Grand Prix: Special Edition (Dbl DVD)

This is the best race movie ever made. Period. And I doubt one like it can ever be made again because this was done in the real world and, now, everyone (directors etc) will want to do one using computer graphics and it will not have the same feel of realism.["Driven" with Stallone would be a good example of this] Also, I doubt, due to safety concerns/insurance etc, that one can be made this way again. The "How the Movie was Made" is worth a huge chunk of the selling price. The quality of the DVD is a great improvement, especially on an HD TV, over the VHS copy I've owned for some time. The reason I say "Grand Prix" is the best is that "LeMans" lacks a strong story line or its story line pales next to the action, whereas "Grand Prix"s story hangs in there fairly well. However, one can argue "LeMans" has just as good race photography and, again, I doubt if a movie like it can be made now. "Grand Prix" has an excellent cast of very well known (at the time) actors from the U.S. and Europe. The photography of Europe is great as are the race scenes. There is romance involved to keep the story line going on something other than race after race. There is some tear jerker moments for the sentimental. Speaking of story lines, I remember when "LeMans" came out that one of the NBC "Today Show" film critics, Judith Crist, lambasted the movie and said words to the effect that "McQueen should have shot it on 8mm and shown it as home movies". She's also the critic who said that "Candy" would set back pornography a 100 years. :) As for story lines, another decent effort at a race movie is "Winning" with Paul Newman and his wife. A product of its day, the film tries pretty hard to combine a decent story with racing. Along with racing there are cheating wives, just the thing to spice up a race movie. I would guess this is where PN picked up his love of racing which lasted 30+ years. His co-star is his wife. And, last and least, is "Red Line 7000" which, when it came out, was a pretty cool drive-in movie and still stands up as a bit of kitsch of the time. The race descriptions by the "on track" announcer are guite funny but where else are you going to see a guy driving a Shelby Daytona Coupe around on the street? Besides, its one of James Caan's first roles, if not the first. Oh, and the "on track announcer" in "Winning" might be of the same cloth if memory serves. One reason I probably have a soft spot for these movies is that they came out about the time I was a young Sports Car Club of America racer myself. My new wife and I were really into this stuff. We drove 200 miles round trip one weekday night in order to see "LeMans" several weeks earlier than what would have been the case if we hadn't, due to where we lived. I've recently purchased "Winning", "LeMans" and "Grand Prix" to donate to my small town library, spreading the joy of racing. Thanks to AMAZON, I can afford to do it.

Good movie fod the times.

Grand Prix is the greatest racing movie of all time. Having searched and paid a premium for the VHS version, you can imagine my excitement when I learned of the DVD release of the movie. I was not disappointed. The pedigree of the movie is stellar. The director is John Frankenheimer. An international cast includes Eva Marie Sainte, Toshiro Mifune, James Gardner, and Yves Montand. Francoise Hardy ("Tous les garcons et les filles") is so hot, also credibly acts in this film. Actual team names and cars (Ferrari, BRM, and All American Racing, but sadly not Lotus nor Honda) and famous drivers (Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Bruce McClaren), are in the movie and involved in the filming of the movie. Actual race footage is incorporated into the movie. Actual drivers are present in the movie. The film won three technical Academy Awards, best film editing, sound and sound effects. Before IMAX, before video games, before video cams, using sixteen Panavision cameras, some mounted on the racing cars, some in a Ford GT 40 chase car, Frankenheimer provides the exquisite shots we expect today on ESPN or SPEED...the view of the driver and pan to the front view, the vibration, the buffeting, the sweeping blur about a hairpin of actual driving. That is why the movie stands the test of time. As stated in the additional materials, it is unlikely that a racing movie of this scale will ever be made again. But this is not a documentary. A great movie, even if it isn't true, is realistic enough that you believe that is reality. The story lines touch on real issues... is winning everything, why do men like to go fast, are their significant others uneasy, why is death or danger ignored, can relationships be serious or merely transitory... It also provides a vicarious look into Grand Prix racing in the 1960's, the fashion, the life, the glamour. Grand Prix DVD also provides special features that demand purchasing the DVD even if you have the VHS version (sans special features of course). Five documentaries are provided...This movie was viewed on a 27 inch flat screen TV, sound through a subwoofer and two satellite speakers (two five inch mid-range, one two inch tweeter per speaker) and the sound was great (it did win an Academy award for sound)... I can hardly wait to see it on my friend's 52 inch wide-screen with Dolby Digital 5.1. Wow...what a movie.

