Moto Movies! (staring James Garner)
September 24th, 2007 |I watched two motor racing movies last week.
The first was Grand Prix from 1966. Following four Formula One drivers through a racing season, the movie was full of the obligatory and overdrawn personal drama that was common in 1950’s and 1960’s movies. But the cinematography of the racing scenes are really what makes the movie worthwhile. Check out the in car shots from the Monaco race which were quite innovative in its time.
Despite taking a swim in Monaco harbor, James Garner would actually take up auto racing following the filming of this movie.
Monza Sopraelevata
One of the most amazing parts of the film is the final race sequence filmed on the Monza Oval race course. Built in 1955, the Sopraelevata heavily banked, high speed track had been used by the Formula One circuit in the mid-1950’s and early 1960’s but had not been used by F1 in 5 years when Grand Prix was filmed. But the image of racing on the banking was too spectacular to pass up and so it was included in the film.
It’s unfortunate that the high speed track sits deteriorating, unused and overgrown by trees, in the country side of the Italian Lombardy.
The second film was the 2005 documentary Dust to Glory. Directed by Dana Brown, who is better known for surfing movies (that I can’t get enough of), Dust to Glory covers the famous Baja 1000 off-road race from Tijuana to La Paz Mexico.
Using the same camera techniques, cinematography, soundtrack and profiles employed in the surf movies, Brown made a riveting film about an event that I would not have normally given a crap about. Plus James Garner is in this movie too.
4 Responses to “Moto Movies! (staring James Garner)”
If you like Dust to Glory, you need to check out On Any Sunday, which was done by Brown Sr. Lot’s of Steve McQueen action shots and some of the riders in Dust to Glory were kids in On Any Sunday.
Another cool moto film is Faster, which follow a motorcycle Grand Prix season. If you think the action in a crit or field sprint is exciting you should see these guys jockeying for position at 200 mph with both ends of the bike sliding around.
I own all of the above. My name is Kevin, I’m a motorcycle addict ;^)
My grandma took me to see Gran Prix in the theater when I was a wee lad. I loved it. I even had the gatefold cover soundtrack record and used to stare at the stills of the crashes from the movie.
I recently watched most of Winning (Paul Newman) and enjoyed that, too.
Second for “On Any Sunday” and “Faster.”
My college roommate was from Horseheads, NY. He got me a spot on the fuel service crew at Watkins Glen for Grand Prix weekend. That put me in the pits among the jet set GP crowd. RR’s and Ferrari’s with long-legged Euro-babes all converged on these muddy fields in the middle of no where. At the other end of the spectrum the campground was a zoo. I watched two women in a Pinto (yup, it was the 70’s) try to shove there way through the crowd, only to have the mob turn on them, lift up the car with them still in it, and throw it into the Bog.
Good times!