 | | |
| Grand Prix (2 Disc Special Edition) [1966] | ![Grand Prix (2 Disc Special Edition) [1966]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510CmaXILuL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: John Frankenheimer
Actors: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Brian Bedford
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.97
You Save: £4.02 (45%)
Buy New from £4.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  (8 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2006
Format: Box Set, Pal, Special Edition
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Media: DVD
Running Time: 176 minutes
Number Of Items: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 7321905791002
ASIN: B000IHYBPA
Release Date: October 2, 2006
Theatrical Release Date: 1966
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A motorsport history MUST! August 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I remember watching this film when I was a kid with my motorsport addicted grandfather and didn't fully appreciate the story, cast and locations but loved the action.
I purchased the 2 disc Special Edition recently and Ive watched twice since and loved it even more now that film quality has been hugely improved on visual colour and sound quality.
I can now appreciate the film more with age, the director Zimmermann, who also directed Ronin (note the car chases), James Garner (I loved The Rockford Files), Tishiro Mifune (Im a big Akira Kurosawa fan)and now the fact that I know the circuits and locations in the film, the cars and the histories of the REAL individual F1 drivers. Graham Hill, James Hill, Jack Brabham, Phil Hill (who drove the GT40 camera car whilst filming) and of course the great Jim Clarke.
The locations are amazing to see in the heyday and how they have changed to todays safety standards have hugely changed for the better. The crowds are crazy!
The extras are very enjoyable and not boring and have a huge insight into the film, behind the scenes and the 60's F1 era.
If your a motorsport fanatic and enjoy modern day F1, car chases (lets face it Grand Prix is full of them) then this is 'A MUST', forget the fact that this film is from 1966, there are no CGI special effects, no modern motorsport film comes near the quality of this and probably never will.
Still the champion November 27, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Forty years on, Grand Prix is still the best motor racing film ever made. The cars may be faster now, filming techniques improved and special effects more advanced, yet the film still has a truly epic scale and a feeling of veracity down to the last gear change that would be impossible to duplicate today. It feels real because much of it is real, the actors (with the exception of Brian Bedford) doing much of the driving themselves, with the production even entering cars in real races to seamlessly match footage. The real danger is only underlined by the fact that so many of the professional drivers in the film died racing themselves (ten in the decade following the filming alone). The crashes are there, along with the knowledge that that's what many in the crowd come for, but more than that, each race has a different character: more than just a different look, they're almost tone poems at times, one race from the driver's seat, another from a spectator's, another almost inside a character's head. Yet throughout, unlike later films, you always have a clear idea of what is going on and what point the race scenes are trying to make. The sequences have clearly been thought through and designed both emotionally as well as visually, with the great use of long lenses to establish scale and speed as cars drift in and out of focus giving the film a feel at once realistic and almost dreamlike (an impression further heightened in Saul Bass' almost balletic split-screen sequence). It's still a remarkably good looking film, too, not least because it was made at a time when the cars still looked like bullets rather than vacuum cleaners.
The plot itself may be simply a globe-trotting star-studded soap opera at heart - the roadshow equivalent of a doorstop bestseller - but it's a more than serviceable framework to hang the racing scenes on: after a spectacular crash in the Monte Carlo Grand Prix that cripples team mate Brian Bedford, James Garner's Formula One tries to work his way back on the circuit by racing for Toshiro Mifune's fledgling team while having an affair with Bedford's wife Jessica Walter. But while top-billed Garner may be the nominal and not particularly sympathetic lead, it's Yves Montand's ageing champion gradually realizing the absurdity of what he does but unable to quit who makes the greatest impression: so much so that when Garner disappears for much of the last third of the movie you barely miss him. Yet the cars remain the real stars, thanks to John Frankenheimer's constantly imaginative direction and his obvious enthusiasm for the material without ever losing himself in the minutiae as Steve McQueen did with Le Mans.
The film used every 65mm SuperPanavision camera then in existence, and thankfully the widescreen DVD transfer is a considerable improvement over the TV prints. Although it hasn't restored Mifune's voice, which was reportedly in the version shown at the film's premiere but subsequently replaced by Paul Frees on all prints (Adolfo Celi is also very obviously dubbed, possibly by Maximilian Schell), it does boast a good array of featurettes covering the making of the film and the Overture and Entr'acte from Maurice Jarre's excellent score have been retained.
 Stuck In Fourth October 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was always one of my favourite films as a kid, so i set aside an evening to watch the 2-disc Special Edition. Now, maybe my imagination ran away with me a bit when i was younger, but i'm sure that a few of the crashes have been deleted from this particular edition. I distinctly recall an incident (probably at Spa) when one of the competitors crashes into some bails of hay, and a group of spectators rush to help. One guy carlessly chucks his fag away, resulting in car, driver and barn erupting in a fireball. Now, i know this Government doesn't want us to smoke any more (not in public, anyway) but the reason for editing this sort of stuff from films escapes me. I also remember more than one car ending up in the sea at Monaco. If i dreamt all of this, or it's from another film entirely, could someone put me straight.
Being an anal sort i am now scouring the Net for another version, as the one I have is 165? mins and the one advertised is 176 mins.
Other than that, thoroughly enjoyable !!
great bargain July 12, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Just bought this dvd for under three pounds from Amazon. This must be the best bargain ever. Not only do you get the complete film as theatrically released in the cinema (usually shown on tv in a much cut version), but a superb second disc with several interesting features about the making of the film, footage of the f1 races during the sixties and interviews with drivers of that era.
The only drawback is that you have to change discs to see the complete film, as this original print could not be accommodated on disc one, but hey so what! This is a minor quibble at this price. If you like motor racing, especially in the days when you could actually see overtaking, get this dvd while it's on offer at this giveaway price.
The best Motor Racing film ever made! April 6, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
What a superb film. Considering the year it was made ('66) and the technology that was available in the 1960s, John Frankenheimer captured the fantastic world of Formula 1 racing along with a story of morals and love. The more times I watch this film, the more details I notice, everything about the racing is so beautifully done, the attention to detail is amazing, the characters are perfectly played by the terrific actors. A true timeless classic.
|
|
|
| | |
