On G List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Grand Prix (1966)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
6/17
6/17:
From a spectator's point of view, motor racing is one of the most boring sports.
These cars go round and round for laps and laps...200, 300, 400 of them. My goodness, I can develop Alzheimer's by just
watching it all although it's obviously more fun to be a driver. Hence, there's no reason to recapture it in film. But
it's exactly what John Frankenheimer did for Grand Prix which is the Chariots of Fire of Formula One.
The worst part? It's three fucking hours long! Goddamn. John has to insert four soap opera storylines between the racing
scenes. They fail to keep up my interest. As the love subplots are underway, they're thus discarded after
two hours into the film, and I'm back to racing once more.
I facepalmed myself when I saw Toshirô Mifune speaking English, and I was like, "Eh?" He's just mouthing the words as
slowly as possible. That's so awkward to watch. It turns out all of his lines were dubbed by somebody else.
If Toshirô "I Shot Down 17 American Planes" Mifune was badly miscast and would wear samurai clothes(!) in some scenes, Eva
Marie Saint is even worse. She's too American to be involved with an international picture. The difference between
her and Yves Montand is night and day. He's too cool and foreign for her. Hence, it's embarrassing to watch Eva trying to be
on the same stage with Yves. Even Geneviève Page has her beat in presence and looks.
When I read the closing screen credits, I was surprised to see Antonio Sabàto's name. The movie was made in 1966, and he was
alive that far back? It turns out to be Antonio Sabàto's father. Now, I can see where he got his looks from, and his father
was actually more handsome. James Garner is merely okay, but I like him although his character's personality sucks. Everybody
else is bland as hell. Really, I had a hard time figuring out whom I was supposed to be rooting for, but Grand Prix
never made it clear.
Finally, we come to Steve McQueen. Grand Prix was his pet project that was going to be called Day of the Champion.
But he was stuck in Taiwan and Hong Kong for the filming of The Sand Pebbles which was originally scheduled for nine
weeks that got stretched to seven months. John Frankenheimer was literally in competition with John Sturges to get a racing
film first to the theatres. Eventually, Grand Prix was released and became a smashing success, forever shelving
Day of the Champion which led to Steve McQueen's refusal of speaking to James Garner for four years.
Steve McQueen thought of himself a real race driver and viewed his one-time co-star an outsider to the sport. To James Garner's
credit, he started to get more involved with auto racing right after Grand Prix and actually did his own driving
for the film including the scene when his car was caught on fire. So, it wouldn't be another five years that Steve McQueen
released his own racing film called Le Mans, but it turned out to be a huge box-office failure.
By the way, out of thirty-two professional race drivers that were involved with Grand Prix, ten died in racing
accidents within fifteen years of its initial release, showing how unforgving the sport is.
All in all, Grand Prix is no Days of Thunder as it's overlong, tedious, dated, and soapy.