Cheap Le Mans (DVD) (Lee H. Katzin) Price

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Customer Reviews of Le Mans

Pour les Hommes Normale du Monde
I almost want to accuse Steve McQueen of making a self-indulgent film as driving fast cars was his passion; however, using the word "self" doesn't make much sense given how popular the automobile is with the male half of the global population. Cars are to men what shoes are to women. If you are a man and you you aren't interested in fast cars you are probably either 1) not of the majority's sexual orientation or 2) from a part of the World where they don't have them (Moomba maboday jambaa car?). <
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>"Le Mans" is, for most of the film, more like a documentary than fiction. You will feel like you are watching the actual race rather than a fictionalized story set around the race. REALISM is the word. <
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>McQueen plays an American driver, Michael Delaney, on the Porsche team whose main rival in the twenty-four hour race is a German on the Ferrari team. Delaney is haunted by the memory of a crash that killed an Italian driver the year before. <
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>There isn't much dialogue in the film. One notable quotation occurs after the widow of the Italian driver asks McQueen's character why driving is worth the risk: "A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing is important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting." <
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>Don't expect wives or girlfriends to get into this one...

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The Man Delivered on His Promise
To complain that LeMans is short on dialog is like criticizing a butterfly for not having a beak. It's taken more than 30 years, but Americans are finally beginning to appreciate what Europeans and ardent racing enthusiasts around the world have known since they first viewed LeMans: it's an excellent motor racing film. This emerging realization is due to several things, I think. One is that over the past three decades, even the densest moviegoers have had to recognize McQueen's disdain for dialog in ALL of his films. Unlike actors who lobby to have additional lines written for their characters, McQueen preferred to act through gestures, expressions and body language. He was all about presence, and Michael Delaney exudes all the presence of Frank Bullitt and Thomas Crown. Another reason for the growing respect for LeMans the movie is the comparative shallowness of the charade that passes for motor racing today. LeMans was shot on the cusp of the corporatization of the sport. It was well on its way from a gentleman's pursuit, that train had left the station in the mid-1960s, but the earnings of world-class drivers when LeMans was made were still comparable with CEO, rather than rock-star compensation. Importantly, it still took huge balls and a lot of ability to drive a car like the Porsche 917 the length of a 3.5 mile straightaway at 240 mph, at night, in the rain, like Vic Elford did in 1970. Mulsanne has long since been shortened, the number of co-drivers on a single LeMans team has grown from two to your average college fraternity, and drivers need to bring a lot less to the game in terms of guts and skill than they did in 1970. LeMans is not without its blemishes, and by all accounts it was a nightmare of a project, but McQueen delivered what he said he would - a film that did justice to race drivers and racing.

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For Porsche Lovers
A movie that will entertain racing fans, car lovers, and especially Porsche owners and fans. Otherwise, significant dialog is missing from the movie("Porsche must win at Le Mans...", "Vrooomm, Vroomm", "Porsche wins at Le Mans!"). YES!!! Vrooommm, Vrooomm!!! <
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>A Porsche Owner <
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