I am now 76 years old. I grew up with these movies. They had an impact on me to the point I have spent my life building race cars, some for me, mostly for customers, currently on car serial number 81 One of my cars had seven cameras strapped on it for a Top Gear episode. Been a great life.
58 here (born the year this came out). Same story. My dad watched these movies, I watched them, my kids watched them. In the last 30 years I’ve built and raced more than a dozen cars myself, for others and with my son. Grand Prix comes the closest to what I’ve been chasing the whole time.
i once read someone saying that Grand Prix is a war movie pretending to be a sports movie - comparing it to Top Gun as a sports movie pretending to be a war movie
@@BlameAmes - I agree; for anyone with an understanding of high performance machinery, the cars as stand-ins for WWII era single seat fighter aircraft is inescapably linked to by the storyline. In an era when 'ptsd' was considered shameful, to approach it the way they did was both sensitive and remarkably humane. It's a hugely under-appreciated film. I'm with Pat; to see it in full 70mm widescreen glory would be breathtaking.
It's also interesting to see how Grand Prix probably influenced actual racing broadcasts, from helicopted mounted cameras to onboard shots being used everywhere nowadays. Hell, the Indycar series in particular has remotely controlled rotating cameras to give us Grand Prix-like panning shots during overtakes. Now some racing broadcasters are also experimenting with something called helmet cam, which is exactly what it sounds like and I hope we can see in a movie one day.
We’re probably getting that very soon. Brad Pitt’s F1 movie is coming out with the same director of Top Gun Maverick and it looks like they’re using the same sensor mounting trick they used on that to shoot directly inside the cars.
Watch any “gentlemen, start your engines” sequence from the Indy 500 races when Paul Page was ABC’s lead broadcaster (1988-1995 in particular). They are absolutely inspired by “Grand Prix”’s Monaco start montage.
to be fair, the reasons for not having as many onboards in the past are mainly techical, people wanted to do it as long as racing was a thing and even by the time you get to the early 90s where cameras are cigar-sized and unobtrusive you still only have enough radio bandwidth to use a handful of them at most (Also helmet cams have been around since the same period ruclips.net/video/gwdgs8dJLd0/видео.html&ab_channel=CoronasdeLaurel)
Patrick's true superpower: making 40+ minute videos knowing full well his viewers will watch every minute of it. That's the mark of a truly impressive RUclipsr.
*laughs in Noah Caldwell-Gervais* (I mean - you're not wrong. Patrick's videos are awesome but they hardly scratch my willingness to watch lengthy, thoughful videos.)
@@richstoehr3247 Patrick hasn't hit "8-hour full Resident Evil franchise retrospective" mode yet. But who knows - maybe he'll find something that warrants the runtime.
Maybe my mental reaction speeds are better, but I have never had this problem with the opening Quantum chase. It's fast, yes, but there's visual information provided for every occurrence in the sequence. I adore it.
@@denoftools I’m pretty sure that Jackie Chan still holds that record for POLICE STORY (1985). The criminals and the pursuing cops drive down the side of a hill and wreck the entire refugee shantytown constructed on that hillside.
@@viewer-of-content I don’t think former valuation of a structure was as relevant to the argument as the scope of the destruction. ruclips.net/video/Wyh54oXB5j8/видео.htmlsi=WIBYkCItkOy3tnVs
I remember catching Grand Prix on TCM on some day when I was like 14 with my dad. I could not believe it. Seeing a movie of that era having more kinetic energy than many movies I grew up with. I was glued. And Yves Montand... "I love you... there I said it..." god damn fine cinema.
I've just started watching and I already cannot believe that The Blues Brothers don't get any credit in any category of chase scene related destructivity 😅
How can you even mention The Blue Brothers? It's a typical low-brow Hollywood trashy and crashy scene, it cannot be compared with the artistry of Grand Prix.
@@DavidJames-v1y If I remember correctly, something like 60 old police cars were purchased for the infamous chase to Chicago, none of which survived. However 104 cars in total were 'totalled' during the film. This record was only beaten by the follow up (and, in my opinion, not so impressive) Blue Brothers 2000 film, which destroyed 105 cars.
Also an honorable mention; c’etait une rendezvous. An 8 minute short film with one shot of a car racing through Paris in the morning. No permits, no cuts just one terrifying pov shot of a camera mounted on the front of some Mercedes. From 1976!
I was about to post this very thing - it's a bit of a cheat though as the film was sped up and the soundtrack was Ferrari F1 car. Grand Prix's a great film - featuring the F1 stars of the day - and Jimmy Garner was an exceptionally good driver too.
Another one dubbed Gettaway was filmed in the early dawn of the day in the summer in Stockholm (or was it Oslo?) with a Porsche 930 Turbo. Cameras on the front, back and side.
I'm actually a little shocked Ben-Hur's chariot sequence didn't even get a passing mention. The tension and thrills from that sequence put it AT LEAST as a spiritual predecessor to the modern car chase scene.
I think that's got to do with the pacing. Editing is only part of the pacing. Crudely speaking, pacing is how the director see the action unfold in his head and how successfully he puts that on screen. Haven't seen Grand Prix but from what I saw of Ronin chase in this clip it can't hold a candle, or carburetor rather, to Ben Hur's. Namely it drags...a bit, the action stays pretty much the same only the building background changes.
This film holds a special place in my heart. In 1972 a theater specializing in second run movies in Lewisville Texas was showing Grand Prix. That's where I took a first date with a girl who wasn't yet 15 -- the theater was a few blocks from her home. Even though I was somewhat distracted by her blazing red, borrowed, hot-pant dress, I could see how special the car scenes were. I ended up marrying that girl and we've been together ever since.
Really great deep dive! Our teams' commercial film jobs on Talladega Nights, Ta Ra Rum Pum and 3 in the 00's owe a lot to Grand Prix for how to shoot racing scenes. Thank you for highlighting all these incredible aspects of car filming!
you should listen to the commentary second audio track for the movie... discusses the details and reason and... includes talking about the sounds of the cars
it must: otherwise you might also hear at 2:02 that incoming traffic is rather slow, so you gotta cover lack of speed with something... it's also being covered with overgesturing the steering wheel, kinda like you see in most bike chases in movies, you just don't ride bikes like that, you don't dance on the bike for no good reason. chases, overall, are one of the best examples of movies overamplifying reality. unless you're a kid.
Joining in the conversation about great cinema with car monted cameras, I suggest a 1988 short called "Climb Dance". Watch a Peugeot driven by rallying legend Ari Vattanen race to the clouds on gravel roads in the iconic Pikes Peak hill climb. The sun blocking scene is an icon by itself.
Frankenheimer is so underrated, his filmography is insane. Reminds me of Robert Wise, another great one that never entered the pantheon of, you know, the Great Ones.
I watched this on Nebula, but I came here to comment. This was a fantastic essay! But I CANNOT emphasize enough how excited I am about your upcoming Speed Racer video! It is IMHO the Wachowski's masterpiece and best movie! And it is absolutely the best transition from anime to live action that has ever been filmed. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
I don't know if you've seen Superspeedway, the 90s IMAX documentary about IndyCar, but the DNA of Grand Prix is all over that thing. I saw it as a kid and I've got a fancy high-quality copy on my Plex that works pretty well in a VR headset that I like to take in every once in a while. So much great car-mounted 70mm footage, with a surprising amount of Dire Straits playing underneath it.
Surprising if you're not aware that Mark Knopfler is a massive car enthusiast and amateur racing driver. He has a collection of classics, mainly Jaguars and regularly races his E-Type Lightweight in historic meetings.
It’s rewarding for me to have found this channel and listen to a filmmaker/reviewer who talks about film in the context of film history and craft and not just frivolous spontaneous reaction to the spectacle….By speaking of modern film in the context of film history and craft one maintains an appreciation for the medium regardless of the critique….
This. The same goes for music and video games, for all forms of art. I find that too many people fail to consider the cultural and historical context that surrounds every work, especially in the past 20 or 30 years now that technology has changed so rapidly. It's very easy to say "This looks bad" when you have no idea what you're really looking at lol.
My mind was not nearly as blown seeing that Francis Ford Coppola was credited for the sound as it was seeing that MENAHEM GOLAN (Cannon Films) received credit for being the property master. 🤯
While watching this, I was thinking "oh yeah, Frankenheimer must have gotten inspiration from Ce'tait un Rendezvous" only to find out Grand Prix came out a whole 9 years earlier! 🤯
27:22 This bit makes me think about David Bordwell's thoughts on realism, that it's basically a catch-all term that can be used to justify any stylistic choice. The driving scenes are "realistic" because they capture racing by recreating them faithfully, but the "artsy" montages can also be "realistic" because they offer a look at the "real" psychology of the drivers.
