Le Mans Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak for Steve McQueen and since I’m from Le Mans, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, I was wondering how they would develop a plot around the legendary race and, to my surprise, they didn’t even try. Indeed, the first dialogues showed up after more than 30 mins and there were eventually only a handful of them after all. The only thing resembling a plot was concerning Steve McQueen’s character who was coming back to Le Mans after experiencing a deadly accident the year before. The end-result was therefore a rather hybrid movie, almost a documentary but not really since it was filled with actors playing some fictional characters, but not really a fiction either because of the lack of plot. This movie was obviously a passion project for McQueen and it was apparently his idea to make it as realistic as possible which meant using very little dialogue in the film and focusing more on the cars. Anyway, eventually, it is a rather intriguing movie but still not really satisfying, to be honest. I mean, it reminds me of what a friend used to say about Formula 1. Basically, the guy used to say that the only exciting things about this sport were the start and when there was a crash and, indeed, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, even if it might be a great challenge for a race driver, remains pretty tedious to behold for the audience. Still, the opening scenes, when you get to see Steve McQueen driving in my hometown, 20 years before I was even living there, were pretty awesome. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing didn’t really work, I still think it is worth a look, especially if you are into racing sports.