seeitwith.me random outbursts of cinema appreciation

Le Mans (1971) – A gearheads wet dream, most realistic motorsport film ever made, and the picture that destroyed Steve McQueen

Posted by Vuk Radic

This post is part of the Steve McQueen blog-a-thon hosted by Jason Bellamy over at Cooler Cinema

Steve McQueen's vision was simple: Create the best, most realistic movie about motorsports ever made. It was a story that began years before filming took place during the summer of 1970, and its aftermath impacted McQueen for the rest of his life. Le Mans was a huge project; 20,000 props, 26 high-performance racing cars with 52 drivers from seven countries, along with 350,000 French-speaking extras. And no finished script. There were few lines, even for a McQueen film, and no intelligible structure. 'Cars,' he told everyone. 'We film the fucking cars.' And from the very inception of the idea it was riddled with problems.