[Movies] Motor racing flicks

[johnh875]

Driven looks like it was made for 8 year olds. GP & LM are both films suitable only for petrolheads. I remember an article in Wheels magazine years ago about car films and they referred to the "fatal question" in racing flicks - "Why do you race?"

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Chatters

"Winning", with Paul Newman? Surprised that hasn't been mentioned. From what I hear it has a decent story to go with the racing as well.

Got it a few weeks ago and it sucked. There is a little historic racing footage if you like that.

What I found in the film was a lot of wasted film and scenes of people doing innocuous things that had nothing to add to the story, like standing around waiting for someone or opening a bottle or whatever. The seduction of his wife comes out of nowhere and it feels like it was just thrown in there to create a story where there is not one. In addition there is no chemistry between Newman and his own wife which plays the wife in the film! All of the characters were 2-D dimensional and flat as a board, no depth to the characters.

I found it to be a vapid boring piece of film. I could barely sit through it.

[racer69]

Has anyone else seen "Smash-Up Alley", about Richard Petty?

[Down F0rce]

I watched Michael Vaillant recently. While it may have been a bit light in the story department, it is beautifully put together. Worth watching!

[slick42]

Originally Posted by racer69

Has anyone else seen "Smash-Up Alley", about Richard Petty?

Was this a TV movie?

It sounds like something i'd like but i can't seem to find it anywhere

Edit: I found it Smash Up Alley is another name for 43: The Richard Petty Story

[macca]

There was an episode of 'The Saint' on ITV4 on Wednesday, made in 1964 with a storyline about car racing and including quite a bit of footage of Brands, including a little of the '64 grand Prix there - can be viewed for 28 days:

http://www.itv.com/CatchUp/Video/def...5&Filter=32913

...............but it's got a rubbish plot!
Paul M

[isynge]

Originally Posted by Down F0rce

I watched Michael Vaillant recently. While it may have been a bit light in the story department, it is beautifully put together. Worth watching!

I'm with you on the Michel Vaillant front - sure it's terribly silly, but once you get beyond that it is a nicely produced film that more than once has found its way onto the screen of a Saturday night.

The Michel Vaillant B&W TV series is worth tracking down too - no English subtitles but I don't necessarily think you miss out on all that much - the period footage really makes up for it.