Finally, Grand Prix on DVD!

Moose,
Please remove your 10 lines of gear in your sig. Gears lists here are against forum policy. They belong in your profile (there's big note in the sig form asking you not to list gear).

Squirrel

I saw this in an HD demo recently and it looked fantastic.
Am looking forward to this disk.

Always wanted to see this movie. Glad it's finally coming out!

I saw this in Cinerama if I correctly remember.

Skip

Moose, we like the same kind of music.

It wasn't a V-12. The Honda F1 engine in the movie is a U-16 design, with four seperate 4-cylinder blocks that surround two cranks which are geared togather at the output. Honda's engineers had only experience with racing motorcycles at that time, and based the F1 engine on motorcycle components.

The Ferrari in the film has a flat-12 "boxer" engine. Most of the other cars are Cosworth-Ford V-8's.

Gary

Has anyone been able to confirm whether or not this film has been cropped to 2.20:1? If it is indeed true, that is a shame.

The information on Deep Discount DVD indeed says 2.20:1.

Why after such a long wait would they not do it correctly. Another great film with a bad transfer to DVD.

I have the version shown on TCM TiVo'd. It's in extreme widescreen letterboxed so it must be the OAR. With the multiple images shown side by side I don't see how it could be presented any other way. This thread prompted me to go and watch the opening race at Monte Carlo. With the sound cranked up of course.

It really brought me back to when I was 13 and watching the movie up front in a huge theater with all of the best technology of that day. I remember the opening scenes with the mechanics tuning a blipping those glorious racing engines. The sound was out of this word, I was in heaven. The racing scenes were incredible.

Those were the golden days of racing. Pure power on wheels. Little or no down force. A plain steering wheel, analog gages, and a shifter. The driver was in total control, seat of your pants racing. Real racing on real streets with curbs. None of the antiseptic white barriers of today that make you feel like you are racing in a canyon.

What a masterpiece of a movie!

Just in the interest of accuracy, (us car guys are as anal as us AV guys), the Ferrari 12 cylinder of that vintage was, indeed, a V-12 and not a flat 12. The cars Frankenheimer had built for the movie looked very close to the real ones but they all used an 1100cc Cosworth Ford engine. Dummy intake and exhaust systems were attached to make them look like the 3 liter engines they were supposed to represent. They recorded and dubbed in the correct sounds of the various 3 liter engines for the movie, which was indeed released in Cinerama. There were 30 Cinerama cameras in the world at that time and 18 were used for the Monaco race that opens the movie. I am SO pumped for this release - the title sequence alone was worth the price of admission when it came out.

Dick Fogg

I remember the opening in the theater (long time ago) and it will be great to own this jewel. It's dated and the plot is thin, but who cares - it's the Frankenheimer Race Movie! I have 2 car collector clients/friends who are marking an event for the DVD.
I might have to buy Le Mans to go with it
Great Stuff

E

I watched the Le Mans dvd the other day for the 1st time.
This is the other, "Plot is almost non-existent, but who cares?!", for car guys.
I love racing, but I would think twice about cutting loose in one of those old Porsches...they were scary.


P.S. I just checked out your HOMEPAGE.

HOLY MOLY!!!
I had no idea...superb, Eric.
Wish you weren't on the other coast or I would have you design something for me.

Folks... 2.20:1 is the film's correct aspect ratio.

Nice of you to say.

E

DVD review:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22616

What I remember was seeing the racing on some of the first road tracks such as Spa and Nurburgring between the farm houses.
They was also racing on the Monza high speed section with the two banked corners.

DVD Beaver reported that this transfer is the best they have seen this year.

Sounds as though they may have used the master that spawned the HD version I saw awhile back.
It was TRULY awe-inspiring!

Wow...
As I entered jr. high I read All But My Life, Ken Purdy and Sterling Moss' book about Sterling's life. He instantly became my hero and I was obsessed with road racing from that day on. This film came out about then and I still remember sitting down with my dad to explain why it was worth a 90 minute drive to see Grand Prix in the only cinerama theater in wisconsin. Must have been persuasive because we made the trek- I still have the program book they sold. Even then I was disapointed by the cliched plot, but it didn't really matter. Driver's eye views of real grand prix tracks, on the state of the art video of the time, the cars driven by real GP drivers.. talk about wide eyed wonder! Its nice to see I'm not the only one who loved this film.

[quote=oink]I watched the Le Mans dvd the other day for the 1st time.
This is the other, "Plot is almost non-existent, but who cares?!", for car guys.
I love racing, but I would think twice about cutting loose in one of those old Porsches...they were scary.


Read A French Kiss with Death about the making of LeMans. The book is almost better than the movie giving an insight into Hollywood at the time, Steve McQueen's obsession getting the film made and the endurance racing drivers of the day. Derek Bell had quite the ride when the articulating arm that mounted the camera changed the center of gravity on the 917 he was driving. The added weight at the far rear caused the front of the car to lift at 200 mph+ and the car went airborne.

I had the opportunity to meet Richard (Dicky) Attwood who won the real LeMans race in 1970. I was working for David Hobbs who drove the #22 Gulf Porsche 917 that wins the race in the film. Unfortunately David wasn't so lucky in the real race. His co-driver, motorcycle racing legend Mike Hailwood crashed the car early on in the race.

Thank you for the recommendation.

Racing back then was surely a crap shoot...I find it amazing.
However, racing is the domain of the young (AKA: the reckless ), most particularly back then...when safety was a rabbit's foot.

The fatalities on the racetrack during that era would be scandalous today.

NOW I am positive, you are my evil twin!

BTW, for those that like road racing, may I recommend the ALMS series?

A serious kick in the pants for the true racer.

www.americanlemans.com