If you're a vintage racing fan, Grand Prix needs no review: it's a remarkable document of the golden age of racing, made at a time when the real cars -- and drivers -- were available. Phil Hill's recent passing reminded us of what we've lost. If you're a film enthusiast, and maybe not so knowledgeable about 1960s Formula One, Frankenheimer's work still delivers. The cinematography is superb, and the script provides a fascinating look into the social scene and competitive aspects of racing back then. It's educational, without the burden of being a documentary, and apart from the overture and intermission segments it's easy to forget you're watching a 1966 movie. And it has a bit of substance: 1960s racers risked their lives in every race, much more so than F1 drivers do today in their much more elaborate cars. The spectre of death, and the sense that some onlookers might be there for the carnage, weighed on at least some of the drivers who were there for the sport. Grand Prix acknowledges this. Grand Prix may be the best racing movie ever made. McQueen's LeMans in 1971 (he was originally supposed to be in Grand Prix) is a cult classic for diehard race fans, but almost devoid of plot or dialogue. I'm a big fan but would hesitate to recommend to anyone who isn't a gearhead. Grand Prix, on the other hand, should be very enjoyable to almost anyone with an appreciation of the era. The extras included in the two-DVD set are also very good, and you can watch them prior to the film if you're among those whose knowledge of Formula One is minimal.

This is primarily a melodrama with extraordinary racing sequences. For fans of racing films this film is a must see movie! Even after all these years the racing sequences still hold up surprisingly well. When this movie was still in production they showed the racing footage that had already been completed to Ferrari and they were so impressed by what they saw that they invited the the filmmakers to shoot inside the Ferrari racing factory (up until that time nobody--not even Sports Illustrated--had been allowed to photograph the inside of that building). Quite a compliment! Steve McQueen was offered James Garners role first and turned it down thinking this was going to be just another Hollywood racing picture in which (like all that had preceded it) nothing bore any resemblance to the REAL racing world. Once the film came out and he had a chance to see it, he was heartbroken that he'd passed on it and in his frustration went on to make the practically ALL racing footage and less-plot-than-it-would-take-to-fill-a-thimble "Le Mans". A bevy of top professional drivers were employed to train the actors so that they would look convincingly like real race car drivers while being filmed. James Garner was coached by Dan Gurney and had such an natural affinity for driving that by the time his sequences were filmed he was on a level with some of the drivers making a living at it professionally. Gurney said that if he was willing to do it full time he could have been one of the top drivers in the field. As a movie itself, if you like melodrama you will more than likely be entertained. If you don't, but you love fantastic racing footage, this is one of the finest examples of that which you will ever be likely to find. If neither interests you, this may not be your cup of tea.

I saw this movie when it came out in 1966 in the Cenerama Theater in St. Louis. I like and value the movie so highly that I hesitate to use the tired old phrases to rave about it. It is so rich in quality in every judgement area that it appears to me that this was a movie made to be the best it could be without consideration for difficulty or cost - quality in every way was all that would be acceptable. The richness of the color and the crispness of image in the photography at the actual Grand Prix race courses of the world is beyond compare. The casting of characters and their emersion into the roles to play out their individual but blended stories is perfect. Of course I knew James Garner as a favorite actor but I became aware of Yves Montand through his great performance for the first time. The story has depth and is developed fully. Top Grand Prix racers of that time make small acting appearances in the film - Phil Hill (American) and Graham Hill (English) for example. The theme song is sublime. Now approaching 50 years later I fly my RV-6A airplane that my wife Jeanine and I built in our garage before I retired, in Sport Air Racing League cross country air races across the US at over 200 miles per hour. I watch this movie and "The Worlds Fastest Indian" at least once before the start of each season. I have bought many copies of both DVDs and the Mystic Moods CD album "More than Music" containing the Grand Prix theme and given them to my younger racing friends to share this great experience. Yes, I like the movie. Bob Axsom

Forty years on, Grand Prix is still the best motor racing film ever made. The cars may be faster now, filming techniques improved and special effects more advanced, yet the film still has a truly epic scale and a feeling of veracity down to the last gear change that would be impossible to duplicate today. It feels real because much of it is real, the actors (with the exception of Brian Bedford) doing much of the driving themselves, with the production even entering cars in real races to seamlessly match footage. The real danger is only underlined by the fact that so many of the professional drivers in the film died racing themselves (ten in the decade following the filming alone). The crashes are there, along with the knowledge that that's what many in the crowd come for, but more than that, each race has a different character: more than just a different look, they're almost tone poems at times, one race from the driver's seat, another from a spectator's, another almost inside a character's head. Yet throughout, unlike later films, you always have a clear idea of what is going on and what point the race scenes are trying to make. The sequences have clearly been thought through and designed both emotionally as well as visually, with the great use of long lenses to establish scale and speed as cars drift in and out of focus giving the film a feel at once realistic and almost dreamlike (an impression further heightened in Saul Bass' almost balletic split-screen sequence). It's still a remarkably good looking film, too, not least because it was made at a time when the cars still looked like bullets rather than vacuum cleaners. The plot itself may be simply a globe-trotting star-studded soap opera at heart - the roadshow equivalent of a doorstop bestseller - but it's a more than serviceable framework to hang the racing scenes on: after a spectacular crash in the Monte Carlo Grand Prix that cripples team mate Brian Bedford, James Garner's Formula One tries to work his way back on the circuit by racing for Toshiro Mifune's fledgling team while having an affair with Bedford's wife Jessica Walter. But while top-billed Garner may be the nominal and not particularly sympathetic lead, it's Yves Montand's ageing champion gradually realizing the absurdity of what he does but unable to quit who makes the greatest impression: so much so that when Garner disappears for much of the last third of the movie you barely miss him. Yet the cars remain the real stars, thanks to John Frankenheimer's constantly imaginative direction and his obvious enthusiasm for the material without ever losing himself in the minutiae as Steve McQueen did with Le Mans. The film used every 65mm SuperPanavision camera then in existence, and thankfully the widescreen DVD transfer is a considerable improvement over the TV prints. Although it hasn't restored Mifune's voice, which was reportedly in the version shown at the film's premiere but subsequently replaced by Paul Frees on all prints (Adolfo Celi is also very obviously dubbed, possibly by Maximilian Schell), it does boast a good array of featurettes covering the making of the film and the Overture and Entr'acte from Maurice Jarre's excellent score have been retained.

A perfect demonstration of how racing was in 1966 in F1. absolutely brilliant cinema for the time and it holds up really well. it has to be watched with an appreciation of how far ahead of its time it was in filmmaking. the acting is suspect in certain scenes, enjoyably so. (my favorite is when Lisa is leaving Sabato's character.) Enjoy the watch. Its a true film, not an action movie.

This was a movie I first saw over 40 years ago. Was a classic then and still is now. The added features on how the movie was made and interviews with the director and drivers was a real treat. A must for any formula one fans collection.

