Everyone Read This Thread! MUST READ!

It was a special experience.

I really hope they send that reel on the road. It would be a shame to lock it up... but that's preservation. One way or the other, that print has to survive.

No hate here, my friend! That must have been some experience. Congratualtions, and thanks for sharing.
I remember seeing the movie in the theaters many times in my youth, and would cherish the opportunity to see it again.
The DVD is well worth it...


"Always choose the lesser of two weevils."

Those of us that are old enough to have seen the original theatrical release are happy for you!

I just have seen this again on TV on a DVD from my local library. This is the first time I have seen it since watching it it a theater in the summer of 1968. It was an incredible experience seeing it on the big screen - this must be the best auto racing movie ever in terms of the racing itself, and not a bit of it CGI, of course.

The race scenes are so good that they work even on the small screen, although not quite to the same degree. Most of it is the incredible camera mounts, on the actors' cars (all but Brian Bedford did their own driving, in Formula 3 cars that looked very similiar) and a special separate camera car that also provided footage. At each race, the movie would first shoot their scripted version, and then also shoot the actual Gran Prix immediately afterward. The "real" race footage was eventually edited in with the staged movie races for the final resulting version.

The other spectacular part was the sound. The engines just scream at a high pitch and actually sound much better to me than the V-8 engines of more recent years, although those have their own excitement, too.

Spoiler notice! The final race has some of the best sights and sounds. This race was the Italian GP at Monza. Part of the course at Monza was an oval layout with severerly banked corners that must be seen to be believed. This banking allowed the drivers even in the real Formula 1 cars during the "real" race to run through them at full throttle. At those speeds, the centrifugal force on those banked sections pushed the cars down and used up most of the play in the suspensions, making the handling very tricky.

However, this section of the track made for extended times of basically full throttle running that produces incredible footage and sounds. There are trees on both sides of the track in much of this part of the layout (although on the high side of the track they are not always visible), and they fly by at unbelievable speed. Apparently, this track was perhaps the most intimidating even to the actual racers, for obvious reasons. What a spectacular finish to a racing movie that will probably never be equalled!

After viewing it on TV again, and not being disappointed in spite of the small screen, I would have to say that it would be a shame to not have this released again in theaters. I remember from my first viewing in 1968 that there may not have been another movie that even comes close to this one in making you feel that you are experiencing the action yourself. Let's hope there is a way to get this back in the theaters; if it does come out, don't miss it!

One correction to my earlier post: I have since done a little checking into the history of the Italian GP at Monza. This race was the final one in the movie, which determined that year's fictional Formula 1 championship.

Amazingly, it turns out that even though the movie race ran the full 10KM Monza course in their scripted, fictional race, the actual Formula 1 Italian GP last utilized the high-banked oval section shown in the movie in the 1961 Italian GP. Apparently, the comments of the racers in the movie accurately represented the opinions of the actual Formula 1 racers of that era concerning the oval section with the extremely banked, long curves. This section was deemed too dangerous by them! Think about what that means - these drivers were already dying at a rate of about a couple per year, and yet they considered Monza the most dangerous layout, at least the banked oval section, and too dangerous to use. The characters in the movie explained why it was so dangerous (a combination of centrifigal force compressing the suspensions leaving virtually no play in them, and remaining at full throttle and full speed through that whole section). If the suspensions had been stiffened for this part of the track, they would have been too stiff for the rest of the track at Monza (the Road Course portion). Even the remaining Road Course has been modified in subsequent years to reduce the high speeds that it produced because of long straights and few tight corners. So, perhaps unwittingly, this final race of the movie turns out to be a spectacular piece of history, showcasing the high-banked oval portion of Monza. While this section was still used until about 1970 for other classes of race cars, it has never been used for the top Formula 1 cars since 1961, and never will be again. In fact, there is a political battle that has gone on for about 15 years with some environmentalists wanting to tear out this section and replace it with trees.

Normally, I would say more trees are a good thing. However, if they can renovate and save the now decaying oval portion of the track, this would preserve one of the most interesting layouts in racing history. Further, apparently because of the advent of aerodynamic ground-effect features in the cars that became common by the 1970's, there will almost certainly never be another track like this again, at least for the highest classes of race cars. Even if the movie did not have this unique footage, it would still contain the most spectatular racing action ever filmed. Because of the scenes from this long-abandoned high-banked oval section, however, it also has preserved one of the most intriguing and fascinating parts of racing history.