I think others had my same fear. I thought there would be a ton of event staff and patrons there, but the potential for rain must have scare a lot of them off. There were two race cars present and a few girls in skin-tight red dresses handing out World Endurance Championship flags and pocket notebooks before the movie started. Yay for swag!
On the way to Sandy's Hamburgers, we came upon a Ferrari FF parked at the bottom of the stairs of the Long center, courtesy of Ferrari of Austin. I must say, it's certainly a departure from traditional Ferrari styling and body styles - and that's not a good thing. I couldn't seem to find an angle from which the car looked good. I never thought I'd miss the 612 Scaglietti. However, it was nice to see the 651-horsepower oddity "in the metal" for the first time.
After dinner and returning to our cars to pick up a folding chair and a blanket, we walked back to the lawn and discovered the Long Center started the movie early. We probably only missed five minutes or so. It was just as well that we did. "Le Mans," while rife with what I would imagine were cutting-edge filming techniques and breath-taking crashes (no CGI in 1971), failed as a movie. There was very little dialogue, no chemistry between Steve McQueen and Elga Andersen and too many shots that lasted WAAAAYYY too long. "How many shots of the crowd do we need?! We get it! They're there to see the race." It almost felt as if the director was going to spend the 24 Hours of Le Mans just showing audiences people sleeping on the ground and guys in weird hats.
Despite that, my friends and I had a good time, especially once the air cooled and the breeze rolled in.
Did any of you catch the "Le Mans" showing? What do you think of the movie? Who's going to the races at the Circuit of the Americas this weekend?
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