My dad was at the filming of this movie, he got to meet James Garner. Still baffles me that he was in Europe during the peak of F1 and early sports car racing. What a time to be alive to see that.
What’s great about this movie for Formula one fans are the cameos by the heroes of 1960’s racing. Clark, Hill, Rindt, Surtees, Brabham, Hill (Phil) to name but a few. Look a bit harder in the background and you’ll see a few of the legendary journalists and some of the very best motor racing photographers of the time (all time). These details that Frankenheimer included are now all but lost to time, remembered only by a few, including myself. I get to see my late father as a young man long before I appeared, both here in Grands Prix as well as the McQueen epic, Le Mans.
19:39 Lorenzo Bandini was one of the drivers in this movie, he died roughly one year later at the Hospital in Monte Carlo after he had an accident at the 1967 Monaco GP. It also was Bandini recommending the location at the harbour chicane for a crash scene in the movie filmed at the Monaco circuit. It was the same place where he had his fatal accident one year later.
In the early 1990’s, I worked at Suncoast: The Motion Picture (a former retailer of video cassettes, DVDs movie-related merchandise. The fans of _Grand Prix_ who got openly viscerally excited & passionate about the fact the film was available on VHS has always left a long term impression on me. The film definitely has its following & acolytes.
We went to see Grand Prix at a drive -in two years after it was released. My father had gotten his first brand new car that summer, a 1968 Javelin. I remember he absolutely LOVED this movie, especially how it made him feel like he was in the cars at speed. I can't tell you how many times I've seen this movie over the years, yet I always think of my father.
Great video and still my favorite racing film! My old driving mentor Bob Bondurant raced for Shelby and was a consultant on the film helping train the drivers. He's in the opening credits. Bob told me John had him sit with the editor to make sure everything was correct (when to downshift, etc. vs. what looked good). I still love Bullitt and LeMans -- worthy of their own videos like this. The Saul Bass credits are epic; didn't realize he helped with those other sequences.
The 1960s? European location shooting? Saul Bass? CARS?! This movie sounds like *my type* to a tee. Can’t believe I’ve never seen it. Adding it to the list! Thank you for this video, Patrick!
Greatest Racing Movie Ever. I became a Big Indy500 and F1 fan starting in 1963. So When Grand Prix came out in 1966 in Cinerama - I saw it 4 times in 3 weeks. Setting down front in the middle of that 100 ft curved screen was so exciting.
30:51 The fact that the camera stays horizontal *_as the vehicle drives up the banked curve_* shows how much thought and technical skill went into that movie’s production. The camera operator had to make that camera move remotely, exactly, and at the right moment; while the car was driving. It is an electro-mechanical ballet. All for a three-second shot. Bravissimo!
The joke about Ford v Ferrari gets funnier coming right after the interview where James Mangold rants about cinematic universes and interconnected films 😅
I recently started working on film sets for a production company and I love cars/car movies, that only made this video more interesting. It’s my first time coming across your work and I am very glad I found this video. I haven’t enjoyed a YT video as much as this in a long time. Thank you for making my day better, i subbed.
In ways, McQueen's Le Mans improved on Grand Prix. The C'était un rendez-vous court métrage is also a must-see. You have to see them if you want to dig deeper into car film milestones and maybe contrast them with Speed Racer (which I haven't seen).
Yes, Le Mans was the only truly authentic racing movie from the point of view of real drivers driving at real speeds in the actual cars at the actual track. Real footage from the 1970 Le Mans Race was- interspersed with what the Film Unit produced. Steve McQueen wanted as much authenticity as possible and his passion fueled the realism. Grand Prix was good in 66' with innovative filming and camera angles but no actor was in any danger unless James Garner pushed the envelope. Five years later, Le Mans put you in the driver's seat and you could feel the excitement. Nothing else has ever come close.
What a coincidence, I watched Grand Prix last week. This month I decided to play Driver 1 on PS1 for the first time and decided to watch and rewatch several films with racing/car/chase themes, mainly from the 60s and 70s. John Frankenheimer is a very underrated director.
Children of Men has the best car chase sequence, for my money. The "car can't start" downhill chase, the foot mob, the bikers. It's the grittiest, most real and most affecting a car chase have ever been. It makes you afraid that brutal violece is going to be inflicted on the protagonists. It makes you feel for the the junker they are driving. It even manages to telegraph bad things that are about to happen using the poor junkers' collision warning system. It is drama on wheels and I will never forget it.
Instead of a "Patrick answers Questions About" video, we should get a video where he brings up all the examples of great car chase/race movies from the comments. :)
I think the wildest thing about Grand Prix is putting the actors in those cars. That era of F1 was really the last era before safety started to become a genuine consideration. The tyres are thin crossply, meaning they're rock hard with barely any grip, also the shape of the cars actually generated lift meaning it was trying to pull itself off the road. Not only were these actors driving bombs with cameras attached, they were in bombs that were actively trying to kill them
thing is he says the movie wasnt sped up but certain parts of it was, only James Garner drove at full speed and the other F1 drivers actually said he could become a great F1 driver if he wanted to continue, the other actors either went slow or were being pulled along by the Gt40
Very true. Perhaps most interestingly, the genesis of modern track & car safety standards is captured in the film. During the Spa sequence, Jackie Stewart's shunt is shown - the one that got his whole "safety crusade" going. One of the most significant accidents in motorsports history, as it kickstarted the long, slow, and extremely bloody process of making racing safe enough for the modern world...
It's so cool to see Red Line 7000, one of the Hawks pictures brought up in video. Howard Hawks was a car man, his race movies were interesting. Though I think it could be stated Hawks' aviation flicks captured the essence of flying moreso, of course Hawks was also into airplanes. And in both fields did well.
I saw Grand Prix at the Century 21 in San Jose, Ca. Cinerama Big Screen. I was 16. The girl next to me now saw it too. Last Cinerama I saw was at Century 21, Pulp Fiction. The first version. The Leather Geek scene was longer, as was the Travolta/ Thurman scene when he enters her house.
Minor notes on Grand Prix production, one actor (I forget who) insisted on being towed for his head on in-car shots. He just never got comfortable with the fastest driving asked of him. The others were capable, while James Garner actually displayed some real talent behind the wheel, and started racing as a hobby after the film. The cars were actually NOT real F1 cars. They were Formula Fords dressed up as F1's. Still an impressive feat to put actors in them at speed and get convincing racing action. Edit: Grand Prix also contains a rare, almost full, on-car lap of old Spa-Francorchamps, one of the most unsafe and insane race tracks in history. Thrilling stuff.
From memory it was Brian Bedford (Scott Stoddard) who just wouldn't drive the cars. I don't think he even had a road licence at that point. Mainly they were re-dressed F3 chassis tho, rather than FFord.
@@jpkatz1435 One litre Formula Three cars, dressed-up as 'F1' cars at the Jim Russell School of Motor Racing's workshops at the Snetterton race circuit, Norfolk, England.
The lap of Spa shown in Grand Prix is doubly notable, as it not only shows just how eerie a place it could be, with the rain shutting down visibility almost instantly, but it also shows the aftermath of Sir Jackie Stewart's infamous shunt, the one that caused his safety crusade. IIRC, Bob Bondurant & Graham Hill are visible crossing the track to go to Jackie's aid.
I get why people say Ronin is best but c'mon Drive opening scene was amazing, Le Man with Steve McQueen filmed at Le man, And Transporter 1 deserve a mention
My moms love this movie. She remembers seeing at a drive in when she was a little girl. She even told me James garner was her first crush. She was so excited when they put it out blu ray
They put it out on HD-DVD first. I think we still have copies buried in the back somewhere. It might have been a stupid technology war but at least it was short?
I have been editing films for the last 35 years and I think you gave an excellent analysis. Frankenheimer filmed Ronin at the age of 68 and gave lessons on vitality and mise en scene to younger people.
When you mentioned the car stunts in the silent era, there was a point where I was hoping you'd mention Speedy with Harold Lloyd. The car stunts in that, particularly in the Babe Ruth scene with the POV shot of the taxi speeding through New York feels like a precursor to a lot of the scenes in Grand Prix
Reading the other comments says it all, this fellow Patrick makes great content. I was looking for videos about drones and happened to click on this video to run down in the corner while I searched , not for long. Quality gets my attention, well done sir.
You should really check the 2005 French film Les Chevaliers du ciel (or in it's English name "Sky Fighters") it's like Top Gun, but with the aerial shots actually shot in real fighter jets - they replaced a fuel pod with a clear compartment to hold a camera. From a cinematography perspective it's beautiful!
