.

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Plot Keywords:

indianapolis 500 | trophy | hotel room | father son relationship | race car | 

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Taglines:

Winng is... everything

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Sport

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Certificate:

M

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 May 1969 (USA)

Also Known As:

500 Milhas

Filming Locations:

Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jennings Lang, Newman-Foreman Company, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (UK release) (unconfirmed) Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The winning car of Frank Capua (Paul Newman) is painted to resemble the #3 Rislone Special driven to victory in the 1968 Indy 500 by Bobby Unser. Unser makes a cameo appearance, congratulating Capua on his victory.

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Quotes

Frank Capua: What's that for?
Charley: You celebrate, I celebrate, too.
Frank Capua: Oh, come on. You don't drink.
Charley: Hey, what kind of a put-down is that? I gotta start sometime. I'm sixteen.
Frank Capua: You wouldn't even like it.
Charley: How do you know unless you try?
Frank Capua: Take a sip.
Charley: Salud.
[takes a sip]
Charley: Good!
[...]

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Connections

Featured in Hollywood's Hottest Car Chases (2010)

User Reviews

overrated, but okay for car racing historians

This is an odd duck of a film. It has that sixties-film desire to heap oh-so-serious, stagy, acting scenes onto a film ostensibly about racing, action, and excitement. So, for buffs of sixties car racing, there's plenty of stuff to see (and even wax nostalgic about), yet to get to it you have to plow through several draggy domestic drama scenes all about "revealing character" and "emotional symbolism" and all that other creative writing 101 blather that is really meant for an entirely different audience. Would you like to have a 'Jurassic Park' with Dr. Grant and Ellie spending half the film discussing child-care issues and emotional abandonment? You're there for the dinosaur story. And you're watching 'Winning' for the racing material. Granted that there is nothing wrong with presenting the "lonely life on the road" of a car racer, but we understand the issues of Newman and Woodward (and Thomas AND Wagner) very quickly, therefore the almost ceaseless hammering-on about it all becomes depressing. Too bad, because this had the makings of the best film on the subject. There are not exactly a lot of race car films to begin with, outside of a few from the thirties, then later 'The Racers' with Kirk Douglas; 'The Big Wheel' with Mickey Rooney; 'Grand Prix'; and after 'Winning', McQueen's 'Le Mans' in 1971. And of course, 'Days of Thunder' (blah).

Interesting that Newman likes spoken interaction between actors in his films, as in "Harper" where he plays a private eye, whereas McQueen as a cop says little throughout 'Bullitt'; and while 'Winning' is an actor's gabfest, McQueen and his cast are virtual blanks in 'Le Mans.' If you could cinematically combine footage from 'Winning' and 'Le Mans' (maybe even with 'Grand Prix') you could have the best racing film ever. Meanwhile, 'Winning' is debatably the best at this point. And you can't knock the fact that Newman in real life has done plenty of racing and IS married to Woodward. Certainly that adds to the realism. Incidentally, the title credits read: "Introducing Richard Thomas." This was ol' John-Boy's first film role. He's good, too. Oh, and quite the reverse, the music by Dave Grusin is deplorable: it's like some canned soundtrack from a TV action show. Thankfully there's no embarrassing title tune warbled by B.J. Thomas or some other late-sixties cliché singer or rock group.