Marked by some spectacular car-racing footage, Le Mans is a successful attempt to escape the pot-boiler of prior films on same subject. The solution was to establish a documentary mood.
60
TV Guide Magazine
TV Guide Magazine
Racing fans should love Le Mans' dazzling documentary-like photography, including actual footage from the 1969 and 1970 races, but those who are more interested in an involving story may be disappointed.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
It is an unsatisfying film because we know no more about the people at the end than we did at the beginning, in fact, very little at all.
Dramatically, the picture is a bore. And neither the oblique approach to these time-out sequences nor a ripe score by Michel Legrand manages to juice things up.