That Ronin car chase also looks heavily inspired by William Friedkin. Both The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A. did pretty much that first
My favorite cinematic car chase is in Jackie Chan’s Who Am I? Imagine amazing stunt driving mixed with Chan’s style of visual-heavy king fu. It’s great
The saddest thing about Grand Prix is the fact that Steve McQueen stole all their footage from perhaps the greatest circuit of all time (Nurburgring), and then DID NOTHING WITH IT. That project was called Day of the Champion, and eventually became Le Mans (1971), and for obvious reasons no longer had any reason to use that footage. The end result is that I can't find much decent footage of the Nurburgring in 1966, and I could instead be living in a world where the film had the jumps and onboard footage of it in wonderful 65mm.
I also think that when it comes to car speed and cinematography of car movement, intense time etc. "C'était un rendez-vous" by Claude Lelouch is absolutely crucial yet unappreciated masterpiece which influence is so obvious in many other films.
very exciting to see you in front of some picturesque European scenery instead of the confines of your studio. Seems like you had a great time on this trip and it’s been nice to see it
We watched this for my 14 year old great nephew's birthday. His request. Looks fantastic on my big screen and bllue ray. Nice review. I was a year away from being in existence. I love this entire movie. James Garner is always a hit.
Man this video is one of my new favorites, it feels like an episode just for me. There is just something about car cinema that I love, and this video is helping me figure out what that "something" is. Also, how did I never know about this movie???? I'm so excited to go watch it! On a related note, have you seen C'était un rendez-vous by Claude Lelouche? I feel like that short film is the apotheosis of that car-POV shot. Your comments on Ford v Ferrari remind me of when I walked out of the theater saying something like "I wish they had just let me watch a POV of a full lap" of LeMans. Also wondering if you've seen the Red Bull drone shot of an F1 lap at speed? They put that up on youtube and it blew my mind with the sense of motion.
My question is… did you see Ford vs. Ferrari in IMAX? If not, I feel like you only saw half of the movie. The IMAX sequences, where your peripheral vision is engaged in the driving, feels so you instinctively try to find the clutch so you can shift gears with the drivers. The scene where Ford rides along with Shelby really makes you understand his emotions there. It’s fantastic.
For someone who says they aren’t interested in cars or racing, you have summed up Grand Prix and accompanying racing movies better than anyone else could
I think the best car chase ever is from the film French Connection. Why? Not for its cinematography, but because it is the most realistic. No roads were blocked off. No extras driving other cars were used to create traffic. They sent a couple cars off on a wild ride across the city during the day and filmed it. Always wondered how they settled up with the innocent bystanders whose cars were hit along the way.
I agree 100% on Ronin's car chase. It was truly breathtaking. The driving at the end of From Paris with Love is pretty damn good too. There's a French short called "The Rendezvous," that's one long shot from a camera mounted on the front of a car racing through what appeared to be early morning streets in a European city, I presume Paris. THAT is also pretty damn good.
man i only clicked on this video in my recommended because i was curious WHICH movie was being talked about, but this was super interesting. had me hooked the whole way, well done. and i agree, as a car person, we mostly appreciate visceral, raw, realism. we scoff if we detect a hint of cgi, unless its just something goofy and fun like the f&f movies. theres a vinwiki video with ben collins talking about working on the recent Ferrari that was really interesting. a ton of practical driving in that one.
Ironically, John Frankenheimer would go on to direct the sequel to The French Connection, but weirdly enough he opted for a foot chase instead of an all out over the top car chase
French Connection II is genuinely really good though, like shockingly so, the first part is quite miserable but intentionally involving Popeye getting lost in Marseille and stumbling around and this agonising withdrawal sequence, some great acting if hard to sit through, but the third act, oh man was it great, Frankenheimer still had it in the 70s with this and Black Sunday. I know French Connection II in concept sounds as ridiculous as Exorcist II, but its genuinely good thanks to Frankenheimer, and the foot chase is really suspenseful
I never knew where and when filming car chases or racing had changed! The look at the how the different shots give you the feel of being in the vehicle was incredibly interesting! Wonderful video! I'm sooooo excited!!!!! Speed Racer is one of my favorite movies and I loved it from the moment the first scene came on the screen. I never understood why people didn't like it at the time and have enjoyed as with each passing year more people have come out in praise of what it tried to accomplish. I think it's the movie that comes the closest to literally bringing animation to life.
The Grand Theft Auto video game series contains a few references to this film. GTA III: The Leone Family motorcade in the mission Sayonara Salvatore is similar to the motorcade in the first car chase in the film. GTA IV: The mission Union Drive features a car chase where a Police Car flips over in a road tunnel causing the chasing car to avoid it while in the film a BMW crashes in a tunnel during a car chase. Also...this is an amazing video. ALL your videos are amazing. That...and Speed Racer rocks.
Thanks Patrick for that great video essay. One could also mention the impact Grand Prix had on Claude Lelouch making his infamous "C'était un rendez-vous" (It was a date) possibly the first illegal street race film in 1976, that got banned by the French authorities and was only able to make the round in small festivals and underground cinemas. On an August Sunday morning of 1976, just before dawn, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL (he told the world that it was a Ferrari 275 GTB and dubbed it accordingly in post) and a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer (possibly René Arnoux or Jean-Pierre Jarrier), drove at breakneck speed for 9mn through the heart of Paris. He didn't have the authorization for filming and the talkie-walkies used to warn traffic along the ways by the DA's didn't work as intended. It is all in one mesmerizing take, with no dialogue and no driver in sight. The only person you actually see is a blonde woman approaching the car in the final moments - hence the name “It was a date”. According to Lelouch, who who got nominated at the Oscars, BAFTA and Cannes for "A man and a woman" in 1966, the intention was to capture the urgency when a young man rushes to pick up his beautiful date. It is just as much as about sex and desire as it is about driving. You can now see it on RUclips.
One of the big reasons I think the Ronin chases feel so visceral is the mundanity of the vehicles. They're not driving supercars or tanks or massive humvees - they're in a regular BMW and a Peugeot. These are cars that, at least growing up in Europe, you could see every day. You KNOW how those cars drive, how they handle. You know how close to the wire they are.
An m5 and an s8 were not pedestrian by any means at the time. They were stealth performance cars that would blend in. High performance getaway cars. Some real iykyk car people knew.
@@gobgobcachoo there's also a small scene where their getaway driver is talking about sourcing parts to kit out the cars to make them into beasts but its again something that non car people probably don't catch.
They are not exotic, but the BMW 5 series (it's not clear if it's an M5 or 535i) and Peugeot 406 are very good, highly capable cars that remain prized even today. Also within the film there's a scene earlier in the film where the driving specialist character gives a list of parts to the guy whose job it is to source what the team needs, and he's discussing adding a nitrous system to at least one of their cars. If you're a car person and you're paying attention you know right then that shit's going to get real sooner or later. But the fact they are more relatable everyday sort of cars rather than F1 cars only a handful of living people have ever driven brings you closer to them, it's true.
These are my favorite Patrick videos. The ones that break down all the little movie-making details that went into making this one thing I've never really thought about WORK, in a way that makes it all feel like the most interesting thing on the planet.
I haven't seen most of these movies (although now I really want to), but man was this such a good episode! My favorite one in awhile, had me so excited, and I loved how in the weeds Pattrick got with the explanations of camera angles and setups! My question though is where do you think racing cinematography goes from here? Is the filming of actual races, like in the upcoming F1 movie, the next innovation?
Yes, basically true. Behra ended up flung out and killed on the banking at AVUS (pole rather then tree, but Sarti mirrored this from the Monza banking), Ascari crashed into the Monaco harbour - survived with few injuries but a year following Grand Prix, Ludovico Scarfiotti had a Stoddart-copying incident and did not survive. Jackie Stewart had the same type accident at Spa (with Jo Bonnier - who's car is seen in Grand Prix), but the car-into-house-and-spectators was more similar to the Mille Miglia Ferrari accident of Fon de Portago as seen in "Ferrari". So yeah, there is nothing in that sense in Grand Prix which is unheard of. Unlike, say, Ferrari; which had a hugely unrealistic depiction of real incidents!) or Talladega Nights. Even "Driven", though it was panned for being unrealistic at the time, has had almost every accident replicated in real-life either before or since!
Ridiculously hyped about the upcoming Train Movies video essay! Will be a great complement to OPS's trope talk about trains that recently came. And then the final season of Snowpriecer will arrive on Netflix. I declare 2024 The Year of Traaaaaaiiiinsss!
