This flick is disappointing, frustrating & weak.
At the cinema, as a 7 year old, it was truly stunning to see Formula 1 as it was in 1966. To this day & forever, the cars are absolutely gorgeous, their simplicity is their beauty, the engine noises a marvel, the tracks raced on, astonishing.
However, Frankenheimer must have been hard of hearing, all money & no sense or thought he knew more than the men who raced. He had the opportunity, the opportunity, to make a truly epic film. The men racing F1 in this era would undoubtedly have wanted to promote their sport in it's most exciting light - a thing easily done if done right. Clark, Stewart, Hill, Hill, Brabham, Amon, McLaren, Rindt, Hulme & handfulls of other heroes were on hand to advise Frankenheimer what to film & where to film. But what we got was pitiful: all too quick glimpses of Spa Francorchamps, Clermont Ferrand, Zandvoort - truly awesome circuits. And where was the Nurburgring? The Nurburgring!!! And Rouen...To not include these circuits is too boggling for words.
Too often the sound effects are downright embarrassing. Noises of braking when the opposite would happen or full acceleration into a hairpin corner! Are we, the general public, idiots?
Count the minutes devoted to racing & then consider the films total length.
During research I discovered Frankenheimer had at least one helicopter flying overhead filming, along with cameras set up on race cars during the actual grand prix races. In his film archive is footage, from both the air & ground, of an historic moment when during the first lap of the actual Belgian GP, the cars hit a torrent of rain half way round. The crash injured Jackie Stewart & took out 8 or so drivers. 7 finished. What we see in the film is a teetering car (fact), & wet weather driving from the car/drivers point of view with the cars doing literally 30 or 40 mph. Very weak.
Did the director exploit the oddity that Brands Hatch has at it's startline?
This film lacked authenticity. It could so EASILY have been done right: in a manner displaying F1 racing for what it was at the time - smoking tyres at the starts, often sideways & power sliding, often airborne & often as close as todays best MotoGP racing.