Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (2015) - full transcript

This film contains
some strong language

VEHICLE APPROACHES

OK. Uh, why don't we just dive
in and have a look at uh...?

Steve, what do you think of the
circumstances that might have

led up to the disease itself?

How do you perceive that?

It all began when a superstar

who loved auto racing decided
to do a picture about his sport.

That was the most seminal moment
in his life.

What was happening when we were
shooting this movie should

happen to no man.



I just wanted to get it down on
film, what I thought

it was all about.

Ladies and gentlemen, the male world
film favourite, Steve McQueen.

Thank you.

If you had your life to do over
again, would you do it the same way?

Damn right.

Every bit of it...because I think
film is a very important medium.

When he was the number one
superstar in the world,

he was, like, I think, 38 years old.

People went nuts wherever he went.

He was American royalty.

Groovy. Thanks.

LAUGHTER

I started on a farm, in the state of
Missouri,



and I lived there in my youth, and I
got out of there as quick as I can.

His background gave him

a courageous element that stood him
in very, very good stead

at that time.

I don't know very much about art or
music, except things that I like.

Basically, I come from the gutter,

and I'm not a compromiser.

He didn't give a shit, you know?

If there was a fight to be had,
he would not turn his back,

and it doesn't matter who it was.

I bet you're a perfectionist.

Well, I try to do a good job.

You know, I try.

The Thomas Crown Affair
and Bullet were my two

pictures with Steve McQueen.

I convinced him that every time he
went on the set,

no matter what the director said,
he should recite the mantra.

"I decide what is right
and what is wrong,

"and I don't have to
explain it to anybody.

"I like women, but I'm
a little afraid of them.

"I'm not going to make a commitment,

"because if you make a commitment
to a woman, they can hurt you.

"I won't pick a fight, but
if you pick a fight with me

"or back me into a corner,
I will fucking kill you."

He used to recite that to himself

when he went on the set, regardless
of what the directions were.

And he played that character,
I thought, just brilliantly.

Which do you enjoy more,
acting or producing?

Well, I'm sort of hung.

I like producing, as
long as I'm acting,

because I think the ultimate
is to have creative control.

He loved the part in
the Thomas Crown Affair,

playing Tommy Crown.

Big business guy, no-one knows
anything more than him.

He aspired to that character.

He wanted to feel like he
was a bit of a mogul.

Now, the movies are changed.

It's not a game any more.
It's big bucks, heavy bucks.

And those people play
for keeps out there.

He got this into his head, that
he would build us an empire.

After Thomas Crown, he said,

"I'm going to build us
an empire, baby doll."

If I have my name on there,

they can no longer pawn me off
as just a candy-ass movie star

who they've got to be easy with.

This puts me out
front as an executive.

So therefore, they
have to deal with me.

The juice. He got the
juice man, he got the power.

It was a very smart,
intelligent, sophisticated move

for him to form a production company

called Solar, and exercised
his clout in the way he did.

And the first person that he
told, his agents that he wanted

to reach out to be his
partner was my father.

CARS SPEEDS PAST

I'm standing here with Bob Relyea,
the executive producer

of Solar Productions.

We had been through
The Magnificent Seven.

We'd been through
The Great Escape.

The company was a very well
organized, real production company.

The relationship that Steve
and I had in our families

was extremely close.

You actually throw a temper?
Can you?

Injustice bothers
me a lot sometimes,

and I get angry about
things, and so forth.

And I suppose I fly off
the handle sometimes.

Steve trusted Bob.

If there was a problem, he'd
just grab him by the shoulder,

and he'd take him off to the side.

As much as you want this, Steve,
this passion doesn't mean shit.

And Steve got it.

It was a real coup to get him
to come to Cinema Center Films,

and to be involved with his company.

That, in itself, was
a major accomplishment.

It wasn't just "I'm the
biggest star in the world."

It was, "I'm going to
decide what films I make.

"I'm going to decide
who the directors are,

"and I'm going to make
that racing picture

"that I always wanted
to make, and it's

"going to define my career."

It was his thing.

It was his passion.

And if you find your passion in
life, you know you got it made.

I remember the first time I
raced, I was very frightened.

It scared me. I didn't like
the idea of being frightened,

and I wanted to overcome it.
That was one element.

The other element, and
it is a very pure thing.

It's one of the few things
in life you can't fix.

When you're out there by yourself,
you're very much by yourself.

The risk taking, the need
for adrenaline, the what

do I have to lose attitude
that he seemed to project,

it just matched McQueen's soul,

his personality, and his essence.

Racing drivers are
a different breed.

When you're in the car behind the
wheel, you tune everything off.

There's one thing that
you are focused on,

and that is to perform, to win.

And he had that.

For 20 years, an almost
forgotten airport has echoed

to the fury of cars and speed.

Sebring was as close as you
get to the brother of Le Mans.

If you're ever going to get a taste

of what it's like to be in an
endurance race, this is it.

Just a week before, he had broken
his foot in a motorcycle race.

And I said, "You better
not do this." He said, "No."

He said, "I can do it, I can do it."

What about shifting and clutching?
Must be pretty difficult.

Well, it's a little difficult.

I can't use a foot rest.

And we've put some sandpaper on the
bottom, taped it on, so I keep it

on the clutch pedal, adjust it.

We went for it.

It was like a Hollywood script!

A surprise to most of
the 57,000 who looked on

was the McQueen Revson Porsche 908.

The two have done a Masterful job.

What was incredible about that race
is suddenly, they were winning.

With this combination, Sebring
could have a storybook finish.

Approaching the 11th hour,
the Porsche closes the gap

on the faltering Ferrari.