The fact that the 'Drivers' credits contains some of the names it does, in and of itself, should tell you how seriously this movie took the realism. I am not sure you appreciate just how big a deal these people where. Giuseppe Farina (credited as Nino Farina, who died en route to French GP to shoot that part of this film) the first Formula One World Drivers Champion Graham Hill, multiple F1 WDC, and the only driver to win the Triple Crown of motorsport: The Monaco Gran Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and the 24hrs of Le Man. Jack Brabham, multiple WDC and the only person in history to win the F1 World Drivers Championship AND the Constructors Championship in the same year.... by driving a car of his own design to the titles, for a team baring his own name. Jochen Rindt.... sadly, the only Posthumous World Drivers Champion. Not to mention a driver many even today consider the GOAT of Auto Racing, Juan Manuel Fangio, 5x WDC, in an era where life expectancy was far shorter than todays racers, at time when the season was much shorter and gave you less chance to win, even if it gave you more time to die (his career was just 52 races long). As well as Phil Hill, the first American WDC (and one of only two, the other being Mario Andretti). As well as World Champion Denny Hulme, Not just those WDC guys either, there's some exceptionally famous names there. Chris Amon, widely considered the unluckiest man in racing history, a moniker oft given, but in his case .. be it leading a race by 7 minutes... NOT SECONDS, MINUTES... and his gear box breaking trying to keep up with his demands on it, or being taken out the race in the box seat a lap up by a pit incident caused by another, he is widely considered to be the fastest guy ever on pure natural speed.... but in a era where cars literally broke trying to meet his demands, because of it. Guy Ligier, as in Ligier, the team, one of the most iconic names in the sport for decades, founded by Guy.... his JS cars (the naming convention itself with a connection here) with their at times... bizarre .. designs... and sometimes sponsors... being crowd favourites, his team tackling in sports car racing as well. Bruce McLaren, yes, as in McLaren, the F1/Indy team, and supercar manufacturer. I do not really need to tell why he is a big deal. The fact that Frankenheimer went all out and hired all these guys to make this movie, and that they were all involved in the racing scenes, told me, long before I ever watched the film, that the car scene would fire, it is, in fact, WHY I watched it. You cannot have those names, that roster of talent, involved (many of these guys were still currently racing in F1, at this time too), and it NOT be. Also, Enzo Ferrari had a rep for being an A Hole with a purple pen.... so much so, that not JUST, famously, Lamborghini, but at least half a dozen OTHER car manufacturers can be traced back to some degree or another, to the fact their founders had issues with Enzo Ferrari.... Brabham and McLaren included in fact (Ferrari, however, LOVE that sh*t...unlike other companies which might want to bury or spin that... they OWN it... in fact, THEY bring it up at times).... so the fact that the 'Old man'... agreed to let them use the red cars, and more, SHOOT with the Scuderia and EVEN AT THE FACTORY, tells anyone who learns of this, and knows cars, and racing, that this... THIS... is something special.
19:39 Lorenzo Bandini was one of the drivers in this movie, he died roughly one year later at the Hospital in Monte Carlo after he had an accident at the 1967 Monaco GP. It also was Bandini recommending the location at the harbour chicane for a crash scene in the movie filmed at the Monaco circuit. It was the same place where he had his fatal accident one year later.
@GeorgHaeder @GeorgHaeder Yep. I know. Sadly, a number of drivers listed, would die within a few years of this films release. Revson, Schlesser, Siffert, Spence, McLaren and Rindt would all die behind the wheel of racing cars too. Schlesser's death also caused his best friend...Guy Ligier, to immediately retire from motor racing too (and all Ligier car models began with JS, as tribute to Schlesser). Racing exceptionally high risk back then.
Thank you for this video. I caught Grand Prix on TCM a few months ago and was mesmerized by the first 20 minutes of the movie. I knew next to nothing about it before watching, and I could not believe that the movie was not more celebrated today. Bravo for bringing attention back to this film!
Patrick, just found your channel and thought, ah well, layover talk about Grand Prix (pretty easy guess once u seen it). But no, this had excellent production value, onsite footage, OG stuff and super well researched stuff, well done man!
I was eating my breakfast when the TV called out my name
I can imagine that half-second thought: did I collaborate with Patrick this year? Why do I not remember that?
First time hey?!? 🙃
actually lol'd at seeing this as the first comment juxtaposed to the feelings I had after intently watching a 42 minute 10/10 cinema analysis
I am now 76 years old.
I grew up with these movies.
They had an impact on me to the point I have spent my life building race cars, some for me, mostly for customers, currently on car serial number 81
One of my cars had seven cameras strapped on it for a Top Gear episode.
Been a great life.
What car was it that was featured on top gear? I'd love to take a look at some of your work
That’s incredibly cool. I wish for a life like yours in my future
58 here (born the year this came out). Same story. My dad watched these movies, I watched them, my kids watched them. In the last 30 years I’ve built and raced more than a dozen cars myself, for others and with my son. Grand Prix comes the closest to what I’ve been chasing the whole time.
THAT SCENE IN RONIN. WELL , YOU MISSED OUT ON 'THE TRANSPORTER ' . THE CHASE WITH THE POLICE THROUGH PARIS, THE TRANSPORTER DID IT BETTER .☝
Do you want an Apprentice?
I would *love* to do that for a living....
:D
“Hell yeah, we’re talking about Grand Prix today.” - me as soon as I saw the thumbnail.
My guess as well- it's my favorite 1960's film allegory about WWII PTSD! Good racing scenes too....
i once read someone saying that Grand Prix is a war movie pretending to be a sports movie - comparing it to Top Gun as a sports movie pretending to be a war movie
In my book, still the one and only best movie about F1 and motors racing. Le Mans (1971) also ranks up and I considered it very close to Grand Prix.
@@BlameAmes - I agree; for anyone with an understanding of high performance machinery, the cars as stand-ins for WWII era single seat fighter aircraft is inescapably linked to by the storyline. In an era when 'ptsd' was considered shameful, to approach it the way they did was both sensitive and remarkably humane. It's a hugely under-appreciated film. I'm with Pat; to see it in full 70mm widescreen glory would be breathtaking.
@@KiloOneThree Fantastic film, but it's incredibly irritating that its existence is the reason why we don't get to see the Nurburgring in Grand Prix.
It's also interesting to see how Grand Prix probably influenced actual racing broadcasts, from helicopted mounted cameras to onboard shots being used everywhere nowadays. Hell, the Indycar series in particular has remotely controlled rotating cameras to give us Grand Prix-like panning shots during overtakes. Now some racing broadcasters are also experimenting with something called helmet cam, which is exactly what it sounds like and I hope we can see in a movie one day.
We’re probably getting that very soon. Brad Pitt’s F1 movie is coming out with the same director of Top Gun Maverick and it looks like they’re using the same sensor mounting trick they used on that to shoot directly inside the cars.
Well, even VIVA LAS VEGAS (1964) used helicopter-mounted cameras.
Watch any “gentlemen, start your engines” sequence from the Indy 500 races when Paul Page was ABC’s lead broadcaster (1988-1995 in particular). They are absolutely inspired by “Grand Prix”’s Monaco start montage.
F1 has small cameras inside helmets already, I'm pretty sure.
to be fair, the reasons for not having as many onboards in the past are mainly techical, people wanted to do it as long as racing was a thing and even by the time you get to the early 90s where cameras are cigar-sized and unobtrusive you still only have enough radio bandwidth to use a handful of them at most (Also helmet cams have been around since the same period ruclips.net/video/gwdgs8dJLd0/видео.html&ab_channel=CoronasdeLaurel)
Patrick's true superpower: making 40+ minute videos knowing full well his viewers will watch every minute of it. That's the mark of a truly impressive RUclipsr.
*laughs in Noah Caldwell-Gervais*
(I mean - you're not wrong. Patrick's videos are awesome but they hardly scratch my willingness to watch lengthy, thoughful videos.)
@@richstoehr3247 Patrick hasn't hit "8-hour full Resident Evil franchise retrospective" mode yet. But who knows - maybe he'll find something that warrants the runtime.
C'était un rendez-vous watch this 9 min short
Doing that while finding new ways to be annoying with his "Cinematic Universe" is his true superpower
Don’t forget Billiam’s 20+ hour lost retrospective that isnt even finished yet
"You always know exactly what's happening and where the cars are in relation to each other"
Quantum of Solace : "let's not do that".
Thankfully there is more than one style of filmmaking, it would be very boring if all films looked the same wouldn't it.
To be honest the chase scene in QoS is the second best thing of the movie, the best is the David Arnold soundtrack.
