'' is an action film released in
1966 . It was directed by
John Frankenheimer with music by
Maurice Jarre . It starred
Yves Montand ,
James Garner ,
Eva Marie Saint ,
Brian Bedford and
Antonio Sabato .
Toshirô Mifune has a supporting role as a race team owner. The unique racing cinematography is one of the main draws of the film. Although not a big commercial success, it did win minor Best Effects and Sound Oscars in 1967 and gained cult status among racing fans.
THe film will finally be released on
DVD in 2006.
The film follows the fate of four
Formula One drivers through a fictionalised version of the
1966 Grand Prix season:
- ''Jean-Pierre Sarti'' (played by Montand) - a Frenchman, previously twice world champion, who is nearing the end of his career.
- ''Pete Aron'' (played by Garner) - an American, who is on the come-back trail.
- ''Scott Stoddard'' (played by Bedford) - a Scotsman, recuperating from an almost fatal crash, and trying to emulate the success of his older brother.
- ''Nino Barlini'' (played by Sabato) - an Italian, who is a promising rookie.
Sub-plots revolve around the women who try to live with these men with such dangerous life-styles.
- The F1 cars in the movie are mostly mocked-up Formula 3 cars made to look like contemporary F1 models, although the film also used footage from actual F1 races. Some of this was captured by Phil Hill , the 1961 World Champion, who drove modified camera cars in some sessions during the 1966 Monaco and Belgian Grands Prix. This was some of the earliest experimentation with in-car cameras for Formula 1 .
- Pete Aron's helmet is the one used by perenially luckless New Zealander Chris Amon ; Scott Stoddard's is that of Scottish driver Jackie Stewart , who also drove for BRM at the time. Two times World Champion Graham Hill appears as the minor character Bob Turner . Jim Clark and Guy Ligier are among those seen in archive footage.
- More coincidentally, in 1991 team, the late John Jordan, a club-level racing driver, purchased many of their assets, and financed the build of the 'P230' model (for racing in the Aurora AFX British national F1 series; arguably these cars were Jordan-BRMs!
- Almost thirty years later, this film provided the main inspiration for the racing simulation Grand Prix Legends , which was released in 1998. Like its cinematic counterpart, this also proved no commercial Blockbuster but gained popularity among racing fans due to its emphasis on racing realism.
- Brian Bedford was rumoured to have been chosen for his physical resemblance to Jim Clark , although the Lotus team does not appear in the film. This is believed to be because various teams including Lotus were involved with a rival John Sturges project. In a scene set at the Stoddart family home, Scott Stoddart sits in his late brother Roger's old car - a Lotus 16 ("Roger had some great days in this") - and there is a specially-commissioned Michael Turner painting of Roger winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in a similar Lotus on the wall. The chances of the early front-engined Formula 2 -based Lotus cars winning a Grand Prix were minimal!
- Several different cars had to be used as the Yamuras during the filming. McLaren were originally going to run two cars in 1966, one for Bruce McLaren and one for Chris Amon (whose name and helmet provided inspiration for Pete Aron), but the Ford engine available to the team was inadequate; Amon never entered any races for McLaren, so Bruce wore a Chris Amon helmet (with the blue and red stripes reversed) that year; even Bruce missed some races due to the car's lack of performance and other cars such as Bob Bondurant 's BRM were painted in 'Yamura' colours. (Bruce had originally intended his cars to be green on top and silver below the waist in 1966, with a broad yellow stripe separating green and silver; the film makers convinced him to paint them white to look "Japanese". The original poster for the 1966 German Grand Prix features a McLaren in the green/silver livery)
- The level of driving ability of the stars varied wildly - Bedford couldn't drive at all, Sabato was very slow and nervous, Montand himself scared very easily early in filming and was often towed rather than driving the car, but Garner was highly competent and took up racing and entering cars as a result of his involvement in the film.
- There was a joke campaign to nominate Graham Hill for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as 'Bob Turner'. This parallels the contemporaneous ' Dan Gurney for President' stickers.
