I will not nit pick anything else, but the numerous sped up scenes just kill the movie for me.
It was not necessary to do this and it only detracts from an otherwise cool movie, especially for people who are used to seeing racing cars at their actual speeds in person.
I really wish someone would own up to doing this and correct it, it would be very easy with today's technology.
Hi there Agent 99
I too love this movie but not for the script, acting, direction etcetera. I think the script is somewhat ridiculous - especially the 'last lap' scenario. But it does give me, whenever I choose, the ability to ogle these utterly beautiful looking & sounding cars and a glimpse of an amazing racing circuit.
A while back I posed the question as to why we (the audience) were 'ripped off'. During the scenes of the 4 mile Mulsanne Straight, we are meant to accept that the Porsche 917K, the 917LH & the Ferrai 512 are doing well above 200 mph. Balls! It is obvious to me they are nowhere near their top speeds because, firstly, they do not appear to be & secondly and most conclusievly, they creep by 911 Porsches doing only 10 or 20 mph faster.
I have witnessed a couple of Formula 1 GP's during the mad arsed turbo era of the mid 80's when the engines could be tuned to way over 1000 horsepower. The 'F1 'circus' nick-named these engines 'hand grenades' as they would inevitably blow up after a very few laps, but they usually did their job, which was to get the car towards the front of the gird for race day. My point is I have witnessed cars do staggering top speeds & get there stupifyingly quickly.
No-one was able to give me any answer as to why the cars weren't allowed to run at top speed and all I can conclude is that insurance was a hinderence or the owners of the cars forbade them.
Oh yeah. Don't sped up scenes 'just sh!t ya to tears' - they are always, where ever they appear, so obvious!! Shameful!! The Charger in 'Bullitt'...
"...and if the bible has taught us anything (and it hasn't)..." Homer
I refer the both of you to the excellent book "A French Kiss With Death" which is about the most comprehensive book on the making of the movie. There were no sped up sequences, other than the one featuring Luc Meranda getting out of his wrecked Ferrari and alternating between slow motion and normal speed. All racing sequences were done at about 80% race speed with some scenes being shot at full race speeds. One of the reasons the cars in the final scene are driving slower is that at least one of them at a time is rigged with camera mounts thus slowing them down but there were no sped up scenes at all.
www.rhubba.com for comedy movies, radio, blogs and...erm...stuff.
That was my understanding too, nothing was sped up.
As ubercommando suggests, read 'A French Kiss with Death' the facts are all in there.
People should spend more time watching movies and less time bitching about IMDB spoilers.
Believe it or not, the 917s were capable of exceeding 200 mph even.
shareI don't know how much speeding-up there really was. (Certainly there was a lot in "Bullitt".) It would be nice if 'cranking' were easy to correct with today's technology-- but, in practice, would it actually be easy? What do the technical experts say about this?
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