Le Mans

Media:	DVD
Directed by:	Lee H. Katzin
Starring:	Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch, Elga Andersen
Release date:	29 April, 2003
List price:	~~$14.99~~
Our price:	$11.24 that is 25% off!

Le Mans

Average rating: Stars

Next Best Thing to Owning a Porsche 917

If you don't have the seven digit coin laying around to own a Porsche 917, this is definitely the next best thing. This movie has amazing cinematography of some of the most classic race cars in the world. The movie is really for racing buffs, and sports car buffs in particular. Yes, there is a contrived love story thrown in to keep the Hollywood brass happy, but this one is all about the cars, and that's what makes it great. I love just throwing in the DVD, skipping to the start of the race and watch the first lap sequence on a large widescreen set with the sound up loud. Set in 1971, it is a way to enjoy the last breed of cars before the days of turbos, fuel consumption rules, and ground effects. You really get to see and hear the power of the 5 liter air cooled flat 12 Porsche engine. Two years later a 5.4 liter twin turbo version was made producing 1100 bhp. The coolest racing story for me was talking to Michael and Mario Andretti and a Porsche engineer at 3 AM in the paddock of the 1984 Daytona 24 Hours. The Porsche 962 they were driving (the first one to race in the US derived from the European rules 956) had just retired due to a blown turbo and the engineer showed me the engine and what broke and the Andrettis gave me their impressions of a car that went on to dominate sports car racing for a decade.

Le Mans - Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch and more

Steve McQueen rules!

This is the ultimate racing movie! Forget garbage like "Days of Thunder" and "Driven", this is the real deal. You can tell Steve's passion for racing in this movie. Of course once you've seen it, you'll have to read "A French Kiss With Death" which tells the tale of the making of "Le Mans" and the race itself.

Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch and more - Le Mans

best motor racing film ever

I first saw this film when it was released, some 30 years ago. At the time it got so-and-so reviews, i.e. it was described as a good motor racing film, but poor on plot and psychology. I just watched the dvd version for the first time in 3 decades and was surprised how good it still is. The racing scenes are better than any other film ever made and they are credible (many are real scenes from the actual 24 hours of Le Mans, shot from a specially converted racing Porsche)- apart from the last 2 minutes - contrary to your average American motor racing film (think of Stallone ...). This film is not great on the acting front - McQueen is rather wooden throughout and psychology always ranks second to the cars. However, the film is also very good at evokinging an atmosfere around the racing track, such as showing the go-karts racing at 10% of the speed of the real racers, just yards away. Best of all is the start of the race, which is spine-tingling This film is not just for motor racing fanatics (the motor racing itself certainly merits 5 stars), although they will enjoy it most.