Maybe my mental reaction speeds are better, but I have never had this problem with the opening Quantum chase. It's fast, yes, but there's visual information provided for every occurrence in the sequence. I adore it.
The sound on that QoS chase is superb.
Quantum of Solace was Paul Greengrass on speed and cocaine.
Those less than a second shot movies make me naseaus.
OK, let’s be clear. Ronan has the TWO best car chase seen in any movie and the Blues Brothers did the most damage and they did it without CGI
@@denoftools I’m pretty sure that Jackie Chan still holds that record for POLICE STORY (1985). The criminals and the pursuing cops drive down the side of a hill and wreck the entire refugee shantytown constructed on that hillside.
Actually Con-Air crashed a quad jet into the old sans hotel in a controlled demolition. Valuation of the sans was 115million in its 1988 sale.
@@viewer-of-content I don’t think former valuation of a structure was as relevant to the argument as the scope of the destruction.
ruclips.net/video/Wyh54oXB5j8/видео.htmlsi=WIBYkCItkOy3tnVs
Ronan?
@@yowatchie What can I say, iPhone's talk to text is actual 💩
I remember catching Grand Prix on TCM on some day when I was like 14 with my dad. I could not believe it. Seeing a movie of that era having more kinetic energy than many movies I grew up with. I was glued. And Yves Montand... "I love you... there I said it..." god damn fine cinema.
I've just started watching and I already cannot believe that The Blues Brothers don't get any credit in any category of chase scene related destructivity 😅
IKR? One of the greatest chase scenes of all time!
@@EphemeralTao Smart horse. :)
My thought exactly.
Didn't they smash like 200 police cars?
How can you even mention The Blue Brothers? It's a typical low-brow Hollywood trashy and crashy scene, it cannot be compared with the artistry of Grand Prix.
@@DavidJames-v1y If I remember correctly, something like 60 old police cars were purchased for the infamous chase to Chicago, none of which survived. However 104 cars in total were 'totalled' during the film. This record was only beaten by the follow up (and, in my opinion, not so impressive) Blue Brothers 2000 film, which destroyed 105 cars.
Also an honorable mention; c’etait une rendezvous. An 8 minute short film with one shot of a car racing through Paris in the morning. No permits, no cuts just one terrifying pov shot of a camera mounted on the front of some Mercedes. From 1976!
I was about to post this very thing - it's a bit of a cheat though as the film was sped up and the soundtrack was Ferrari F1 car.
Grand Prix's a great film - featuring the F1 stars of the day - and Jimmy Garner was an exceptionally good driver too.
I would like to also mention Pinchcliffe GrandPrix, I think it has merit. short clip: ruclips.net/video/qUd4NTUiXlI/видео.htmlsi=f0LHJcpYmVMbgEE2
Another one dubbed Gettaway was filmed in the early dawn of the day in the summer in Stockholm (or was it Oslo?) with a Porsche 930 Turbo. Cameras on the front, back and side.
That you mentioned: Toonces, the cat that could drive as a reference is one of the many reasons I love this channel…
How does he reach the pedals?
@@kellys5949 he has a long tail
@@kellys5949 -the joke is that he doesn't drive *well* .
I'm actually a little shocked Ben-Hur's chariot sequence didn't even get a passing mention. The tension and thrills from that sequence put it AT LEAST as a spiritual predecessor to the modern car chase scene.
Good shout. The chariot race in Ben-Hur is even more impressive than Grand Prix, and that's a high bar.
Which version of Ben Hur? The silent one has the chariot race that may be more exciting than the sound version.
I think that's got to do with the pacing. Editing is only part of the pacing. Crudely speaking, pacing is how the director see the action unfold in his head and how successfully he puts that on screen. Haven't seen Grand Prix but from what I saw of Ronin chase in this clip it can't hold a candle, or carburetor rather, to Ben Hur's. Namely it drags...a bit, the action stays pretty much the same only the building background changes.
@@newhorizon4066
See Grand Prix. It is a classic!
12:08 Should have followed that up with "And then Titane showed us what it's like for a car to be inside YOU"
😂😂😂😂
Hey that title already goes to the Magic Schoolbus.
This film holds a special place in my heart. In 1972 a theater specializing in second run movies in Lewisville Texas was showing Grand Prix. That's where I took a first date with a girl who wasn't yet 15 -- the theater was a few blocks from her home. Even though I was somewhat distracted by her blazing red, borrowed, hot-pant dress, I could see how special the car scenes were. I ended up marrying that girl and we've been together ever since.
Smart man. :) Grats! This comment made the video, btw. I'm a sucker for fast cars and true romance.
Really great deep dive! Our teams' commercial film jobs on Talladega Nights, Ta Ra Rum Pum and 3 in the 00's owe a lot to Grand Prix for how to shoot racing scenes.
Thank you for highlighting all these incredible aspects of car filming!
Amazing work on those.
I love how Ronin makes all the cars sound so… substantial.
you should listen to the commentary second audio track for the movie... discusses the details and reason and... includes talking about the sounds of the cars
Even the Citroen XM looked and sounded like a rocket.
it must: otherwise you might also hear at 2:02 that incoming traffic is rather slow, so you gotta cover lack of speed with something... it's also being covered with overgesturing the steering wheel, kinda like you see in most bike chases in movies, you just don't ride bikes like that, you don't dance on the bike for no good reason.
chases, overall, are one of the best examples of movies overamplifying reality.
unless you're a kid.
@@grunchlk The V6 petrol XM sounds pretty good in real life. I still have mine!
I bought the Blu Ray of Ronin just for the car chase scenes.
YESSSS, an episode of Speed Racer, thats what im waiting for...
He talked extensively about Speed Racer in his video about realism ;)
@@goodial i’ve seen it, of course i want to know more.
And a big YESSSS from me as well 😁👍🏻
Patrick also says YESSSSSSS but that's just how he says it normally
I love this film
Joining in the conversation about great cinema with car monted cameras, I suggest a 1988 short called "Climb Dance". Watch a Peugeot driven by rallying legend Ari Vattanen race to the clouds on gravel roads in the iconic Pikes Peak hill climb. The sun blocking scene is an icon by itself.
Heck yeah, when you said I instantly saw how he blocks the sun with one hand and holding the steering wheel with the other.
Small correction: The actors in "Grand Prix" didn't drive real F1 cars. They used modified F3 cars for these particular driving shots.
Frankenheimer is so underrated, his filmography is insane. Reminds me of Robert Wise, another great one that never entered the pantheon of, you know, the Great Ones.
Camera Mechanics? 60's F1? Film disambiguation? Toonces the driving cat? Questioning the morality of Monaco? Basically everything I love in one video?
I watched this on Nebula, but I came here to comment. This was a fantastic essay! But I CANNOT emphasize enough how excited I am about your upcoming Speed Racer video! It is IMHO the Wachowski's masterpiece and best movie! And it is absolutely the best transition from anime to live action that has ever been filmed. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
Woooow Willems analysing Ronin, Grand Prix, Great Frankenheimer, and cars in movies, this made my day! Many Miles of Thanks!!
I don't know if you've seen Superspeedway, the 90s IMAX documentary about IndyCar, but the DNA of Grand Prix is all over that thing. I saw it as a kid and I've got a fancy high-quality copy on my Plex that works pretty well in a VR headset that I like to take in every once in a while. So much great car-mounted 70mm footage, with a surprising amount of Dire Straits playing underneath it.
Surprising if you're not aware that Mark Knopfler is a massive car enthusiast and amateur racing driver. He has a collection of classics, mainly Jaguars and regularly races his E-Type Lightweight in historic meetings.
@@OsellaSquadraCorse I did not know that. Very cool!
@@OsellaSquadraCorsewow, thank you both for this info!!
Was that documentary pre-split or post-split
Video essay on Grand Prix? Very cool surprise.
Not a surprise, he told us at the end of the previous video 😜
It's a strange occurrence to find you around here Mr. Simpson.
That feeling when Yves Montand and James Garner drove better than Nikita Mazepin and Lance Stroll ever did. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Patrick goes on holiday, misses the big event, and then tells us about films is my new favourite genre.
Right? First thing I thought of lol
It’s rewarding for me to have found this channel and listen to a filmmaker/reviewer who talks about film in the context of film history and craft and not just frivolous spontaneous reaction to the spectacle….By speaking of modern film in the context of film history and craft one maintains an appreciation for the medium regardless of the critique….
This. The same goes for music and video games, for all forms of art. I find that too many people fail to consider the cultural and historical context that surrounds every work, especially in the past 20 or 30 years now that technology has changed so rapidly. It's very easy to say "This looks bad" when you have no idea what you're really looking at lol.
