Lee H. Katzin
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The cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle (“Slumdog Millionaire”) never goes for those adrenaline-charged images that inspire other racing movies from “Grand Prix” and “Le Mans” to the “Fast & Furious” series.
While its tenure was short lived, we still have efforts like Grand Prix and Le Mans to remind us of what mediocre moviemaking is/was all about back then.
A worthy successor to John Frankenheimer’s “Grand Prix” (1966) and the documentary-like “Le Mans” (1971) with Steve McQueen, Ron Howard’s “Rush” puts the audience in the driver’s seat of the 1976 Formula One race car season.
(Three racing films from my childhood kind of run together in my brain: “Grand Prix” with James Garner, “Winning” with Paul Newman, and “Le Mans” with Steve McQueen.
Subject wise car racing of any facet has not transitioned well to the big screen, with only the Steve McQueen led Le Mans and Will Ferrell NASCAR spoof Talladega Nights crossing the finish line intact.
If you like this, try: “Winning” with Paul Newman, “Grand Prix” with James Garner, and “Le Mans” with Steve McQueen, and Peter Morgan’s “The Damned United” about another real-life sports rivalry.
It’s got that classic Hollywood flair that hearkens back to golden-age films like Le Mans and Grand Prix…
…previous racing films (WINNING, LE MANS)…
I have always loved the thrill of racing movies like “Grand Prix (1966),” “Ford v. Ferrari (2019)” and, my favorite, “Le Mans (1971)”…
McQueen was 41 with Le Mans…
Yes, we’ve had high-profile racing movies before. Rush, Ford v Ferrari, Days of Thunder, Le Mans and Pixar’s Cars.
Steve McQueen’s 1971 Le Mans has the race-car footage but minimal human-being drama…
He teams up with his friend, savant driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale, finally getting to show off his versatile British accent) and the Ford Motor Company to take on Ferrari in the famous 24-hour long Le Mans race in France.
Newman starred in 1969's Winning (about the Indianapolis 500), and McQueen did 1971's Le Mans (about the famous 24-hour French race).
Cinematically, Mangold ( Logan ) covers much of the same visual and narrative territory of those from era it is depicting – it’s a talky, thoughtful companion piece to Steve McQueen’s 1971 pet project directed by Lee H. Katzin, Le Mans, augmented by Phedon Papamichael’s cinematography and some remarkably invisible CGI.
With its old-fashioned dramatic approach, the insertion of numerous dead weight scenes involving Miles and his wife (Catriona Balfe) and young son (Noah Jupe) and an insistence on dragging things out to over 2 1/2 hours of screen time, this is the kind of film that could have been produced back in the day alongside such racing epics as “Grand Prix” (1966) and the Steve McQueen vehicle “Le Mans” (1971) with nary a change.
There are moments in the film, primarily in its first third, where the combination of music and speeding cars blend into an abstraction that places the movie squarely in the company of something like Koyaanisqatsi , rather than The Fast and the Furious .
Walker attempts a McQueen's "Bullitt" or "Le Mans" but is woefully low on charisma.