The McQueen pits were overjoyed,
thinking the Ferrari was in trouble.

And out of the darkness, one
car would emerge the victor.

It took Mario Andretti two cars

to beat us and only pass us
on the last laps of the race.

The 12 hours of Sebring was
over, and Ferrari had won.

McQueen Revson was second.

WHOOPING AND CHEERING

We were mobbed at the
end of the race.

Steve gets up on the car
and gives the peace signal.

And it was like
Moses parted the waters

or God appeared in the sky.

Silence.

That was my biggest thrill, for me,

because I guess being an
actor, people don't really

expect you to do it as well, and I

was a big man of my house with
my kids for awhile, anyway.

That was a major, major
happy time in his life.

I remember when he came home.

Yeah. He was in a good mood
for about a month after that.

After the Sebing Race, he wasn't

looked at just like, "Oh, he's the
actor, superstar, Steve McQueen."

He was admired by the other drivers
as a real, professional racer.

THUNDER RUMBLES

The interweaving of film and racing
was now perfect. It was a natural.

His next step was the 24 Hours
of Le Mans and to race there.

This was going to be a lasting
memory of Steve McQueen, this film.

Steve wanted to really do the
movie of all time, the movie

for all generations, the movie
that captures the smells,

the noise, the feeling of car racing
like no other film ever had.

It was a really big deal.

Hi, guys. Bonjour. How you doing?

Merci. Wow.

It's been what, 40 years?

Ha!

Before Solar was even started,

McQueen decided he was going to make
the ultimate racing picture.

There was a project called
The Day of the Champion

that never got made.

It was shut down.

John Frankenheimer got
there first, with Grand Prix.

Oh, my God, get out.

Get out of here, you.

Give this guy hell, this driver.

Get the Ferrari out of here.

Change the lens on that,
and let's go.

I've got to remember which is which.

James Garner was
involved in Grand Prix.

I've been driving it backwards.

And that left a very bitter
taste in Steve's mouth.

Jim, where exactly do you
use your brakes? All right.

All right, good.

Another actor, and here he was,
taking the subject matter,

and running with it.

Steve's apartment was above
James Garner's apartment

in the same neighbourhood.

And Steve would urinate
out the window at night

on the flower boxes
of James Garner below.

And as he performed this act,

he went, "You pissed on my film.
And now, I piss on you."

What is that? Paint?
No, no. Close your eyes.

LAUGHTER

It's all right. Cut it out.
It's not funny.

I can see him sitting in the

theatre, watching that and saying,
"Oh, shit. It's just another movie."

His sense of racing was so personal.

If there was going to be
one definitive movie about

that sport, he wanted to do it.

This is a treatment for
Le Mans and general comments

dated October second, 1969.

Ha! "Grand Prix, a prime
example of a director

"playing with himself in public.

"We have to reach high
in a picture like Le Mans,

"or there is no purpose
in making it."

Well, how perfect is this?

OK. Battle stations.

HE CHUCKLES

HELICOPTER WHIRS

We all remember the scene
in Apocalypse Now, where

up the river, Kurtz has
built a piece of America

in the middle of hostile jungle.

That is what Steve McQueen decided

to lower in to rural Le Mans,
and that was Solar Village.

THEY CHATTER IN FRENCH

We want to photograph the entire
race, then we want to recreate it.

And we want to use the same drivers.

Suddenly, out of the blue,
we're asked to work

on a movie with Steve McQueen.
It was like, "Whoa. Wow. Why not?"

And then on top of that, you knew

you were going to earn $200
a day, which was a lot of money.

Excellent. Absolutely excellent.

We were given a Porsche 911
each to trundle around in,

and it was good news.

Well, it's quite a pleasant
surprise to be invited.

I knew Steve quite well, and
it was very nice of Steve,

letting me go racing
at the weekends,

and lending me his pilot and
airplane to come back in time

for filming on Monday morning.

David Piper. We used
to call him the pirate.

HE LAUGHS

I think of the pipe
hanging out of his mouth.

He was a grand, old guy.

Mr Sturges, you've directed
Steve McQueen in several films,

including The Great Escape.

And now, you're here in Le Mans.

John Sturges is directing this film.

We've done three films together now,

and I tell you, we've had nothing
but fun, simply because we've

had the time, and we get excited
about doing really good work.

John was an incredible director.

It was Steve working
with John on Great Escape

and Magnificent Seven that
made the myth, and the man,

and Steve McQueen who he was.

The hero of the film
is racing in this scene.

That's what it's about.

We have the star.

We had the drivers.

We had an incredible array
of technical support.

We had everything,
except the script.

He said that the script
isn't entirely finished.

We're waiting for the end of
the race to finish the script,

to finalise the script?

Well, we do want to adjust our
story to the way things

happen that we actually
photograph. That's correct.

It's common in Hollywood
to start without a script.

It's not the right way,
it's not the economic way.

but it's common.

And anybody who says it's not
hasn't been there.

THUNDER CRACKS

They had done it once before,
Sturges, McQueen, and my father.

They had done it on The Great
Escape, and it turned out well.

And after Bullitt, my father
said the studio would have

written him a blank check

just to produce the phone book,
if he wanted to.

We have the best people
in the business with us.

Bob Relyea, he's our
executive producer.

John Sturges, he's our director.

He probably is the biggest
director in America,

and he's probably one of
the best in the world.

So with all those things going for
us, plus Steve McQueen and Le Mans,

I think we've got a picture that's
going to make an awful lot of money

and make a lot of people happy.

This is the story of racing, man.

This is the guts.

Glass is all right. All right. OK.

You got motor racing,
and you got Steve McQueen.

What have you got?

You've got everything.

"Le Mans" was going to be our
number one picture for the year.

