Grand Prix

1966

Action / Drama / Sport

12
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 92% · 13 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 88% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.2/10 10 12263 12.3K

car race racing race car driver race car crash 1960s formula one (f1)

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Plot summary

The most daring drivers in the world have gathered to compete for the 1966 Formula One championship. After a spectacular wreck in the first of a series of races, American wheelman Pete Aron is dropped by his sponsor. Refusing to quit, he joins a Japanese racing team. While juggling his career with a torrid love affair involving an ex-teammate's wife, Pete must also contend with Jean-Pierre Sarti, a French contestant who has previously won two world titles.

Director

John Frankenheimer Photo
John Frankenheimer

Top cast

Bob Bondurant Photo
Bob Bondurant as Grand Prix driver
Adolfo Celi Photo
Adolfo Celi as Agostini Manetta
Ralph Michael Photo
Ralph Michael as Mr. Stoddard
Toshirô Mifune Photo
Toshirô Mifune as Izo Yamura
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.25 GB
1280*576
English 2.0
Approved
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 56 min
Seeds 4
2.66 GB
1920*864
English 2.0
Approved
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 56 min
Seeds 26

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by John Chard 8 / 10

Frankenheimer's F1 Epic is Grand in Itself. In

Frankenheimer's F1 Epic is Grand in Itself. In truth the plot of Grand Prix is pretty wafer thin, with not enough story to fully justify the gargantuan run time, yet it's both thrilling and fascinating all the same. Plot essentially centers around the 1966 Formula 1 motor racing championship, with James Garner, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, Eva Marie Saint and Toshiro Mifune heading up the large ensemble cast list. It deals with the trials and tribulations of the drivers, both on and off the track. The human drama is a bit soapy, of which there is much, yet these narrative characterisations help to make us care and understand the protagonists at the core of the story. And of course when the drivers are out there on the track, we know their psychological make-ups, their driving mirroring their motives and emotional fortitude. The racing segments are superbly filmed by Frankenheimer, with multi-angles used to maximise the experience, while he also uses split screen sections to fully immerse us with the key characters. Two crash sequences are genuinely heart stopping, filmed with a clarity that makes us realise that people actually do die in this sport. While the sound work and editing is quite simply stunning. See it on the biggest screen you can, and for home formats get the best possible disc available. 8/10
Reviewed by

Reviewed by sascha-17 8 / 10

Brilliant on, mediocre off the track

Grand Prix is one of those films that simply couldn't be made today. This fact is mentioned over and over in the extras on the excellent DVD-edition, and rightly so. Back in the 60s, F1 racing was still much more "innocent" (and more exciting) than the multi-billion-dollar media-circus it is today. Just imagine someone trying to get Bernie Ecclestone and the teams to allow a film-crew to use F1-tracks on a race-weekend or even to film in the pits/paddock-area of today's F1 - for free! Or imagine having a bunch of actors drive around in real race-cars on real tracks at break-neck speed in today's safety-obsessed world - impossible.

Well, Frankenheimer did all that back in the 60s and for that reason alone the movie is required watching for anyone who has even a slight interest in cars or motor sports. GP offers us a pretty realistic glimpse of an era gone-by - and it doesn't shy away from the gruesome reality and dangers of motor-racing in the 60s. This realism alone makes GP stand out. The filmmakers didn't simulate races, they actually had the actors racing cars on the original tracks and filmed it. The result is astonishing and really gives a feeling of what it must've been like to sit in one of those beautiful deathtraps at speeds of around 300 km/h. The excellent cinematography, editing and music add to this unique experience and they also give the picture that typical 60s-feel (the opening credits alone are worth the price of admission in my book).

On a side note: Being a racing-fan myself, I can't help but wonder why Frankenheimer didn't include the race at the Nürburgring. Back in those days, F1 still used the 20km+ Nordschleife-version of the track, possibly the most demanding and "scary" circuit ever.

Naturally: Between races the movie loses momentum. That's not so much caused by some weak dialog or the predictable plot - it's s just that those incredible scenes on the tracks simply steal the show. No wonder that I find myself fast-forwarding through a lot of the dialog.

In short: 10/10 for the action on the racetracks - 6/10 for the scenes off the track = 8/10

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