Grand Prix (1966)
This movie was such a disappointment. 70mm is enough to make me giddy. Being about classic Formula 1 gave me really high hopes. Sadly, for all its technical great achievements in giving us super crisp pictures of 60s race cars and race tracks, it really is quite a bad film in most other aspects.
There is potential for an interesting story, especially with the drivers doubts about the insanity of what they are doing and their various female companionships and theirs concerns. It is just mostly let down by mediocre acting and only scratching the surface of these dilemmas. The story follows four drivers, which I think is really one or two too many. Every driver has a story with some potential, but none of them gets unfolded enough to become really interesting.
The actual racing shots are more like a documentary - and a good deal of the footage is literally actual races from the 1966 season of Formula 1. That preservation of classic Formula 1 history has tremendous value in itself and make it worth watching for Formula 1 fans. Sadly I didn’t think it worked that well within the actual movie. The individual shots are great and the use of various split scenes techniques is creative, but with the exception of some big accidents, it is just anonymous cars driving around. There is little established rivalry, no sense of who is fighting against who or where they are in the championship standings. Watching a real Formula 1 race is only exciting if you have some context for what happens on track, and with the exception of the final race of the movie, the actual racing scenes have very little dramatic relevance. The behind the scenes feature on the Blu-ray was honestly more interesting than the story in the actual movie.
Compared to a movie like Rush, it is missing what makes a sports movie an interesting and exciting sports movie. I watched Rush with my wife, who isn’t into motorracing at all, and she thought that was a good movie. I can’t imagine many people not interested in racing getting much out of this movie. Rush had a good rivalry, great characters and way better acting. The racing had a proper context to the drama off the track. Grand Prix has very little of that. I should really just rewatch Rush.
Rating: 2.5