My mind was not nearly as blown seeing that Francis Ford Coppola was credited for the sound as it was seeing that MENAHEM GOLAN (Cannon Films) received credit for being the property master. 🤯
Came here to say the same thing! His Wiki page doesn't list the movie in his filmography, nor does it for his wife.
While watching this, I was thinking "oh yeah, Frankenheimer must have gotten inspiration from Ce'tait un Rendezvous" only to find out Grand Prix came out a whole 9 years earlier! 🤯
I had exactly the same thought!
"This isn't my first 'Grand Pricks', you know..." ~ Mallory Archer, voiced by the incomparable Jessica Walter, R.I.P.
Balls
Thanks for pointing out she was in the film.
Over on IMDB there's a great collection of photos and she's in few of them.
Ah damn, I didn't know she passed 😔🪦😔
Finally, Patrick talks about Pixar's Cars 2.
27:22 This bit makes me think about David Bordwell's thoughts on realism, that it's basically a catch-all term that can be used to justify any stylistic choice. The driving scenes are "realistic" because they capture racing by recreating them faithfully, but the "artsy" montages can also be "realistic" because they offer a look at the "real" psychology of the drivers.
My dad was at the filming of this movie, he got to meet James Garner. Still baffles me that he was in Europe during the peak of F1 and early sports car racing. What a time to be alive to see that.
What’s great about this movie for Formula one fans are the cameos by the heroes of 1960’s racing. Clark, Hill, Rindt, Surtees, Brabham, Hill (Phil) to name but a few. Look a bit harder in the background and you’ll see a few of the legendary journalists and some of the very best motor racing photographers of the time (all time). These details that Frankenheimer included are now all but lost to time, remembered only by a few, including myself. I get to see my late father as a young man long before I appeared, both here in Grands Prix as well as the McQueen epic, Le Mans.
19:39 Lorenzo Bandini was one of the drivers in this movie, he died roughly one year later at the Hospital in Monte Carlo after he had an accident at the 1967 Monaco GP.
It also was Bandini recommending the location at the harbour chicane for a crash scene in the movie filmed at the Monaco circuit. It was the same place where he had his fatal accident one year later.
In the early 1990’s, I worked at Suncoast: The Motion Picture (a former retailer of video cassettes, DVDs movie-related merchandise.
The fans of _Grand Prix_ who got openly viscerally excited & passionate about the fact the film was available on VHS has always left a long term impression on me.
The film definitely has its following & acolytes.
You are literally talking about my two favorite "driving scenes", no SFX, no gimmicks... just. pure. driving.
My life will now halt to a stop to watch Patrick H willems
Grand Prix H Willems
We went to see Grand Prix at a drive -in two years after it was released. My father had gotten his first brand new car that summer, a 1968 Javelin. I remember he absolutely LOVED this movie, especially how it made him feel like he was in the cars at speed. I can't tell you how many times I've seen this movie over the years, yet I always think of my father.
The best car chase is Pierce Brosnan driving a tank through St Petersburg. Especially the bit with the statue on the roof.
This is one of the definitive video on car related movies,....and also a great tribute to John Frankenheimer, an absolute Legend!... Thanks Patrick!
God this is all so pleasing. Great topic for just drooling at the screen. Thanks for walking us through it, Patrick!
Great video and still my favorite racing film! My old driving mentor Bob Bondurant raced for Shelby and was a consultant on the film helping train the drivers. He's in the opening credits. Bob told me John had him sit with the editor to make sure everything was correct (when to downshift, etc. vs. what looked good). I still love Bullitt and LeMans -- worthy of their own videos like this. The Saul Bass credits are epic; didn't realize he helped with those other sequences.
The 1960s? European location shooting? Saul Bass? CARS?!
This movie sounds like *my type* to a tee. Can’t believe I’ve never seen it. Adding it to the list!
Thank you for this video, Patrick!
If you haven't already done so, do it. This isn't just the best racing film of all time, it is IMO a top 10 film of any kind all time.
Greatest Racing Movie Ever. I became a Big Indy500 and F1 fan starting in 1963. So When Grand Prix came out in 1966 in Cinerama - I saw it 4 times in 3 weeks. Setting down front in the middle of that 100 ft curved screen was so exciting.
This might actually be the most interesting video Patrick has ever done! Fascinating!
30:51 The fact that the camera stays horizontal *_as the vehicle drives up the banked curve_* shows how much thought and technical skill went into that movie’s production. The camera operator had to make that camera move remotely, exactly, and at the right moment; while the car was driving. It is an electro-mechanical ballet. All for a three-second shot. Bravissimo!
The joke about Ford v Ferrari gets funnier coming right after the interview where James Mangold rants about cinematic universes and interconnected films 😅
I recently started working on film sets for a production company and I love cars/car movies, that only made this video more interesting. It’s my first time coming across your work and I am very glad I found this video. I haven’t enjoyed a YT video as much as this in a long time. Thank you for making my day better, i subbed.
In ways, McQueen's Le Mans improved on Grand Prix. The C'était un rendez-vous court métrage is also a must-see. You have to see them if you want to dig deeper into car film milestones and maybe contrast them with Speed Racer (which I haven't seen).
Yes, Le Mans was the only truly
authentic racing movie from the
point of view of real drivers driving
at real speeds in the actual cars at
the actual track. Real footage from
the 1970 Le Mans Race was-
interspersed with what the Film
Unit produced. Steve McQueen
wanted as much authenticity as
possible and his passion fueled
the realism. Grand Prix was good
in 66' with innovative filming and
camera angles but no actor was
in any danger unless James Garner
pushed the envelope.
Five years later, Le Mans put you
in the driver's seat and you could
feel the excitement. Nothing else
has ever come close.
What a coincidence, I watched Grand Prix last week. This month I decided to play Driver 1 on PS1 for the first time and decided to watch and rewatch several films with racing/car/chase themes, mainly from the 60s and 70s. John Frankenheimer is a very underrated director.
Children of Men has the best car chase sequence, for my money. The "car can't start" downhill chase, the foot mob, the bikers. It's the grittiest, most real and most affecting a car chase have ever been. It makes you afraid that brutal violece is going to be inflicted on the protagonists. It makes you feel for the the junker they are driving. It even manages to telegraph bad things that are about to happen using the poor junkers' collision warning system.
It is drama on wheels and I will never forget it.
Great movie indeed.
Instead of a "Patrick answers Questions About" video, we should get a video where he brings up all the examples of great car chase/race movies from the comments. :)
I think the wildest thing about Grand Prix is putting the actors in those cars. That era of F1 was really the last era before safety started to become a genuine consideration. The tyres are thin crossply, meaning they're rock hard with barely any grip, also the shape of the cars actually generated lift meaning it was trying to pull itself off the road. Not only were these actors driving bombs with cameras attached, they were in bombs that were actively trying to kill them
thing is he says the movie wasnt sped up but certain parts of it was, only James Garner drove at full speed and the other F1 drivers actually said he could become a great F1 driver if he wanted to continue, the other actors either went slow or were being pulled along by the Gt40
Lol safety did not become a genuine consideration after that era, not for a very long time. The 70s and 80s were just as bad and much much faster.
@@cool3865Garner. McQueen, & Newman were all great drivers in real life.
See ‘Le Mans’ for additional thrills
Very true. Perhaps most interestingly, the genesis of modern track & car safety standards is captured in the film. During the Spa sequence, Jackie Stewart's shunt is shown - the one that got his whole "safety crusade" going. One of the most significant accidents in motorsports history, as it kickstarted the long, slow, and extremely bloody process of making racing safe enough for the modern world...
It's so cool to see Red Line 7000, one of the Hawks pictures brought up in video. Howard Hawks was a car man, his race movies were interesting. Though I think it could be stated Hawks' aviation flicks captured the essence of flying moreso, of course Hawks was also into airplanes. And in both fields did well.
I saw Grand Prix at the Century 21 in San Jose, Ca. Cinerama Big Screen. I was 16. The girl next to me now saw it too. Last Cinerama I saw was at Century 21, Pulp Fiction. The first version. The Leather Geek scene was longer, as was the Travolta/ Thurman scene when he enters her house.
Minor notes on Grand Prix production, one actor (I forget who) insisted on being towed for his head on in-car shots. He just never got comfortable with the fastest driving asked of him. The others were capable, while James Garner actually displayed some real talent behind the wheel, and started racing as a hobby after the film.
The cars were actually NOT real F1 cars. They were Formula Fords dressed up as F1's. Still an impressive feat to put actors in them at speed and get convincing racing action.
