Le Mans | 
 enlarge | Director: Lee H. Katzin
Actors: Steve Mcqueen, Siegfried Rauch, Elga Andersen, Ronald Leigh-hunt, Fred Haltiner
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $8.06
You Save: $6.92 (46%)
New (38) from $8.06
Avg. Customer Rating:  147 reviews
Sales Rank: 5175
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 108
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
MPN: TM1068
ISBN: 0792190483
UPC: 097363770145
EAN: 9780792190486
ASIN: B00008DDRX
Theatrical Release Date: June 23, 1971
Release Date: April 29, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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Product Description
Almost in breadth and depth of a documentary, this movie depicts an auto race during the 70s on the world's hardest endurance course: Le Mans in France. The race goes over 24 hours on 14.5 kilometers of cordoned country road. Every few hours the two drivers per car alternate - but it's still a challenge for concentration and material. In the focus is the duel between the German Stahler in Ferrari 512LM and the American Delaney in Gulf Team Porsche 917. Delaney is under extraordinary pressure, because the year before he caused a severe accident, in which his friend Lisa's husband was killed.
Amazon.com essential video
A classic auto-racing movie starring Steve McQueen, Le Mans puts the audience in the driver's seat for what is often called the most grueling race in the world. The French auto race Le Mans is a 24-hour affair through the French countryside, a demanding ordeal for any driver. McQueen (Bullitt, The Great Escape) plays the American driver, locked in an intense grudge match with his German counterpart even as he wrestles with the guilt over causing an accident that cost the life of a close friend. McQueen is his usual stoic magnetic self, and the racing sequences are among the best ever committed to film. A solid character-driven story combines with raw visceral power to make Le Mans a rich tapestry of action and thrills. --Robert Lane
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| Customer Reviews: Read 142 more reviews...
 Before there were in-car cameras... July 15, 2008
I've been a sportscar racing fan since I was a child. And since my childhood was during the late 1960s and early 1970s, there really isn't any way to explain the impact the onboard footage had upon us back then.
I once raced sportscars as an amateur in the SCCA. There is no way on earth I can tell you what it actually feels like to go "out there", but at least in this film you can see what it looks like..
Yes, there's no love story...but don't ever say there's no plot. This film is a "fictional documentary". A study of a very misunderstood sport by a man who loved it so much he just wanted everyone to know what it was really all about. It is our (the racers' "our") good fortune that this man was a popular actor with enough financial backing behind him to make the attempt.
 Great car movie June 22, 2008
As a Porsche owner I really enjoyed this movie. The racing scenes are amazing for the vintage of the film. Steve McQueen's acting is, well, Steve McQueen, but he drives like a pro.
Super! May 25, 2008
This is a great movie if you like racing, if not, forget about it! I am a big fan of the Gulf Porsches, and the 917's, so this was right up my alley. The acting is ok, the race announcer sounds like an idiot, but the racing footage is spectacular.
simply astounding - an existenial meditation on racing May 17, 2008
So many have already praised this movie and rightfully so. It is a remarkable film. Dedicated to the reality of racing, stripped of vehicles like standard plot lines, or contrived love affairs, this is a movie just about racing. It is a cinematographic masterpiece.
Rather than continue to gush praise for this film, I'll try to add a little background that may help other appreciate the lesser known aspects of the movie. This film attempts to capture reality in a pure unadulterated way. While a few sections and crashes were staged. The majority of the film was shot during the 1970 Le Mans 24hrs itself. The movie features the actual cars running the race itself.
The camera car used to film the 1970 Le Mans 24hrs was a Porsche 908 ( a beautiful race vehicle if ever there was one). It ran the race as an unofficial entry, and it was loaded with heavy cameras. Driven by Porsche's Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams, it travelled 282 laps (3,798 km) and finished the race on 9th position. That's pretty great for a camera car! It would have done better, but it did not cover the required minimum distance due to long stops to change film reels. Your average race car at Le Mans tries to minimize pit stops. The camera car was burdened by cameras, controls, and mounts, AND it had to stop for lengthy changes of film. 9th place. A Porsche 908 running with Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s. I give those drivers and that car some real credit. The footage shot by the camera car is remarkable. The sequences during the early dawn hours that capture a Ferrari 512 passing the camera car are chillingly beautiful.
The stand-in cars used for the crash sequences were real race cars, Lola T70's, modified to look like Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s. The Lolas were used because they were less expensive to wreck than would have been the cost of sacrificing a real 917.
If you have an appreciation of racing and history's most beautiful race cars, this movie will not disappoint you. True to the famous quote from the film - racing is life, everything before and after is just waiting. This film is like that - there is the race, and then the scenes in between - which really are about waiting. They may seem slow to american audiences, but this is not really an american film. It is much more a european film, and it possesses a unique pace that is not for everyone, and is not even understood by everyone, but is valid and artistically correct for the existential meditation that this movie truly is.
Takes The Checkered Flag February 16, 2008
Nearly 40 years since its release, Le Mans remains the best racing film ever made, because the focus is on the cars and course of the greatest endurance event in motor sports.
The major parts of the film were filmed during the June 1970 race, with cutting-edge technology used to provide the viewer a driver's view of the action.
A Porsche 908/2 - which actor Steve McQueen had co-driven to a second place finish in the 12 Hours of Sebring - was entered in Le Mans by Solar Productions and equipped with movie cameras. The camera car was driven Herbert Linge and Jonathan Williams.
With a believable, though minor, sub-plot on the tension between a wife and her husband concerning the risks & rewards from the sport, director Lee H. Katzin delivers a classic by allowing the pace of the race dictate the action.
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