Formula 1 Films.

Greenlantern101

Super Hero And All Round Good Guy
Contributor
After watching the Senna film I have a desire for more F1 films.

Im most interested in the Fangio Film from 1981. Has anyone seen it or know how to get hold of it ?
Fangio - Una vita a 300 all'ora (1981)

How about GrandPrix (1966) any good ?

If you have others please post.
Cheers.
 
I don't know much about F1 films but on film you must see for its pure comedy value is Driven starring Sly Stalone.

He's a maverick racing driver coming back into the indie series and coaching a new up and coming young driver
The team manager is in a wheel chair
The main rival is a sly cold as steel German

I wonder where he got those ideas from!
 
Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix" is a classic and well worth a watch. It's a bit old fashioned but then it's 45 years old so it's allowed to be (I am). The story line is a bit weak but the racing action is very good. Not sure if it's on Blue Ray yet, to see it in HD would be a treat.
 
"Weekend of a Champion" - 1972 - directed by Frank Simon and produced by Roman Polanski following Jackie Stewart at the 1971 Monaco GP. It's a documentary and a really good insight into what it was like behind the scenes and on track back then.
 
I can echo FB's comments on Grand Prix. At the Silverstone Classic, two years ago, the Friday night event at the main bar area was a big screen out door showing of Grand Prix and it was a brilliant evening. The movie is well worth owning on DVD for the massive amount of extras that come with it regarding 60's F1.

As FB has said, the story / plot, what little there is of it is the usual stuff, pretty thin but enjoyable. Where it scores is the stunning way it covers 60's motor racing. Each race featured in the film is actual footage from races at the 1966 season. The cars used by the actors in the film were usually run around the track driven by current F1 drivers and in some cases the actors (James Garner was apparently good enough to have been an racing driver) prior to the start of the race and then several cars in the race were re-painted in the colours of the "film cars" to ensure that the footage was as authentic as possible. I don't think you will find better footage of 60's racing anywhere so just for that, it acts as a remarkable record of its time.

Some of the F1 stars of the day also get small speaking rolls. Keep an eye out for the likes of Jack Brabham and Graham Hill joining in on the fun.
 
Since Rendezvous has been mentioned, I feel entitled to offer up another non-F1 suggestion: Le Mans (with Steve McQueen). Like Grand Prix, perhaps even more so, the dialogue is best watched from behind your fingers on fast-forward, but the racing action is great, the Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s are gorgeous and the old sections of track (and the old pits) are appropriately 'period' and therefore terrifying.
 
You MUST watch this with the sound on just to listen to the engine note.

That sounds like an awful lot of hard work for not a lot of speed... From a distant memory somewhere I believe the engine note is that of an historic Ferrari but the actual car used for the shoot wasn't.
 
That sounds like an awful lot of hard work for not a lot of speed... From a distant memory somewhere I believe the engine note is that of an historic Ferrari but the actual car used for the shoot wasn't.

Quite so. The car used for the shoot was a Mercedes 450SEL. The identity of the engine note has never really been proven, although to my ear the Ferrari V12 assumption might well be a good one.
 
C_a_t, wonderful until you see the bodies!


It's not real Jen LOL

No actors were harmed in the making of that film.

Oh wait, no hang on, James Garner was quite badly burned on the back of his neck filming a scene where his car had to grind to a halt on fire.

I'll try and find the scene if I can.
 
'Course it's real - just events and times muddled up.

And some of the actors should have been harmed or at least lost their Equity card.
 
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