It was a sure thing for Hollywood.

This could not miss.

It's the oldest, most
famous race in the world.

As you arrive to Le Mans and
come up beside the cathedral,

suddenly, the adrenaline will
start to get in your stomach.

That was when I realised
I was at Le Mans.

I knew we were driving
into the unknown.

You're going to be driving
at speeds that a racing

car's never been before.

It was terrifying.

Go!

WHOOPING AND CHEERING

It was a very fast-flowing circuit.

Very dangerous, but all
circuits were dangerous.

When I started racing, no-one
was worried about safety.

I mean, almost every race I
went to, someone was killed...

Sometimes, two or three people.

Life was cheap.

Those cars weren't very safe.

They were like sharp knives,
if you had an accident.

They cut you to pieces.

A car catches on fire,
and that's the end of it.

We have trouble! We have trouble.

Out at Nissan Dodge.
See the smoke billowing.

There is a problem.

You don't have time
to make two decisions.

You have time only to make
one, and it must be right.

You are sitting in a motor car
that maybe has 600 horsepower

and 30 gallons of gasoline.

So you know that if you
crash in this vehicle,

an impact is going to be disastrous.

There's nothing very glamorous about
racing, except when you're winning.

You get to the end of the race.

You're leading the race.

You're almost in tears on
the last couple of laps,

just hoping you can
get across the line.

Here they come, toward
the chequered flag.

Ford wins the 1969
24 hours of Le Mans!

And you don't get a situation

like that in life
very often, you know.

WHOOPING AND CHEERING

You like speed, don't you? Hm?

You like speed, don't you?

Oh, it's nice. It's cold.

The original idea was for Steve to
drive Le Mans, the actual 24 hours.

The real question here
is this is Steve McQueen,

and we are wondering whether or not
Steve McQueen will run in the race.

Uh, if I weren't so
rotten inside for money,

I would probably tell
them to go screw.

MAN TRANSLATES IN FRENCH

But I need the money
to make the film.

MAN TRANSLATES IN FRENCH

And I will not race at Le Mans.

MAN TRANSLATES IN FRENCH

It was too big a risk.

And if something were to happen
to him in the actual race,

that would put the film on hold
and probably never get done.

That's how much it meant to him.

He gave up his shot at competing at
Le Mans for the sake of the film.

Well, the insurance company
won't let Steve drive

in the race, as he told you.

We're going to be covering the
race itself very extensively,

with cameras everywhere.

And we expect to work approximately
three months afterwards,

staging the picture.

Solar Productions ready the
camera car for the race.

My real contribution was driving the
camera car during the actual race.

It was the car that Steve
and Peter Revson had finished

second at Sebring, and then they
converted it to carry three cameras,

one in front, two at the back.

When the camera car was
being fixed up Le Mans,

Steve was all around that.

And you could see written
all over his face,

"I want to be sitting
where you are sitting

"and take this race on."

Most important was the start.

They wanted to get the
start from in the car.

Going through the pit area,
with the full grand stand of

don't know how many
thousand people in it...

..this was genuine stuff.

We were told to film
especially the leaders.

So you'd photograph them
coming up behind you,

and then switch with the front one

on to catch them overtaking
you, and pulling away.

Unless they'd had all
the footage that they got,

they could've never made the film.

They were brilliant.

The camera car was bringing need

to the screen what
a driver would see.

Cars passing at speed,

cars dicing.

All part of the vision.

Here it is, after all this time.

PIANO PLAYS

# And it started again
and I meant every word

# And I liked what I said
and I liked what I heard

# And I started to think

# I could think about
starting again

# We were laughing again
over memories and wine

# And the years in-between
didn't seem a long time

# When I smiled, he knew why

# In a while
it was starting again...

We had so many similarities.

# And I started to think... #

We were raised by mothers

who really were not particularly
ready to be mothers.

Our fathers left us.

We built our career together.

We had children together, and we
were married for a very long time.

# You're walking along the
street or you're at a party

# Or else you're alone and
then you suddenly dig... #

My mom... I don't know
how old she is now.

She won't tell me, but
she still does her act.

# There's no controlling the
unrolling of my faith, my friend

# Who knows what's written
in the magic book? #

Well, my parents met in the '50s.
She was a star on Broadway.

And she's good at what she does,
and she enjoys it. She loves it.

I sure did like that.

She was about the sexiest
girl I ever saw in my life.

I guess it was ever a thing
of falling in love with a girl

at first sight, I guess that
was it, because boy, I sure had

to chase her for a long time.

It was just our destiny
to be together.

I walked out of Carnegie Hall,
and he came right to me.

And he said, "Hi. You're pretty."

And I was stunned. And I said,
"Well, you're pretty too."

HE MOUTHS SILENTLY

I remember there was
a long drive.

Yeah. This was my home
for three months, man.

The people my dad or
Solar rented it from,

they lived on that floor, there.

And they had kind of a nutty
daughter, if I remember.

We pulled in here, and she
was chasing a chicken around.

And she had a fucking
axe in her hand.

And she grabbed it and
cut its fucking head off,

right in front of us.

It was the first time I
ever saw a chicken running

around with no head right here.

I'd come from Brentwood.

DOG BARKS

I didn't want to go to Le Mans.

However, because Chad had
been doing badly in school,

I said, "OK. If you improve
your grades, we'll go."

And he did, so I had to go.

I used to wait right out here
to see Dad's Porsche coming up.

The fact that you're here
with the likes of Hertz and...

Would you like some gum?

Thank you.

When the flower children came along,
everything changed.

Everything changed.

He was almost 40.

There was suddenly free sex,
and free love, and free this,

and free everything.

