Grand Prix question (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

It was always Leo the Lion.

Yes.

I saw this opening week at the Warner Cinerama in NY, then returned a month later to see it a second time. The MGM lion opened the film. I never personally saw the abstract logo on any other film aside from 2001, although I understand it did appear elsewhere. But don't be fooled by the fact that posters and album soundtracks featured the round abstract...it was rarely seen at the head of a film.

The racing sequences were really thrilling, especially near-front/center. This was, of course, not a true 3-projector presentation on a louvered screen (I never had the chance to get to any of the true Cinerama films), but it was still a rectified print on a massive, deeply-curved screen and I actually had to get up a few times and walk to the back from motion sickness. Aside from the 40 minutes or so of great racing action, the over two hours of romantic triangles and other filler were dull and full of mediocre performances by fine actors (some badly dubbed, in the case of the wasted Toshiro Mifune). John Frankenheimer had a lousy script to work with, and produced an epic that, like RYAN'S DAUGHTER, was too big for its B-picture britches, imho. I saw the film for a third time in second-run on a flat screen, and once even the racing sequences were less impactful, the entire film felt to me like much ado about too little.

Re: the Blu-ray: Okay but not great. The racing material is even less impressive, of course, as I haven't a screen size that can come close to those who have lots of expendable money and a great home theater (always my dream, never a reality). A remaster would be nice, but not a priority for me, as I still await a more watchable transfer of THE WILD BUNCH, to name one.

 

[Nelson Au]

I’m not so sure McQueen would have been good as Pete Aron, at least how the character is written. I can’t see McQueen doing the scene as Aron when he is meeting with Manetta at the Ferrari factory and asking for his job back as a driver. Or taking on the reporter job.

Yes, there is a degree to the character of Aron that McQueen would have been right in. It would have been an interesting side note if he was in the film and driving the Shelby Mustang and then later driving the 1968 Mustang in Bullitt.

Of course, McQueen and John Sturges was in direct competition at the time trying to get their own racing movie done but it didn’t work out until 1971’s Le Mans.

I’ve seen Grand Prix many times and I thought the cast was great. I didn’t have a problem with Eva Marie Saint. Was she too old? When paired with Montand, the ages work. Though Monique Sarti does look a little younger.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Since McQueen was supposed to star in it, I wonder how much retooling they did to the script to suit Garner’s personality instead.

 

[RolandL]

Smileboxed trailer.