Senna’ meets ‘Bullitt’ in ‘Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans’ - an extraordinary, moving, white-knuckle drive with one of the greatest movie stars of all time, and the film that almost destroyed him.
By 1970, hot off the back of ‘The Magnificent Seven’, ‘The Great Escape’, ‘The Cincinnati Kid’, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ and ‘Bullitt’, Steve McQueen was at the top of his game, and in such a powerful position in Hollywood that he could work for himself, choose his own material and reap the benefits. At last he could make the film that had been his passion for the best part of a decade, centred around the greatest test of driving skill in the world – a 24-hour race in France called LE MANS. And so began a life-changing 6 months for racing fanatic McQueen, both on set and off it. In the middle of filming the most dangerous car race movie of all time, legendary director John Sturges quit, McQueen’s marriage fell apart and his company was on the brink of bankruptcy; and all the while he was in constant fear for his life after learning that he was on the top of Charles Manson’s ‘death list’. Interweaving original insight and revelation with a remarkable sound archive – as well as hours of never-before-seen film that has remained untouched in basements and garages in Paris and LA, ‘The Man & Le Mans’ takes the viewer inside the mind of this driven, complex movie idol as he fought to save his film – set to the soundtrack of his own voice.