He said to me one day.

He said, "I have to work so
hard for love in this house."

He said, "I can get
it for free out there."

His conquest of women behind
his wife's back probably averaged

about a dozen women a week.

It was a little less than two a day.

They wanted to say,
"I had sex with Steve McQueen."

He loved cars, liquor, women,
and he was interesting,

and cool, and dangerous.

See, they liked the danger in him.

Whatever Steve's activities might
have been when he had a break

in the afternoon, so to speak...

..you know, his trailer
was never empty.

I had came from the Royal
Dramatic School in Stockholm,

and I was there for the job.

Only if you'd like it better.

He had something hidden.

Maybe that also made him
attractive on the screen.

And as a woman, that's something
that I want to get to know.

I don't know who cast her.

Think Steve had an eye for her.

She appealed to him.
She was an attractive lady.

My respect for him was
not as big as his for me.

We shared this thing
about the accident.

I had worked for Steve about

two years, almost,
before we did Le Mans.

I was involved more with the car
racing and other personal matters.

I had dinner together with Steve,

and the count and the countess
from whom he rented this castle

in which he was living.

He would drive me home.

It was like 12, one
o'clock in the morning.

And Steve comes into my room and
says, "come on. We've got to go."

"Where are we going?
Why don't we go tomorrow?

"I'm tired. I haven't slept."

He told me to screw myself and said,
'What are you worried about?

"'You're only 21. You'll
sleep when you die.'"

I never knew her name.

I never got introduced.

And it wasn't just any night.

It was my first night
arriving in France.

I sat down next to
him in the front seat.

Steve was not driving a Porsche.

He was driving a Peugeot,
or something like that.

He was driving like a maniac,
and it started to rain.

THUNDER RUMBLES

And I keep telling
him to slow down,

and he keeps telling me to shut up.

Suddenly, there was a curve.

TYRES SCREECH

He drove at the side, and
we rolled over the field.

THUDDING

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!

I remember them smashing their
heads into the windshield.

GLASS SMASHES

I went flying.

I remember looking at my arm,

holding on, as we're crashing
down, and it just broke.

I could see it snap.

I was just out.

HE WHISTLES RHYTHMICALLY

Tss...

And I remember reaching up,
and opening the door,

and pushing the door open, and cut.

Steve thought that I was dead,
because I was lying there.

THUNDER RUMBLES

The water, the light
rain, woke him up.

And he said, "What
the fuck happened?

"Holy shit. What have I done?

"Oh, my God, she's
dead! Is she dead?"

And of course, my arm's like this.

It's just hanging.

And she comes to.

She seemed OK, not too bad.

He didn't have a scratch!

They didn't call an ambulance,

because they didn't want this
to get official, of course.

We saw a little farmhouse.

Steve says, "There's a car there.
Let's go hot-wire it."

ENGINE SPLUTTERS, DOGS BARK

And all of a sudden, we
hear the dogs barking.

And this French guys comes out in
pyjamas,

and he's got a shot gun,
and old, big gun in his hand.

And he's screaming in French
something... Pow!

GUNSHOT

My make-up girl in the morning,
she didn't know.

She asked me why I had bruises,
but they were not too big.

And I said, "Ah, well, you know..."

The production team, so to say,
must have known about it.

Well, I know that there was an

accident, but I don't want to
go there.

I don't want to go there.

I took the wrap for it.

They said that I was the one who
caused the problem,

but the fact that Steve was with
the girl was never revealed.

You just have to protect Steve,
and it's no big deal.

Nobody got killed.

Don't worry about it.
It's part of our jobs.

What would have happened if
it'd been on the headlines

just before we started shooting
the movie saying,

"Steve McQueen, the great driver,

"he had an accident with
a young actress"?

I mean, could you imagine?

He was so afraid.

I could see how scared he was that I
would ruin him and his production.

He said to me, "I'd appreciate
it if you don't talk about this."

So I said..."No, I won't."

BELL DINGS

The cars pass through the sleepy
French towns and countryside.

Strange, slow parade
of muttering monsters.

Rolling.

McQueen were trying to achieve
something that hadn't

been done in mainstream
films about a sport

that he had a true passion for.

Cars under way.

He really wanted to break through

and do a film that was as authentic
as you could possibly get.

He wanted to put the
person in the theatre, put

them in the seat of a race car.

He wanted them to feel what
he felt as a driver himself.

That was always his intent.

Wes, I think this is the first
time this sort of a production

has been undertaken.

Yes, it is.

This is the first time anything
like this has been filmed.

The things with this car and the
mounts on it, and the cameras on

it that have never been used
before. They're entirely new mounts,

entirely new concept of the
way to shoot a racing film.

So far everything is going so

beautifully, it's
almost unbelievable.

When Steve talked about
breaking the film barrier,

he was using language
that Hollywood didn't use.

Nobody ever thought
of doing it that way.

What he was trying to do was give
the total visual experience.

I'll tell you, Steve was ahead
of his time with his vision.

CARS APPROACH

He wanted it shot at race speeds.

If you're going 240 in the race,

we're doing 240 in every shot we do.

Every driver that was on that
picture, I mean, they were risking

their lives every
single day they were there.

These scenes that they
shot were choreographed.

You had to do a
ballet out on the track

and do what the director
had asked you to do.

The making of film was,
in many ways,

a lot more dangerous than the race.

And Steve did also not have
much of a sense of danger.

So everything was
pushed to the extreme.

Now, we're going 220mph.

Now, we're dicing.
Now, we're setting up a shot.

Not what might happen consciously
to a driver in his mind.

At a certain spot, we're
asking drivers to do this.

It's death.

Dereck Bell is the first driver
to experience a narrow escape.

