Financial troubles, on-set rivalries and the star’s own personal issues affect the filming of the movie 'Le Mans' in 1970, a passion project for Hollywood icon and racing enthusiast Steve McQueen.
With archival films and frank interviews with people involved like his first wife and his son, this is a fascinating look at what unchecked ego can do to a gifted person.
If you see only one 44-years-later postmortem on a critical and commercial misfire this season, it might as well be "Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans."
We've seen many an insider doc about films destroyed by their creators' chutzpah (Overnight, Lost in La Mancha), but what's most wrenching here is McQueen's displays of vulnerability and tenderness.
It doesn't really succeed in conveying McQueen's great passion for auto racing. In truth, it mostly makes him seem like a jerk - but cinephiles might enjoy it as a case study of moviemaking gone wrong.
Like Hearts of Darkness, this documentary follows the making of a movie on which more than a million feet of film was reportedly exposed, but sadly Le Mans is no Apocalypse Now.
