Steve McQueen just remembered reading a book in his life, one of Alexander the Great. “I have conquered the world, but I have not conquered myself,” said the Macedonian. The megastar that he was shocked, he was stuck and precisely came to mind during the long and dangerous running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the more ambitious your project and staff and, ultimately, his great fiasco box office.
An odyssey that recalls the documentary man and Le Mans, with unpublished material filming and involved the participation of many 45 years after its premiere. Although the film was not shot until 1970, it is possible that its origin goes back to four years ago, when Grand Prix sweeps the box office.
Set in the world of Formula-1 and directed by John Frankenheimer, McQueen and James Garner never forgave him “stolen” that role. If there was in the Mecca of film actor crazy speed, that was Steve. Coincidentally, both actors were neighbors and every night
McQueen avenged peeing on flowers terrace Garner, who lived one floor below “You peed you in my film and I piss on you” he said.
But in 1970, McQueen was already ready to make the film he wanted, ell definitive film about speed, risk, adrenaline … a project of pharaonic dimensions that should be his love song to the engine and testament for all drivers in the world. “I wanted to tape all times and all generations that captures odors, noise and sensations of racing cars like never before had done in film,” says Chad McQueen, the son of the actor.
The 24 hours of Le Mans smells insurance business. “You’re racing and Steve McQueen. What do you have? You have got everything! “He says in the documentary Les Sheldon, assistant director. But Le Mans is the story of a failed tape, at least within the canons of Hollywood.
The shooting lasted until the unspeakable, about four months, and the budget ballooned to 7.5 million Dollars. Sturges, fed up ego McQueen, more attentive to roll ad infinitum the roar of the engines rejecting scripts and scriptwriters that he proposed, leaves turn the film: “I’m too old and rich enough to support this shit,” he says .
Meanwhile, the marriage of the actor with Broadway performer Neile Adams shipwrecked at the incessant infidelities McQueen and his growing paranoia after appearing on the list identified by Charles Manson, who just killed Sharon Tate , Polanski’s girlfriend. Finally, two serious accidents put the project in the pillory.
The rope finally breaks. Cinema Center sends his Hollywood executives and McQueen is forced to sign a shameful document that assumes that role will fall to the interpretation, leaving the powers of executive producer.
To date, McQueen has just filmed a documentary expensive and cinema Center wants a film, a plot … for Les Sheldon, star, like Icarus, came too close to the sun in their attempt to “break the barrier of cinema” and the viewer sit next to pilot or, better yet, in the very seat of the driver.
Over time, the 24 hours of Le Mans became a cult film for motorsports fans. Before modern television broadcasts of Formula-1, riddled with subjective cameras and unexpected angles, or the lavish recreations at the same unreal Hollywood with sagas like Fast and Furious, McQueen managed to place the camera on the same track, catch a some of that magic of adrenaline in chemically pure form.
However, the actor did not know that new life, the delayed success, his most personal project, “the hardest thing I’ve ever done” because in 1980 he died of cancer linked to asbestos poisoning material racing. As he himself said, “I ran out of gas.” And it also happened at half track with only 50 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment