30/06/2007
NEWS STORY
With the British Grand Prix just around the corner, perhaps we were being overly cynical when we wondered whether broadcaster TCM's decision to show the movie Grand Prix all this week was a way of joining the Lewis Hamilton bandwagon.
Fact is, as we watched John Frankenheimer's classic - which follows the Formula One circus in a fictional version of the 1966 season - we couldn't help but compare some of the scenes and dialogue with the current season.
For instance
Following the accident between the two Jordan-BRM drivers at Monaco which leaves Scott Stoddard (Brian Bedford) severely injured, team boss Jeff Jordan screams that the two men are teammates and therefore shouldn't be racing one another.
Then there's Izo Yamura (Toshirô Mifune) who expresses his frustration at having been in Formula One for two seasons and is still awaiting his team's first win.
We also found it hard to believe that Manetta-Ferrari driver Nino Barlini (Antonio Sabato) would celebrate winning a race by getting rat-arsed... such a thing would never happen in real life.
Then there is the scene in which Pate Aron (James Garner) is forced to sit in a small room with his boss Izo Yamura, watching errors he made in the Mexican Grand Prix being played over and over on a noisy old projector in order that the American driver can learn from his mistakes.
Compare that with the 2007 version of a debrief.
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