Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans Page #2

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they were winning.

COMMENTATOR:
With

this combination,

Sebring could have

a storybook finish.

Approaching the 11th hour,

the Porsche closes the gap

on the faltering Ferrari.

The McQueen pits were

overjoyed, thinking

the Ferrari was in trouble.

And out of the darkness, one

car would emerge the victor.

MAN:
It took Mario

Andretti two cars

to beat us and only pass us

on the last laps of the race.

COMMENTATOR:
The 12 hours

of Sebring was over,

and Ferrari had won.

McQueen Revson was second.

[cheering]

We were mobbed at

the end of the race.

Steve gets up on the car

and gives the peace signal.

And it was like Moses

parted the waters

or God appeared in the sky.

Silence.

That was my biggest

thrill, for me,

because I guess being an

actor, people don't really

expect you to do

it as well, and I

was a big man of my house with

my kids for awhile, anyway.

That was a major, major

happy time in his life.

I remember when he came home.

Yeah.

He was in a good mood for

about a month after that.

MAN:
After the Sebing

Race, he wasn't

looked at just like,

oh, he's the actor,

superstar, Steve McQueen.

He was admired by

the other drivers

as a real, professional racer.

MAN:
The interweaving of film

and racing was now perfect.

It was a natural.

His next step was the 24 Hours

of Le Mans and to race there.

MAN:
This was going

to be a lasting memory

of Steve McQueen, this film.

Steve wanted to really do the

movie of all time, the movie

for all generations, the movie

that captures the smells,

the noise, the feeling of

car racing like no other film

ever had.

It was a really big deal.

-Hi, guys.

-Bonjour.

How you doing?

[french speech]

Merci.

Wow.

It's been what, 40 years?

[sighs]

Ha!

MAN:
Before Solar

was even started,

McQueen decided he

was going to make

the ultimate racing picture.

MAN:
There was a project called

"The Day of the Champion"

that never got made.

MAN:
It was shut down.

MAN:
John Frankenheimer got

there first, with "Grand Prix."

Oh my god, get out.

Get out of here, you.

Give this guy hell, this driver.

Get the Ferrari out of here.

Change the lens on

that, and let's go.

I've got to remember

which is which.

MAN:
James Garner was

involved in "Grand Prix."

I've been driving it backwards.

MAN:
And that left a very

bitter taste in Steve's mouth.

Jim, where exactly do

you use your brakes?

All right.

All right, good.

MAN:
Another actor, and here he

was, taking the subject matter,

and running with it.

MAN:
Steve's apartment was

above James Garner's apartment

in the same neighborhood.

And Steve would urinate

out the window at night

on the flower boxes

of James Garner below.

And as he performed this act,

he went, you pissed on my film.

And now, I piss on you.

What is that?

Paint?

No, no.

Close your eyes.

[Laughing]

It's all right.

Cut it out.

It's not funny.

I can see him sitting

in the theater,

watching that and

saying, oh, sh*t.

It's just another movie.

His sense of racing

was so personal.

If there was going to be

one definitive movie about

that sport, he wanted to do it.

This is a treatment for "Le

Mans" and general comments

dated October 2nd, 1969.

Ha.

"Grand Prix," a prime

example of a director

playing with himself in public.

[Laughs]

We have to reach high in

a picture like "La Mans,"

or there is no

purpose in making it.

Well, how perfect is this?

OK.

Battle stations.

[Laughing]

MAN:
We all remember the scene

in "Apocalypse Now," where

up the river, Kurtz has

built a piece of America

in the middle of hostile jungle.

That is what Steve

McQueen decided

to lower in to rural Le Mans,

and that was SoLA Village.

[french speech]

MAN:
We want to photograph

the entire race,

and then we want to recreate it.

And we want to use

the same drivers.

Suddenly, out of the

blue, we're asked to work

on a movie with Steve McQueen.

It was like, whoa.

Wow.

Why not?

And then on top

of that, you knew

you were going to earn $200 a

day, which was a lot of money.

Excellent.

Absolutely excellent.

We were given a Porsche 911

each to trundle around in,

and it was good news.

Well, it's quite a pleasant

surprise to be invited.

I knew Steve quite well, and

it was very nice of Steve,

letting me go racing

at the weekends,

and letting his pilot and

airplane to come back in time

for filming on Monday morning.

David Piper.

We used to call him the pirate.

[Laughing]

I think of the pipe

hanging out of his mouth.

He was a grand, old guy.

[race car noises]

Mr. Sturges, you've directed

Steve McQueen in several films,

including "The Great Escape."

And now, you're

here in "Le Mans."

STEVE MCQUEEN:
John Sturges

is directing this film.

We've done three

films together now,

and I tell you, we've

had nothing but fun,

simply because

we've had the time,

and we get excited about

doing really good work.

MAN:
John was an

incredible director.

It was Steve working with

John on "Great Escape"

and "Magnificent Seven" which

made the myth, and the man,

and Steve McQueen who he was.

The hero of the film

is racing in this scene.

That's what it's about.

[race car engine]

MAN:
We have the star.

We had the drivers.

We had an incredible array

of technical support.

We had everything,

except the script.

He said that the script

isn't entirely finished.

We're waiting for the end of

the race to finish the script,

to finalize the script?

Well, we do want to adjust

our story to the way things

happen that we

actually photograph.

That's correct.

MAN:
It's common in Hollywood

to start without a script.

It's not the right way.

It's not the economic way.

But it's common, and

anybody who says it's not

hasn't been there.

MAN:
They had done it

once before, Sturges,

McQueen, and my father.

They had done it on

"The Great Escape,"

and it turned out well.

And after "Bullitt," my father

said the studio would have

written him a blank check just

to produce the phone book,

if he wanted to.

We have the best people

in the business with us.

Bob Relyea, he's our

executive producer.

John Sturges, he's our director.

He probably is the biggest

director in America,

and he's probably one of

the best in the world.

So with all those

things going for us,

plus Steve McQueen

and Le Mans, I

think we've got a

picture that's going

to make an awful lot of money

and make a lot of people happy.

This is the story

of racing, man.

This is the guts.

Glass is all right.

All right.

OK.

You got motor racing,

and you got Steve McQueen.

What have you got?

You've got everything.

[french speech]

"Le Mans" was going

to be our number

one picture for the year.

It was a sure thing

for Hollywood.

This could not miss.

MAN:
It's the oldest, most

famous race in the world.

As you arrive to Le Mans and

come up beside the cathedral,

suddenly, the adrenaline will

start to get in your stomach.

That was when I realized

I was at Le Mans.

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