Get out the way there.
Get the men out of the way.

Steve and I were doing a shot.

Suddenly, the car
sort of just exploded.

It sort of went up
in flames in my face.

And it appeared that he'd took to

unfastening the seat belt
and climbing out of the door.

It's when I got burned.

Oh, I just got very burnt
around here.

It could have been a lot worse,
you know.

I could've been dead,
just as easy as that.

Steve was committed.

He put his butt on the line.

Let's put it that way.

Every day, we shot
with him in the car.

"How can I get this shot?"
That's Steve McQueen.

That's the loner with the dream.

If you have this unlimited film
barrier that you want to crash

through, you're going to
be worried about if you're

going to die in the process?

In the film, I played
a race car driver.

I drove for Ferrari.

And Steve drove for Porsche.

I do some paintings.

You need a place where
you are by yourself.

And of course, Steve
is here too, you know.

Steve always did it different.

We were talking about reading.

And I said, "I don't
like reading too much.

"I read my scripts, and..."

"Oh, I don't like
it either, he said.

"I only read one book
in my life," he said,

a book about Alexander the Great.

"And I was very impressed
by one sentence," he said.

I can't get the world,
but I didn't conquer myself.

Get off! Action.

Who are you?

Especially as an actor,
you ask yourself.

Who are you, really?

Sometimes, I had a feeling he was
always searching for something.

He wanted to leave his scratch marks
on the history of film-making.

I'm a driver.

I'm an actor, and a film-maker.

MAN SPEAKS FRENCH

HE MOUTHS SILENTLY

He was quasi-directing.

He would say, "Look. It would be
great to get a shot like this."

It caused quite a bit of
conflict with John Sturges.

This will be a serious film, and

since the romantic interests
will be kept down to a minimum,

this will concentrate on sports car

racing and the 24 hours
at Le Mans. Is that right?

Well, I'll go with you that we
concentrate on the race, yes.

Whether anything else is kept to
a minimum or not, I don't know.

Steve was an executive producer.
He outright Sturges.

This was not the same
McQueen that worked with Sturges

on The Magnificent Seven
or The Great Escape.

You've got to believe in what you're
doing. I believe in what I do.

And if I'm shooting
my best shot for me,

then I'm doing my
best for the audience.

But my obligation's
got to be to myself.

To me, he became the character,

which I described to
him in the mantra.

He made his own rules.
He knew his own right and wrong.

He didn't have to answer to anybody.

Well, I'll get all these
idiots away from you.

If they tell you you're a genius
with sufficient frequency,

you start to believe that.

And I think most people out
there who get that sort of fame

have a great deal of
difficulty handling it.

It was a wild time.

It was a time of great
rebelliousness

and attempting to overthrow
the gods of Hollywood.

Jay Sebring was a very
good friend of ours.

And I liked Sharon Tate.

Sharon was married to
Roman Polanski at the time,

and she was pregnant.

Jay said, "Why don't you and Neil
come over and have dinner with us?"

And Steve said, "Oh, yeah, sure."

I knew I wasn't coming,
and I didn't want to go.

The bodies will have to be made in
the examination by the coroner.

There's no evident cause of death?
Not that we can say at this time.

People kept calling the next
day and said, "Is Steve OK?"

An employee came to
work at 10050 Cielo

and found several
bodies in the house.

And then I find out that there

had been these murders, and
they thought Steve was there.

A tentative identification
of the persons are as follows.

Sharon Polanski, Jay Sebring...

Steve was supposed to be at the
party... ..Abigail Folger...

..but he ran into a lady or
something, and didn't show up.

..Voytek Frykowski, and
another man who is unknown.

Was there anything scrolled on the
front door of that house in blood?

I can't answer that question.

How you doing, Charlie? Good.
How are you this morning?

His name was Charles Manson,
and he had a gang of misfits.

CAMERA CLICKS

Body is badly mutilated.

This, I'd rather not discuss.

I'd never heard of people who
massacred the way

they massacred these people.

LAUGHTER

It's all a play, isn't it?

They found his name on the list of
other people

that Manson wanted to murder.

It'd freak him out a lot.

"Dear Eddie..." Eddie Rubin
was our attorney.

"As you know, I have been
selected by the Manson group

"to be marked for death.

"In some ways, I find it humorous,

"and in other ways,
frighteningly tragic.

"But I must, I must
consider it may be true.

"If you could call Palm Springs
and have my gun permit renewed,

"as it is the only
sense of self-protection

"for my family and myself.

"I'm waiting for an
immediate reply.

"My best, Steve."

This was 1970,
on the set of Le Mans.

Steve was already what I would

call, "in a heightened state,"
extremely paranoid.

Everything was raised.

The levels of craziness,
anxiety were heightened.

Everything is zzz... Up.

He was never the same at
any one point.

That marriage was fraying
at the seams, you know.

When they appeared on set,
they appeared arm-in-arm.

They appeared devoted.

But you can also see in Neile's
expression, a certain weariness

to the whole situation.

He said, "By the way,
I'm having friends

"visit me from all over Europe."

I said, "Really? Who are they?

He said, "Well,
they're mostly women."

And you know, that really got to
me, and I remember sobbing away.

She was wonderful.
She was a smart woman.

I would say it to him, "You're
going to ruin your marriage.

"What is wrong with you?"

Until one night, I told him,
I had gotten even with him.

Steve asked Neile whether
she'd ever had an affair.

I said, "Well, as a matter
of fact, I said, yeah, I had."

I was the one person in
the world that he trusted,

the one person he thought
he could do anything to.

I would never retaliate.

For him to hear that coming from me
was totally unbelievable to him.

