LeMANS!

"A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to the men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything before or after is just waiting".

Considered in 2009 "the ultimate racing movie"

that will never be equalled!



1970: Tough Times Personally and Professionally



Solar Productions rented this garage
to store the race and stunt cars.

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We've arrived at the final film of the 4th Annual Steve McQueen Film Festival. As a writer, I opened the Festival with a frank question and an answer to: "Why Steve McQueen?" I am quite certain some of you who have stayed with me through the past 4 years are asking why I chose the films for this years Festival, and more specifically, why LeMANS? I'll explain.

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After a year of deliberate thought, I felt that I had to address the intensity of McQueen's persona and somehow combine that energy with acting roles that were so vastly different from each other in a relatively short time frame. The films in past Festivals that were excluded from this year's presentation are many. However, with McQueen as my subject, I genuinely felt that the task before me was to grab the reader hard by the proverbial shirt collar and launch the Festival with the film that is clearly identified with Steve's reputation as "The King of Cool" in Bullitt. With The Great Escape, it was historically significant to feature the film that was Steve's breakthrough role to superstardom. In Junior Bonner we confront an existential question each of us--regardless of age--must confront: "What's next?" This past Saturday, I attended a Screenwriters seminar given by my friend Jeb Rosebrook (who wrote the 1972 McQueen film Junior Bonner). One of the points Jeb made about film and Junior Bonner, specifically, is that sometimes there is no happy ending. That is to say, there is a conflict, but no resolution. Actress Barbara Leigh, who co-starred with Steve in Junior Bonner astutely pointed this out to me early on in my feature "THE INTERVIEW" as well. A very sharp lady!

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With Papillon, two of the the most significant actors of our time are paired together to tell a true story, a gritty tale about injustices and the survival instincts of the human spirit. In between all of this, author Marshall Terrill and Screenwriter Jeb Rosebrook generously sat down with me (and my tape recorder) over early morning breakfast meetings to share their craft and their immense subject knowledge of Steve McQueen. The result was information that I dare say no other website has ever produced! And I make no apologies to anyone if that appears to be braggadocious; the facts speak for themselves, and this series will forever remain on the worldwide web "crawler" as a testament to that history. I was merely lucky enough to come to know these two men and to gain immensely from what they shared. LeMANS is another matter altogether. Like Junior Bonner, LeMANS failed to find an audience when it premiered. Then a curious event happened. Beginning in 2000, movie fans began to take another look at the DVD versions of both films. As a result, Junior Bonner is today recognized as a masterpiece that was Steve's personal favorite among his 30 film career. Similarly, LeMANS has come to be regarded as the ultimate auto racing picture that simply could never be made today. As far back as 1966 during filming of Steve's Academy Award-Nominated film The Sand Pebbles, he began to assemble components of the film we are about to feature--a full 4 years later.

