"To the eternal racer this is Nirvana, nothing matters but the road ahead, this is the ultimate high: the race, and what comes before and after.…" (Shaun Considine, from the original soundtrack album notes)

“Le Mans” is without a doubt, one of the best auto racing films ever made, mixing a thin storyline with documentary footage, and some spectacular images in magical Panavision.

During the 1950s, drag racing films in the teenpix genre proved fast cars had a special allure for audiences, and after moving from pubescent to (somewhat) more adult ground in the slick 1963 Roger Corman flick "The Young Racers," car racing was fused with soap opera suds in MGM's "Grand Prix," in 1966. Universal's "Winning" in 1969 was a late entry, though it too capitalized on the gleaming fast car imagery that highlighted Warner Bros' "Bullitt," made a year earlier, starring Steve McQueen.

As Paul Newman evolved into a racing fan after appearing in "Winning," the high energy/danger quotient of "Bullitt" swayed McQueen into the forum of screeching tires, 200+ mph speeds, and a lifestyle of 'doing the only thing racers do well.' At least that's the persona and philosophy of his character, borrowing documentary-styled imagery from "Woodstock" - like the calm before the wave of 500,000 fans swarm over the central area of supreme spectacle, peppered with mini-vignettes - to present a strangely poetic, existential portrait of big time racers.

With a story radically stripped down - the characters in Harry Kleiner's script speak maybe ten pages of actual dialogue in the entire film. Director Lee H. Katzin lets widescreen shots of fast cars linger for their sheer beauty; this is a movie made for people who love the sights and sounds of cars as living entities.

The soundtrack is an intelligent mix of roaring engines, calm wind, and ambient textures, assembled and layered to a near-subconscious affect of gradual tension and blistering excitement. You have to adore cars to appreciate the artistry of the racing scenes - the sophomoric melodrama, attention-deficit editing and ridiculous digital effects of "Driven" are not to be found in this flick - and Paramount's DVD features a nice Dolby Digital 5.1 track that's never overkill. Michel Legrand, approaching the pinnacle of his popularity as a film composer, wrote a relatively sparse pop-jazz score, and though a product of its time, sounds sweet in the discreet Dolby mix, with bass pulsing from the center channel, while the rest of the orchestra elements are separate between the front and rear surrounds.

Though the DVD lacks any extras, the gorgeous images are the real stars of the film, and Paramount's transfer is first-rate. Reds radiate from the screen, and there's a nice array of deep black and rich blues - the latter two important for key sequences during tense, rain-soaked racing montages. The film's two major crashes and kinetic editing are certainly major highlights, but extended shots of McQueen's racing car roaring in 'scope as wind, water, and a rush of cold morning mist bathe the slick Porsche lingers, long after the film's somewhat untraditional ending.

A great movie for a big screen system.

© 2003 Mark R. Hasan