He was really, really,
deeply wounded.

It was him, not her.

He's the one that
just had this hunger.

And you think, my God, the next day

he's got to get up, and go out,
and drive a 917 at 200mph.

The whole situation
was problematic.

The one thing he wanted to
do is what we were doing.

He wanted to be a racing driver.

248mph.

Just imagine losing control
and hitting that Armco rail.

Well, racing...it's life.

Anything that happens before
or after is just waiting.

That's a good sentence for Steve.

Sometimes, I had the
feeling it is like this.

It meant a lot to him,
almost everything.

And we had a scene where
we get out of the car

after two hours of driving.

Of course, you sweat, you know.

And the make-up man came, and
put some water in my face, and hair.

And he wanted to do this to Steve.

And Steve said,
"No, no, no, no, no."

He stepped in his car.

He drove a couple of rounds,
got out of the car.

He was sweating naturally.

And he said, "Siggy, look at this.

"It's swollen here, the vein.

"So that is the perfect thing.

"The make-up man can't do this.

"It has to be real."

And Steve wanted it like this.

As an actor, if you get in the
position to be able to have

control, or as a film-maker,
you must carry your project.

Carry it all the way
through, to the end.

That means you can't give up.
You can't let a thing go.

And nobody will make a decision

for you, and nobody's
smarter than you are.

There was really no script.

I mean, we were winging it.

In the meantime, until we
got somewhat of a script,

we were shooting just footage.

Hollywood is a formula they like,
and they like to stick to it.

They wanted to have
more of a love story.

My dad wanted cars and realism.

You had a mental picture of a
documentary, something that

was paired down to give you
the total experience

of what was going on.

People like myself felt Le Mans

would make a great background
for a dramatic story.

That debate caused writers to come,

and go, and take a shot at the
script that would make sense.

They were called duelling caravans,

because they were lined
up next to each other.

Who could get the latest new
script on Steve's desk first?

He was trying to write the
great American novel when he

was trying to write the script.

And because the first sentence
written was in the greatest

sentence ever written, he couldn't
get himself to that point,

putting it down on paper.

Everybody that went to
the box office back then

said, "Oh, he's going to win it.
He's going to win it.

"So let's throw a
little wrench in this.

"I'm going to give him
something different."

OK, Steve. You walk
into this caravan.

You see this girl you
haven't seen in a long time.

And she looks up at
you and says, "Hello."

What would you say - "Hello"?

And he said, "Not necessarily."

That was the lowest point for me.

I thought, "We're never
going to get a script."

If I had written the script,
I know it would have worked.

It would have worked.

I was his boy. I was his writer.

His favourite expression is,
"The son of a bitch knows me.

"I don't know how,
but he knows me."

The meeting took place
in Steve's home.

He insisted that the character
had to be a loser,

and I didn't want to write a loser.

You have to remember,
I was also a star.

I thought I had a right
to insist on my position.

He just wanted to
lose in that movie,

and I don't know why.

Steve wanted to have something
more than just Steve McQueen

doing Steve McQueen on film.

You're talking about something he

wanted to do that was more
important than acting.

You shouldn't argue
with a superstar,

even if you helped
make him a superstar.

I was the highest paid
screenwriter in town

when I went to that meeting.

And after that meeting,
the phone never rang again.

His love of cars were so infectious
that is screwed me up for life.

Since day one when I got here,
I'm like, "Dad, can you just give me

"a ride in one of the race cars?"
That's all I wanted.

Must've been two months went by,
and my dad turned the car around.

He opened his right door, the
side door, and went like that,

turned around, and
he sat me on his lap.

And I just put my hands
inside of his hands, right.

For a second, he pulled his hands

out the wheel, and
I was steering the 917.

And that was pretty bitching.

Yeah, baby! Ha-ha!

Chad had a terrible accident.

He hit a wall in Daytona.

He's got 16 screws on his
neck, and he's got a rod

on either side of his spine.

I broke everything in my body.

And the reason I'm wearing shades
is my right eye is still towed in.

Uh...I was in a coma for
three and a half weeks.

Did I say that?

Would I change anything?
No. I wouldn't.

Pretty neat, huh?

There is nothing better,
nothing better.

I mean, motorsports is the
strongest drug in the world.

To drive a car in
perfect condition to the limit

was the most gratifying
thing you ever did.

It's almost like a ballet, with the
car going in through the corners.

And it's a thing of beauty.

It is a work of art.

I went 330km per hour.

The faster I went,
the more relaxed I was.

But when it's finished,
you have the time to think,

and then you're glad that
nothing happened more.

It overtakes drivers,
without them knowing it.

The freedom of an eagle
floating in the sky

was something that
racing brought to him.

Whatever that other stuff was
that came from his upbringing,

he could set that aside.

Death is so close.
It's right on my shoulder.

And yet, there's a peace here.

And he actually found
such joy in that, that he

wanted to give that to people.

He was not Hercules.

He was Icarus.

Steve wanted to fly so high,

and he didn't quite understand the

point where the wax
starts to leave your wings.

Clear the set, clear the set.

And cars are rolling.

I was rolling.
They had to pay the drivers.

They had to pay the camera men.
They had to pay the sound men.

They had to pay the people
that fed them at lunch.

And the people in the Cinema
Center were checking in.

How are things going over there?
Well, not so good.

We ain't got no story.

We were approximately
$1.5 million over budget.

And the studio was expecting
a Steve McQueen movie to bail

us out, and we didn't have it.

We were going to make the most
expensive documentary in the world,

if somebody didn't talk.

Everybody was looking for the same
thing, with one exception...

With one exception,
and that would be Steve McQueen.

The truth is we had gone
into a rather lengthy debate

over the basis of the film.