Dem Realismus im Kunstfilm genügt das Drama im kleinen Leben, die Zwänge der Liebe, die Tragödien des Alltags, die Menschen bis zum Äußersten treiben können. Im filmischen Realismus ist die Leinwand keine Grenze, sondern Kontaktfläche zwischen Gesellschaft und Kunst. Filmischer Realismus greift nach den "Realitätseffekten" (R. Barthes) und dem Eindruck intensiver Erfahrungswirklichkeit. 'Grand Prix' ist in seinen packenden Sequenzen Realismus pur - doch ist die Erfahrungswirklichkeit, die hier in atemberaubenden Bildern eingefangen wird, die einer Grenzerfahrung: Des an der Grenze zum Irrsin sich bewegenden Formelrennsports der sechziger Jahre. Realismus hier ist nicht mehr Alltag, es ist Grenzerfahrung in Rennwagen auf Rennstrecken unter Absehung aller Vernunft. John Frankenheimer (Regie) hat keinen Aufwand gescheut, die Kameras in die Rennwagen einzubauen und seine Schauspieler (und einige Grössen des damaligen Rennsports wie Jochen Rindt) diese unter realistischen Bedingungen fahren zu lassen. Das weitere Filmmaterial stammt aus den meisterlichen Aufnahmen der eigentlichen Rennen zur Formel-1 Weltmeisterschaft des Jahres 1966. Alleine die Rennszenen sind von packendem Realismus, der auch heutige Onboard-Aufnahmen aus Rennwagen weit in den Schatten stellt. Stille aber dramatische Statisten sind die Rennstrecken aus jenem Jahr, von denen der Zuschauer en passent einen Eindruck erhält, als hätte er sie selbst befahren (Monaco, Brands Hatch, Zandvoort, Spa-Francorchamps und Monza mit der alten Steilwand). Anders als die ebenso faszinierende Hommage an Le Mans von Steve McQueen aus den Jahre 1970, bietet 'Grand Prix' eine ausführliche, wenn auch ein wenig triviale Nebenhandlung. Drei Handlungsstränge zeigen drei sich unterschiedlich bewegende Rennfahrerbiograhien: Jean-Pierre Sarti (Yves Montand) ist am Ende seiner Karriere angekommen, Müdigkeit macht sich breit. Er trifft die wunderschöne Reporterin Louise Frederickson (Eva Marie Saint) und verliebt sich in sie. Doch auch in ihm brennt noch ein Rennfahrerherz, und als ihn sein Teamchef herausfordert gibt er im letzten Rennen seines Lebens alles. Die zweite wesentliche Erzählung zeigt den ehrgeizigen und tollkühn-unbeherrschten Amerikaner Pete Aron (James Garner), der ein sich bietendes Strohhalm nutzt, um nicht aus dem Rennzirkus geworfen zu werden. Auch er fährt schliesslich das Rennen seines Lebens. Und wie weit liegen an dessen Ende die Schicksale der beiden Renfahrer auseinander! Das dritte Rennfahrerleben, dem der Film folgt, ist das des jungen Briten Scott Stoddard (Brian Bedford), der in Monaco beinahe sein Leben verliert und sich dann unter grossen physischen Qualen an die Spitze zurückkämpft. Neben den Rennen sind es die Frauen am Rande der Strecke und am Rande der Rennfahrerleben, die diese drei Biographien verknüpfen. Nebenhandlungen und weitere Fahrertypen ergänzen sich zu einem bunten Reigen, der einen guten Eindruck davon vermittelt, was Rennsport am Rande der Vernunft in den 60er Jahren war. Dass der Film 'Grand Prix' den Rennsport realistisch erfasst hat, zeigt sich auch daran, dass bekannte Fahrer aus dieser Zeit im Film selbst kleinere Rollen spielen: Jochen Rindt und Jim Clark tauchen auf, Brabham und Jo Siffert haben gar kurze Sprecheinlagen, und Graham Hill spielt just den Frauenheld, der er auch zu Lebzeiten war. Filmfreunde, die gerne den Originalton meiden und deutsche Versionen bevorzugen, seien darauf hingewiesen, dass die vorliegende französische DVD-Ausgabe dieses Klassikers keine deutsche Tonspur enthält. Es handelt sich jedoch um die einzige verfügbare, bezahlbare Ausgabe, die neben einer guten Qualität auch reichlich Dokumentationsmaterial zur Entstehung des Films enthält. Dieses ist, auch unabhängig vom Film sehenswert. Bemerkenswert der sehr lange Bericht zur Entstehung des Films (inklusive einem kurzen Bericht, wie die Unfälle in den Rennen inszeniert wurden). Interessant als Hintergrundmaterial auch die ausführliche Dokumentation der Klassikerstrecke in Brands Hatch (jedem Motorsportfreund dürfte bei der ausführlichen Beschreibung der Kurven das Herz schneller schlagen). Die vielleicht sehenswerteste Dreingabe ist der lange Beitrag zum Formel-1 Sport in den 60er Jahren, als Rennfahren noch ein Balanceakt zwischen Leben und Tod war. Diese Extras sind weitaus mehr, als sich heute auch von gut gemachten DVDs erwarten lässt. Und Grund genug, sich diese Ausgabe zuzulegen.

Probably the best F1 racing car movie ever made a must see for people who love F1. I thought i would share a picture of the great jim clark who drove for the lotus team around the same period as the movie was made.

For a movie made in the 1960s, the photography is very good

Pour l'époque 1966, la réalisation est une prouesse technique, les scènes de course et d'accidents sont très réalistes et tournées avec un incroyable talent. De nombreux boni très intéressants.