Grand Prix

1966 | 176 minutes | 7.3 ★ (185)

Grand Prix
  • Overview

    The most daring drivers in the world have gathered to compete for the 1966 Formula One championship. After a spectacular wreck in the first of a series of races, American wheelman Pete Aron is dropped by his sponsor. Refusing to quit, he joins a Japanese racing team. While juggling his career with a torrid love affair involving an ex-teammate's wife, Pete must also contend with Jean-Pierre Sarti, a French contestant who has previously won two world titles.

  • Release Date

    21 December 1966

  • DirectingJohn Frankenheimer
  • Budget

    $9,000,000.00

  • Revenue

    $20,800,000.00

  • Stars

Videos

User Reviews

See more
JC

John Chard

16 May 2024

Frankenheimer's F1 Epic is Grand in Itself. In truth the plot of Grand Prix is pretty wafer thin, with not enough story to fully justify the gargantuan run time, yet it's both thrilling and fascinating all the same. Plot essentially centers around the 1966 Formula 1 motor racing championship, with James Garner, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, Eva Marie Saint and Toshiro Mifune heading up the large ensemble cast list. It deals with the trials and tribulations of the drivers, both on and off the track. The human drama is a bit soapy, of which there is much, yet these narrative characterisations help to make us care and understand the protagonists at the core of the story. And of course when the drivers are out there on the track, we know their psychological make-ups, their driving mirroring their motives and emotional fortitude. The racing segments are superbly filmed by Frankenheimer, with multi-angles used to maximise the experience, while he also uses split screen sections to fully immerse us with the key characters. Two crash sequences are genuinely heart stopping, filmed with a clarity that makes us realise that people actually do die in this sport. While the sound work and editing is quite simply stunning. See it on the biggest screen you can, and for home formats get the best possible disc available. 8/10

More Like This

84 Charing Cross Road

84 Charing Cross Road

When a humorous script-reader in her New York apartment sees an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature for a bookstore in London that does mail...

See more
What's Love Got to Do with It

What's Love Got to Do with It

Singer Tina Turner rises to stardom while mustering the courage to break free from her abusive husband Ike.

See more
A Brighter Summer Day

A Brighter Summer Day

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.

See more
2 Fast 2 Furious

2 Fast 2 Furious

It's a major double-cross when former police officer Brian O'Conner teams up with his ex-con buddy Roman Pearce to transport a shipment of "dirty"...

See more
Walk the Line

Walk the Line

A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in...

See more
Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain

In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they...

See more
Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt

Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt

K-19: The Widowmaker

K-19: The Widowmaker

When Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster.

See more
Untitled Grateful Dead Project

Untitled Grateful Dead Project

A biopic about the famous rock band. The still-untitled film is expected to chronicle the band’s formation in the Bay Area as the ’60s psychedelic...

See more
Escape from East Berlin

Escape from East Berlin

East Berlin, shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Kurt Schröder and his family dig a tunnel to escape to West Berlin as they struggle...

See more
Indianapolis Speedway

Indianapolis Speedway

A champion auto racer who unhappily learns his kid brother wants to enter the same profession rather than finish school.

See more
Speed Racer

Speed Racer

Speed Racer is a young and brilliant racing driver. When corruption in the racing leagues costs his brother his life, Speed must team up with the...

See more
The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters

Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.

See more
Ken Block's GYMKHANA TEN: Ultimate Tire Slaying Tour

Ken Block's GYMKHANA TEN: Ultimate Tire Slaying Tour

The tenth in the series of Ken Block stunt and car action films, Gymkhana Ten takes things to a new extreme. Block is taking things to a whole new...

See more
A Friend of Mine

A Friend of Mine

An introverted insurance executive at a car rental service is annoyed by his hyperactive, garrulous coworker, but the two end up becoming friends.

See more
Hostess

Hostess

Jette and Johannes have been living together for two years when Johannes suggests that they "legalize" their relationship. Jette loves him, but the...

See more
Born on the Fourth of July

Born on the Fourth of July

Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, Ron Kovic becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought...

See more
Mermaids

Mermaids

Fifteen-year-old Charlotte Flax is tired of her wacky mom moving their family to a different town any time she feels it is necessary. When they...

See more
Across the Universe

Across the Universe

When young dockworker Jude leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in the United States, he is swept up by the waves of change that are...

See more
Bagdad Cafe

Bagdad Cafe

A German woman named Jasmin stumbles upon a dilapidated motel/diner in the middle of nowhere. Her unusual appearance and demeanor are at first...

See more