IMDb > Winning (1969)
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Winning (1969) -- Open-ended Trailer from Universal
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Overview

User Rating:
5.9/10   619 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 4% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
James Goldstone
Writer:
Howard Rodman (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Winning on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
22 May 1969 (USA) more
Genre:
Action | Drama | Sport more
Tagline:
Winng is... everything
Plot:
Frank Capua is a rising star on the race circuit who dreams of winning the big one--the Indianapolis 500... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
User Comments:
overrated, but okay for car racing historians more (10 total)

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
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
123 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
70 mm 6-Track (UK release) (unconfirmed) | Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
UK:PG | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 | USA:M (original rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:12
Filming Locations:
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, USA more
Company:
Jennings Lang more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Additional footage needed after the 1968 Indy 500 was filmed at Indianapolis Raceway Park. more
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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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
4 out of 8 people found the following comment useful.
overrated, but okay for car racing historians, 24 March 2006
Author: vandino1 from United States

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.

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