My father went back to his
production office,

and in a fit of rage,
threw a lamp against the wall.

GLASS SMASHES

He said, "This picture's fucking
out of control," you know.

And it was at that moment that
he turned and saw Bob Rosen

reclining on his couch,
reading a magazine.

Wrong guy was in the room.

Bob called the studio and said,
"We've got real problems now.

"They're falling out
among themselves."

I don't remember that happening.
Could it have happened? Yeah.

But it wasn't like a revelation.

Everybody knew the picture
was out of control.

Cinema Center's answer was
we'll take the picture over.

Now, we call the shots,
and we make the decision.

We don't care which script you make.
Just make one of them.

And you, Steve,
will lose your salary,

will not get your points.

You have nothing to do with
this picture, except act.

We don't got no picture.

Last night, they took
the picture away from us.

It says, "I have read the foregoing

"and agree to render services only
as an actor in the picture."

And then my dad signed his name...

"in blood."

It's brilliant. It goes
in character with my dad.

I love this shit.

Steve was furious with my father.

At this point, in McQueen's mind,

my father had gone over to the other
side of the fence and betrayed him.

This racing picture was
so close to all of us

that when the studio took it over,

Mr McQueen felt that that had put a
knife in the heart of the company.

And Steve and I did not speak again.

You betrayed me.
You stabbed me in the back.

I'll never talk to you again.

Loyalty was a big thing with my dad.

If my dad felt in any way that
he had been burnt, that was it.

I don't think my
father betrayed Steve.

But I think he felt again,
as a businessperson,

as a professional, that that
was going to be the course it

was headed for, no matter what.

Thanks very much, Bob Relyea.

Thank you very much, Mr Sturges.
Bye.

John came to me.

And he said, "I'm going to quit."

And it came about because of
the relationship with Steve.

John Sturges was brought in to make

a theatrical motion picture with
characters and a story in it.

The more John tried to have
it his way, the less ground

Steve would give him.

He said, "I'm too fucking
old and rich to put up

"with this type of
shit any more. Goodbye."

Now, here we are,
halfway in the production,

and they don't have a director.

Now, what?

There's a lot of ways that
man can be hurt in business.

They can hurt your head.
They can hurt you financially.

They can gut you.

Or they can cause that thing
to pop up in your throat.

A couple of times a day, you start
thinking about it a little bit.

He was nothing but success
up to the point of Le Mans.

Everything that he
did turned to gold.

And now, Le Mans,
everything turned to shit.

I've always wanted to know if Steve
had walked off the production

at that point,
what would've happened.

Call it ego.

Call it his name.

It's not good press if the
world's number one box office

attraction walks off a film, a
film that meant so much to him.

There was no quit in my dad.

He had something that he started,
and he wanted to finish it.

We're rolling, guys.

Thank you. Guys, settle, please.

HE CHUCKLES

I come in on a Monday morning.

And Jerry Henshaw comes in, says,

"How would you like to go to
France?" That's how it happened.

They had no story.

They knew that Steve was
never going to win the race.

That's about what they knew.

I can see him now with the glasses,

and that funny hat he
wore the whole time.

He wasn't this mogul, this
great icon of the movie world.

He was a guy called Lee Katzin,
who nobody had heard of.

Poor old Lee didn't know the
front of a car from the back,

so that wasn't helpful.

McQueen hadn't chosen him, didn't
like him, wasn't impressed by him.

And he was obliged to work with him.

They did a take in the pits.

And Lee said, "One more, please."

Steve got up. And he said,

"Listen, asshole. I'll tell
you when we get one more.

"Move to your next shot.
And if I like it, I'll show up."

The problems of
individual's egos were there.

It wasn't a lot of
fun that way, at all.

Come on. I want to
show you something.

Come on. Walk with me.

I want to get down here, cos
this is where Dave Piper lost it,

right in this right hander.

CLOCK TICKS

We'd been filming in the morning.

Everything went according
to plan, no problem.

Went to lunch, came
back to the circuit,

and the director wanted the Ferraris
to be leading with a Porsche behind.

CARS REV

They hadn't decided what
the script was going to be,

and they wanted both options.

I drove just as I had
driven in the morning.

Went into this right-hand corner.

The back end just went.

LOUD THUD

CRASHING

Word had gotten back to the
compound that there was an accident.

And I got that.

And I was thinking,
"Jeez, I hope it's not my dad."

I hear the Triumph pull up.

And so what's going on?

He says, "I want to show you
what can happen in motor racing."

Steve, I'm calling you to tell
you that we're having accident.

David Piper, he's been
taken to hospital.

This was all grass, and
I remember a couple cows.

And there was a wheel assembly,

sitting out in the middle
of fucking nowhere.

Uh, well, he had a crash.

He was left bolted
onto the engine in the seat,

and the rest of the car
took off and left him.

You can see there's quite a lot
of blood coming out of your leg

in your overalls.

But it's a tremendous relief that

you're still conscious and alive.

David has been injured.

I just spoke to the pilot.

He will come in at night.

It was my doctor. He said,
"We're going to have to amputate."

I said, "Well, take it off
four inches below the knee,

"and I'll take my chances,"
you know.

My mum took me, my
sister to see Dave.

And I remember the room was dark,

and I remember he had
a sheet over him.

And you could clearly see
that below his knee was gone.

I lost it there.
I lost that much.

Would your accident have happened if
a proper script had been in place?

Oh, no. It probably wouldn't
have done, yeah.

Definitely wouldn't have done,
because they wouldn't have

wanted to do the shot twice.

It shouldn't have happened.

CAR REVS

With David Piper, Steve was very,

very aware and very
worried about it.

