Le Mans (1971)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1971
	Director: Lee H. Katzin
	Actors: Steve McQueen (Sand Pebbles, Bullitt, The Great Escape), Siegfried Rauch, Elga Andersen, Louise Edlind
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 05.12.2012, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Michael Delaney (McQueen) is back on the circuit of the famous race of the 24 hours of Le Mans, one years after being involved in a deadly acident.
Review: This movie is 40 years old and I had never seen it. It is difficult to categorize as it was mostly shot during the Le Mans race of 1970, so there is a strong documentary feel to it, which was actually wanted by McQueen as I learned when watching the making-off. I was most impressed by the realism of the car race, and not surprised that it has been well prepared during the 1969 race. The crew actually managed to mount cameras on real race cars, entered them in the competition and at some point they were even in the top 10! The introduction of the character of Delaney is very well done and we understand all about him without a word being said by the main actors in the first 35 minutes of the movie! This is in particular quite typical of McQueen who preferred to convey feelings with one shot of his blue eyes rather than with many lines of dialogs. The introduction of the race is also well done by showing us all the activities revolving around it (police preparations, arrival of the spectators at the train station, organization of the parking places...), and the background (origin and rules) of the race is given by the commentator over the speakers, like if we were in the public. The tension then rises to the sound of an increasingly fast heartbeat until it becomes almost unbearable when the lights go green. Then the movie finds a different rythm, alternating between the race, character developement, accompanied with a very nice jazzy music. The down side of the movie is that the story is utterly simple, so much that it was a problem when the producers wanted to finish and sell the movie. But this doesn't bother me so much.
Rating: 8 /10