Edit: Grand Prix also contains a rare, almost full, on-car lap of old Spa-Francorchamps, one of the most unsafe and insane race tracks in history. Thrilling stuff.
From memory it was Brian Bedford (Scott Stoddard) who just wouldn't drive the cars. I don't think he even had a road licence at that point.
Mainly they were re-dressed F3 chassis tho, rather than FFord.
F1, Fjr, or F Ford, interesting to get this minor point known. Pretty sure it's not F3, way too small.
@@jpkatz1435 One litre Formula Three cars, dressed-up as 'F1' cars at the Jim Russell School of Motor Racing's workshops at the Snetterton race circuit, Norfolk, England.
The lap of Spa shown in Grand Prix is doubly notable, as it not only shows just how eerie a place it could be, with the rain shutting down visibility almost instantly, but it also shows the aftermath of Sir Jackie Stewart's infamous shunt, the one that caused his safety crusade. IIRC, Bob Bondurant & Graham Hill are visible crossing the track to go to Jackie's aid.
I get why people say Ronin is best but c'mon Drive opening scene was amazing, Le Man with Steve McQueen filmed at Le man, And Transporter 1 deserve a mention
My moms love this movie. She remembers seeing at a drive in when she was a little girl. She even told me James garner was her first crush. She was so excited when they put it out blu ray
They put it out on HD-DVD first. I think we still have copies buried in the back somewhere.
It might have been a stupid technology war but at least it was short?
I have been editing films for the last 35 years and I think you gave an excellent analysis. Frankenheimer filmed Ronin at the age of 68 and gave lessons on vitality and mise en scene to younger people.
When you mentioned the car stunts in the silent era, there was a point where I was hoping you'd mention Speedy with Harold Lloyd. The car stunts in that, particularly in the Babe Ruth scene with the POV shot of the taxi speeding through New York feels like a precursor to a lot of the scenes in Grand Prix
The man was a genius.
Reading the other comments says it all, this fellow Patrick makes great content. I was looking for videos about drones and happened to click on this video to run down in the corner while I searched , not for long. Quality gets my attention, well done sir.
Hell yeah, a Grand Prix video! John Frankenheimer, what a filmmaker.
You should really check the 2005 French film Les Chevaliers du ciel (or in it's English name "Sky Fighters") it's like Top Gun, but with the aerial shots actually shot in real fighter jets - they replaced a fuel pod with a clear compartment to hold a camera. From a cinematography perspective it's beautiful!
That Ronin car chase also looks heavily inspired by William Friedkin. Both The French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A. did pretty much that first
Gran Prix was before those films as mentioned in this video.
My favorite cinematic car chase is in Jackie Chan’s Who Am I? Imagine amazing stunt driving mixed with Chan’s style of visual-heavy king fu. It’s great
Speed Racer and Grand Prix sit side by side on my shelf next to Ronin. I'm glad McQueen passed on it and Garner got the part.
What a wonderful video, thank you. Had never even heard of this movie.
The saddest thing about Grand Prix is the fact that Steve McQueen stole all their footage from perhaps the greatest circuit of all time (Nurburgring), and then DID NOTHING WITH IT.
That project was called Day of the Champion, and eventually became Le Mans (1971), and for obvious reasons no longer had any reason to use that footage.
The end result is that I can't find much decent footage of the Nurburgring in 1966, and I could instead be living in a world where the film had the jumps and onboard footage of it in wonderful 65mm.
I also think that when it comes to car speed and cinematography of car movement, intense time etc. "C'était un rendez-vous" by Claude Lelouch is absolutely crucial yet unappreciated masterpiece which influence is so obvious in many other films.
very exciting to see you in front of some picturesque European scenery instead of the confines of your studio. Seems like you had a great time on this trip and it’s been nice to see it
We watched this for my 14 year old great nephew's birthday. His request. Looks fantastic on my big screen and bllue ray. Nice review. I was a year away from being in existence. I love this entire movie. James Garner is always a hit.
As a car guy this is my favorite essay of his. Thanks Patrick!
Man this video is one of my new favorites, it feels like an episode just for me. There is just something about car cinema that I love, and this video is helping me figure out what that "something" is. Also, how did I never know about this movie???? I'm so excited to go watch it! On a related note, have you seen C'était un rendez-vous by Claude Lelouche? I feel like that short film is the apotheosis of that car-POV shot. Your comments on Ford v Ferrari remind me of when I walked out of the theater saying something like "I wish they had just let me watch a POV of a full lap" of LeMans. Also wondering if you've seen the Red Bull drone shot of an F1 lap at speed? They put that up on youtube and it blew my mind with the sense of motion.
My question is… did you see Ford vs. Ferrari in IMAX?
If not, I feel like you only saw half of the movie.
The IMAX sequences, where your peripheral vision is engaged in the driving, feels so you instinctively try to find the clutch so you can shift gears with the drivers.
The scene where Ford rides along with Shelby really makes you understand his emotions there.
It’s fantastic.
For someone who says they aren’t interested in cars or racing, you have summed up Grand Prix and accompanying racing movies better than anyone else could
Robert De Niro's double chin does the best acting in this scene. Masterful work.
Noticed that too. 😂
Finally a review that captures my love for Frankenheimer movies. Specifically his car sequences. Ronin and GP my faves. Thanks for this!!
Best car moment is "C'etait un rendez-vous" a stunning trip through Paris in the early hours of the morning. A short film by Claude Lelouch.
Agreed, I was going to post the same reference 🤣
I'm surprised they forgot to mention it in the video
It's definitely up there on the list. Probably unknown to non car people, but check it out!
ruclips.net/video/EL6fbi0ysQ0/видео.html
@@rotwang2000 I referenced the same short, I first seen this on a worn out VHS cassette in the early 90s
I think the best car chase ever is from the film French Connection. Why? Not for its cinematography, but because it is the most realistic. No roads were blocked off. No extras driving other cars were used to create traffic. They sent a couple cars off on a wild ride across the city during the day and filmed it. Always wondered how they settled up with the innocent bystanders whose cars were hit along the way.
God, I hope he brings up Speed Racer, that movie needs more attention
Yeah but Speed Racer is as far from "insane realism" as a movie can get.
I really want him to do an hour video on nebula just talking about the movie
Fuck yeah he did
@@kaiwilliams141he will and for RUclips, life is good my friend
When I tell you I about jumped out of my seat at the video... I mean it
I agree 100% on Ronin's car chase. It was truly breathtaking. The driving at the end of From Paris with Love is pretty damn good too. There's a French short called "The Rendezvous," that's one long shot from a camera mounted on the front of a car racing through what appeared to be early morning streets in a European city, I presume Paris. THAT is also pretty damn good.
According to one of the special features on the DVD (which I just saw yesterday), they used Formula 3 cars modified to look like F1 cars.
Would be great to get that F3 explanation in these comments.
man i only clicked on this video in my recommended because i was curious WHICH movie was being talked about, but this was super interesting. had me hooked the whole way, well done. and i agree, as a car person, we mostly appreciate visceral, raw, realism. we scoff if we detect a hint of cgi, unless its just something goofy and fun like the f&f movies. theres a vinwiki video with ben collins talking about working on the recent Ferrari that was really interesting. a ton of practical driving in that one.
Ironically, John Frankenheimer would go on to direct the sequel to The French Connection, but weirdly enough he opted for a foot chase instead of an all out over the top car chase
Sometimes you don't want to repeat yourself (and sometimes you just need a paycheck).
French Connection II is genuinely really good though, like shockingly so, the first part is quite miserable but intentionally involving Popeye getting lost in Marseille and stumbling around and this agonising withdrawal sequence, some great acting if hard to sit through, but the third act, oh man was it great, Frankenheimer still had it in the 70s with this and Black Sunday. I know French Connection II in concept sounds as ridiculous as Exorcist II, but its genuinely good thanks to Frankenheimer, and the foot chase is really suspenseful
I never knew where and when filming car chases or racing had changed! The look at the how the different shots give you the feel of being in the vehicle was incredibly interesting! Wonderful video!
I'm sooooo excited!!!!! Speed Racer is one of my favorite movies and I loved it from the moment the first scene came on the screen. I never understood why people didn't like it at the time and have enjoyed as with each passing year more people have come out in praise of what it tried to accomplish. I think it's the movie that comes the closest to literally bringing animation to life.
Not even a mention of "C'était un rendez-vous" of Claude Lelouche 1976?
The Grand Theft Auto video game series contains a few references to this film.
GTA III: The Leone Family motorcade in the mission Sayonara Salvatore is similar to the motorcade in the first car chase in the film.
GTA IV: The mission Union Drive features a car chase where a Police Car flips over in a road tunnel causing the chasing car to avoid it while in the film a BMW crashes in a tunnel during a car chase.