You'd think it was his fault.

It's his film.

The bucks stops at the top.

CAR REVS

I never saw him afterwards.

No.

Just never happened to see him
again, you know.

One morning, at Solar Village,

no-one else was there
but myself and Steve.

And he said, "Lee, I see
what you're trying to do,

"and I'm not going to fight you.
I'm not going to be against you.

"I want to work with you."

From that time on, it was wonderful.

We battered out an outline
that Steve agreed to.

It took six, eight, ten weeks
for this to happen.

And finally, we got basically
what we had in the movie,

in terms of dialogue.

When people risk their lives,
shouldn't it be

for something very important?

Well, it better be.

He was trying to vindicate
the purpose of the film

by making sure it was finished and
would be a testament to the personal

bravery of his most respected pals,
the motor racing drivers.

It was late October or November.

And the trees were turning yellow.

It should be within 24 hours
everything, you know.

So they had to paint the leaves.

Ugh, my goodness.

In November, 1970, filming finally
wrapped three months over schedule,

and about $1.5 million over budget.

He was sort of melancholy, I think.

He said, "It's done."

The last day of filming,
he got out of his car,

and he unbuckled his wrist watch,
and walked over to me,

and handed me the watch.

And he said, "I want
you to have this.

"Thank you for keeping me
alive all these months."

Le Mans is close to me.

I love motor racing.

It was a film that was
very, very close to me,

and we all hope
it turns out well.

Camera number three, marker.

Camera number four, marker.

Camera number five, marker.

We now have speed
on all the cameras.

I will call action, and then
it'll be a count of ten.

If anything happens to me,

Allie gets my pick-up truck.

Guys, can you hear me all right?
All right.

The fire brigade ready?

All right. Now, may I have your
attention, please?

I don't care what anybody else says.

I think he was satisfied
as a film-maker at what

he had done for this picture.

I've never seen the movie.

It's too difficult for me.

Steve lost his wife, lost
his marriage, lost the film,

lost everything.

All of that loss, at that point
in time, I think it really

speaks to how deeply he cared
about that project, and how it

was so tied into his persona,

and his soul, that I think he
sensed that if it wasn't going

to happen on that film, it wasn't
going to happen in his lifetime.

Being an actor is a gas.

Being a movie star
is a pain in the ass.

And when that happens,
you stop your personal growth.

And that's the thing
that I suffered from.

When he wanted to give back,

Hollywood wasn't there for him.

He had this vision that
came out of his heart.

I don't think any of those other
movies came out of his heart.

The world just became a different
colour to him after that film.

Le Mans is a turning
point in his life.

When he left Le Mans, he
turned his back on the sport.

The zest he had for
driving fast had gone.

As far as me moving on myself,

I think I'm more
into life than cinema.

My conception can only be
motorcycles, and speed,

and things like that.
I don't want to do that any more.

I don't do it no more.

Now I'm clean.

Well, it's done.

I've got to try something else.

Do I really want to
do this any more?

Do I want to go that fast?

And I think with
David Piper's accident,

an awareness of the vulnerability

was in his psyche.

What he cared most about in
that picture were the drivers.

He loved the drivers.

Oh.

"Dear Sid, so many times before,
in the history of motion pictures,

"brave men have lost their
lives and limbs, and people

"have forgotten about it.

"I feel very strongly
that we should dedicate

"the first premier to David
Piper and give all the proceeds

"to him and his family.

"Would you please pass
this on to the higher-ups?

"And I do think we do this to racing
for what they gave this film.

"My best, Steve McQueen."

Oh, how wonderful.

Gosh, that is terrific.

I really lost touch when
I was in hospital.

You know, I never heard
of anything like this.

How very nice.

Well, Steve's heart was really
in the right place, wasn't it?

It's fantastic.

I just wanted to get it down on film
for what I thought it was all about.

And I guess it's going to be
up to the audience to decide

whether I was right or wrong.

Oh, it was a lot of cars.

And I was waiting for my scenes.

SHE LAUGHS

That's what... Most actors do that,
first time they see a movie.

I was disappointed.

I could never see how it was going

to be a roaring success at the time,
because there was no script.

But then I saw the film
two years ago, and I went,

"God, that's brilliant."

It's the most wonderful
documentary of one of the most

glorious times of motor racing,

on the greatest track in the world.

From an actor's point
of view, loves it.

But from his point of view,

from a driver's
point of view, lovely.

And from a car's point
of view, beautiful.

It gets acclaim, because
it's trying to be pure.

It's not a Hollywood concoction.

But what the film doesn't capture
is dramatic storytelling.

Problems, you know, they vanish
in all the years.

I think he would have
been proud that we did it.

Proud that he did it.

What's happened now is a cult
is following this picture.

People who are into cars
revere this film.

That's all they want to
talk about, is Le Mans.

It has taken on a life of its own.

The thing that Steve
did that moved cinema forward

was his absolute
insistence on authenticity.

You just have to say,
"You went for it, guy."

I say, power to him.

They still are not able to
capture what we captured inside

those cars with the
real drivers today.

Steve McQueen, he had no fear.

When he went to Mexico
to get treatment,

he had a copy of the film
shipped to Mexico, and showed it

to the patients to the hospital.

I think it was his last
goodbye to everything.

He was just a nice man who
lost his way along the way,

and found it back.

And, hopefully, he's up there,
having a good time.

Like I used to say,
"Safe travel, honey."

I always get a sense
he's watching me,

but close your eyes,
and listen to that.

Close your eyes and
listen to this again.

DISTANT CARS PASS

So that's what my dad envisioned,
bringing that to life.

But I think today he would say,

"Ah, now you guys finally get it."