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The filming of LeMANS claimed many casualty's on several fronts. McQueen's 14 year-marriage to wife Neile Adams disintegrated. Steve was 40 and facing his own internal demons exacerbated by his recreational drug use and his erratic behavior that cost many friendships with startling confrontations. The pressure associated with the sheer magnitude of this film project and the financial resources required to fulfill Steve's vision of the ultimate racing movie led to a combative exit of the original director John Sturges, who became fed up with McQueen's constant interference. Sturges reportedly tossed the script into the air and said "I'm too old and too rich for this shit" and literally left LeMans, France for the United States--never to work with Steve again. Sturges was replaced by television director Lee H. Katzin, although McQueen exercised considerable influence over the film. The facilities for the four-month shoot included leased offices and garage facilities so massive it was dubbed "Solar Village". A total of 22 cars were leased at stupendously high costs. Driver David Piper sadly suffered an accident during filming with his Porsche 917 that eventually required amputation of his leg. With McQueen's characteristic drive to create authenticity, the tension within the production crew was measurable. Cost overruns and delays led to a very bitter situation when (now defunct) Cinema Center Films literally stepped in and took over the film from McQueen/ This resulted in a severing of the long-time friendship with Executive Producer and Solar Productions partner Robert Relyea who recalls: "From that moment on, Steve never spoke to me again". Indeed, while Steve McQueen completed his dream film, his Solar Productions was forced to file bankruptcy. Still, no motor sport fan is today without this DVD in their collection. Here is the team of top-level drivers of the day that McQueen enlisted: 1970 LeMANS winner Richard Attwood, Han Akersloot, Caude Ballot-Lena, Christian Baron, Jurgen Barth, Derek Bell, Edgar Berney, Paul Blancpain, Arthur Blank, Jean Pierre Bordin, Guy Chasseuil, Andre de Cortanze, Hughes de Fierlant, Vic Elford, Nanni Galli, Erich Glavitza, Masten Gregory,Pierre Greub, Jean Pierre Hanrioud, Rene' Herzog, Toine Hezemans, Peter Huber, Jacky Ickx, Jean Pierre Jabouille, Helmut Kelleners, Gerard Larrousse, Herbert Linge, Steve McQueen, John Miles, Silvio Moser, Herbert Muller, Mimmo Neccia, Robin Ormes, Michael Parkes, Aldo Pessina, Teddy Pilette, David Piper, Brian Redman, Jean Sage, Jo Siffert, Rob Slotemaker, Dieter Spoerry, Rolf Stommelen, and Jonathan Williams.

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The Plot: McQueen is driver Michael Delaney who was involved a year earlier in a tragic accident that cost the life of another driver whose grieving widow, (played by Elga Anderson) returns to the race in an attempt to seek closure. She is at once a beautiful woman and a tortured soul. McQueen is haunted by the crash as the film opens with him driving a stock Porsche 911 along the country road route, stopping at the site of the fatal crash. We see where replacement guard rail has been installed. At 21 minutes and 12 seconds into the film, McQueen's character emerges at the racing village to applause and he acknowledges the crowd. At 23 minutes and 34 seconds McQueen's Porsche 917 hatch is secured with a claustrophobic silence as the sound effect of a heartbeat begins and each driver prepares for the 4:00 PM start of the most grueling auto race in history. A full 38 minutes and 30 seconds passes before any dialogue is exchanged! The competition between the Gulf Wyler sponsored Porsche 917's and Ferrari 512's among the 6 classes of cars allowed (with 110 drivers at the start of the race) came a year after McQueen and race partner Peter Revson took second place at the 12 hours of Sebring in a Porsche 908 Spyder behind Mario Andretti. McQueen desperately wanted to enter the actual LeMANS and owned the car to compete. But like Bullitt, common sense prevailed when it was decided that the risk to McQueen and the production being cancelled due to a potential mishap would be too great. So, immediately after the LeMANS race concluded, filming was completed in four months. Unlike Bullitt, McQueen did the bulk of his own driving at speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour. The film was written by Harry Kleiner (also from Bullitt). In spite of poor reviews and largely empty theaters upon its May 1971 release, time has nevertheless served this film well.

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Five-time winner Derek Bell states: "It's stood the test of time. It's something I never thought would ever stand up thirty years later. It's like vintage wine: better today than it was then". The Cast: Steve McQueen is Michael Delaney; Siegfried Rauch is Erich Stahler; Elga Andersen is Lisa Belgetti; Ronald Leigh-Hunt is David Townsend; and Fred Haltiner is Johann Ritter.

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Incidentally, the two-finger reverse "V"-hand gesture used at the top of this page by McQueen is a sign of defiance (which of course I love). It is rooted in claims that the French would cut off the arrow-shooting fingers of all English and Welsh long bowmen after they had won the battle at Agincourt. But the English came out victorious and showed off their two fingers, still intact. Wait until you see the reaction in this film! And no, I haven't given away the ending. Special Appreciation is given at the end of the film during the credits to driver David Piper "for his sacrifice during the fiming of this picture.

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This is an entirely different McQueen film that reveals his passion and dedication to getting the details right. It is also a fitting close to our 4th year.

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Tomorrow: Our Closing Ceremonies!