Also...this is an amazing video. ALL your videos are amazing. That...and Speed Racer rocks.
Hell yeah brother. Car chases
Thanks Patrick for that great video essay. One could also mention the impact Grand Prix had on Claude Lelouch making his infamous "C'était un rendez-vous" (It was a date) possibly the first illegal street race film in 1976, that got banned by the French authorities and was only able to make the round in small festivals and underground cinemas.
On an August Sunday morning of 1976, just before dawn, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL (he told the world that it was a Ferrari 275 GTB and dubbed it accordingly in post) and a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer (possibly René Arnoux or Jean-Pierre Jarrier), drove at breakneck speed for 9mn through the heart of Paris. He didn't have the authorization for filming and the talkie-walkies used to warn traffic along the ways by the DA's didn't work as intended. It is all in one mesmerizing take, with no dialogue and no driver in sight. The only person you actually see is a blonde woman approaching the car in the final moments - hence the name “It was a date”.
According to Lelouch, who who got nominated at the Oscars, BAFTA and Cannes for "A man and a woman" in 1966, the intention was to capture the urgency when a young man rushes to pick up his beautiful date. It is just as much as about sex and desire as it is about driving. You can now see it on RUclips.
You forgot Claude Lelouch's "C'était un rendez-vous" from 1976
Awesome video, you sold me very quickly, I need to see this. Do you think you might ever bring back the episode viewing guides before videos drop?
One of the big reasons I think the Ronin chases feel so visceral is the mundanity of the vehicles. They're not driving supercars or tanks or massive humvees - they're in a regular BMW and a Peugeot. These are cars that, at least growing up in Europe, you could see every day. You KNOW how those cars drive, how they handle. You know how close to the wire they are.
I didn't even grow up in Europe and I can tell just by looking at them that they're not exactly racing material lol
An m5 and an s8 were not pedestrian by any means at the time.
They were stealth performance cars that would blend in. High performance getaway cars.
Some real iykyk car people knew.
@@gobgobcachoo there's also a small scene where their getaway driver is talking about sourcing parts to kit out the cars to make them into beasts but its again something that non car people probably don't catch.
They are not exotic, but the BMW 5 series (it's not clear if it's an M5 or 535i) and Peugeot 406 are very good, highly capable cars that remain prized even today. Also within the film there's a scene earlier in the film where the driving specialist character gives a list of parts to the guy whose job it is to source what the team needs, and he's discussing adding a nitrous system to at least one of their cars. If you're a car person and you're paying attention you know right then that shit's going to get real sooner or later. But the fact they are more relatable everyday sort of cars rather than F1 cars only a handful of living people have ever driven brings you closer to them, it's true.
its funny because in thatsame year, french "Taxi" movie also use 406
These are my favorite Patrick videos. The ones that break down all the little movie-making details that went into making this one thing I've never really thought about WORK, in a way that makes it all feel like the most interesting thing on the planet.
2:49 effort
I haven't seen most of these movies (although now I really want to), but man was this such a good episode! My favorite one in awhile, had me so excited, and I loved how in the weeds Pattrick got with the explanations of camera angles and setups!
My question though is where do you think racing cinematography goes from here? Is the filming of actual races, like in the upcoming F1 movie, the next innovation?
according to one of the documentaries on the disc every accident featured in the film happened to someone before the film was made
Yes, basically true. Behra ended up flung out and killed on the banking at AVUS (pole rather then tree, but Sarti mirrored this from the Monza banking), Ascari crashed into the Monaco harbour - survived with few injuries but a year following Grand Prix, Ludovico Scarfiotti had a Stoddart-copying incident and did not survive. Jackie Stewart had the same type accident at Spa (with Jo Bonnier - who's car is seen in Grand Prix), but the car-into-house-and-spectators was more similar to the Mille Miglia Ferrari accident of Fon de Portago as seen in "Ferrari".
So yeah, there is nothing in that sense in Grand Prix which is unheard of. Unlike, say, Ferrari; which had a hugely unrealistic depiction of real incidents!) or Talladega Nights.
Even "Driven", though it was panned for being unrealistic at the time, has had almost every accident replicated in real-life either before or since!
Ridiculously hyped about the upcoming Train Movies video essay!
Will be a great complement to OPS's trope talk about trains that recently came.
And then the final season of Snowpriecer will arrive on Netflix. I declare 2024 The Year of Traaaaaaiiiinsss!
The fact that the 'Drivers' credits contains some of the names it does, in and of itself, should tell you how seriously this movie took the realism. I am not sure you appreciate just how big a deal these people where.
Giuseppe Farina (credited as Nino Farina, who died en route to French GP to shoot that part of this film) the first Formula One World Drivers Champion
Graham Hill, multiple F1 WDC, and the only driver to win the Triple Crown of motorsport: The Monaco Gran Prix, the Indianapolis 500, and the 24hrs of Le Man.
Jack Brabham, multiple WDC and the only person in history to win the F1 World Drivers Championship AND the Constructors Championship in the same year.... by driving a car of his own design to the titles, for a team baring his own name.
Jochen Rindt.... sadly, the only Posthumous World Drivers Champion.
Not to mention a driver many even today consider the GOAT of Auto Racing, Juan Manuel Fangio, 5x WDC, in an era where life expectancy was far shorter than todays racers, at time when the season was much shorter and gave you less chance to win, even if it gave you more time to die (his career was just 52 races long).
As well as Phil Hill, the first American WDC (and one of only two, the other being Mario Andretti).
As well as World Champion Denny Hulme,
Not just those WDC guys either, there's some exceptionally famous names there.
Chris Amon, widely considered the unluckiest man in racing history, a moniker oft given, but in his case .. be it leading a race by 7 minutes... NOT SECONDS, MINUTES... and his gear box breaking trying to keep up with his demands on it, or being taken out the race in the box seat a lap up by a pit incident caused by another, he is widely considered to be the fastest guy ever on pure natural speed.... but in a era where cars literally broke trying to meet his demands, because of it.
Guy Ligier, as in Ligier, the team, one of the most iconic names in the sport for decades, founded by Guy.... his JS cars (the naming convention itself with a connection here) with their at times... bizarre .. designs... and sometimes sponsors... being crowd favourites, his team tackling in sports car racing as well.
Bruce McLaren, yes, as in McLaren, the F1/Indy team, and supercar manufacturer. I do not really need to tell why he is a big deal.
The fact that Frankenheimer went all out and hired all these guys to make this movie, and that they were all involved in the racing scenes, told me, long before I ever watched the film, that the car scene would fire, it is, in fact, WHY I watched it. You cannot have those names, that roster of talent, involved (many of these guys were still currently racing in F1, at this time too), and it NOT be.
Also, Enzo Ferrari had a rep for being an A Hole with a purple pen.... so much so, that not JUST, famously, Lamborghini, but at least half a dozen OTHER car manufacturers can be traced back to some degree or another, to the fact their founders had issues with Enzo Ferrari.... Brabham and McLaren included in fact (Ferrari, however, LOVE that sh*t...unlike other companies which might want to bury or spin that... they OWN it... in fact, THEY bring it up at times).... so the fact that the 'Old man'... agreed to let them use the red cars, and more, SHOOT with the Scuderia and EVEN AT THE FACTORY, tells anyone who learns of this, and knows cars, and racing, that this... THIS... is something special.
19:39 Lorenzo Bandini was one of the drivers in this movie, he died roughly one year later at the Hospital in Monte Carlo after he had an accident at the 1967 Monaco GP.
It also was Bandini recommending the location at the harbour chicane for a crash scene in the movie filmed at the Monaco circuit. It was the same place where he had his fatal accident one year later.
@GeorgHaeder @GeorgHaeder Yep. I know.
Sadly, a number of drivers listed, would die within a few years of this films release.
Revson, Schlesser, Siffert, Spence, McLaren and Rindt would all die behind the wheel of racing cars too.
Schlesser's death also caused his best friend...Guy Ligier, to immediately retire from motor racing too (and all Ligier car models began with JS, as tribute to Schlesser).
Racing exceptionally high risk back then.
Thank you for this video. I caught Grand Prix on TCM a few months ago and was mesmerized by the first 20 minutes of the movie. I knew next to nothing about it before watching, and I could not believe that the movie was not more celebrated today. Bravo for bringing attention back to this film!
28:30 hes right. Make a speed racer video
Patrick, just found your channel and thought, ah well, layover talk about Grand Prix (pretty easy guess once u seen it).
But no, this had excellent production value, onsite footage, OG stuff and super well researched stuff, well done man!