Upon its 1966 release , Bosley Crowther called the film " a smashing and thundering compilation of racing footage shot superbly at the scenes of the big meets around the circuit , jazzed up with some great photographic trickery ... Mr. Frankenheimer belts you with such a barrage of magnificent shots of the racing cars , seen from every angle and every possible point of intimacy , that you really feel as though you 've been in it after you 've seen this film . Furthermore , the director and Saul Bass fill that mammoth screen from time to time with multiple graphics and montages that look like movies at a world 's fair . Triple and quadruple panels and even screen-filling checkerboards ... hit the viewer with stimulations that optically generate a sort of intoxication with racing . It 's razzle-dazzle of a random sort , but it works . " However , Crowther concluded " the big trouble with this picture ... is that the characters and their romantic problems are stereotypes and clichés ... You come away with the feeling that you 've seen virtually everything there is to see in grand-prix racing , except the real guys who drive those killer cars . " '' Variety '' called the film " one of those rare pictures that draws its basic strength , excitement and interest-arresting potential through the visual ( the pure art of cinema ) and if it lacked brilliant virtuosity in the action department it would be just another flimflam . " Philip K. Scheuer of the '' Los Angeles Times '' called it " the new , definitive , great film about auto racing , " adding that after three hours " if one emerged with the feeling that maybe there has been just too much , here is one case in which I can state happily that it is better than too little . " Leo Sullivan of '' The Washington Post '' wrote , " John Frankenheimer 's ' Grand Prix ' is brought alive with cinematic innovations and is frequently set ablaze with excitement . " Brendan Gill of '' The New Yorker '' described the film as " big , brave , eye-bedazzling , earsplitting , and sometimes almost heart-stopping . " '' The Monthly Film Bulletin '' wrote , " The cars , of course , steal all the thunder , but one is a little disappointed to find the drivers and their private lives so little elevated beyond the level of pulp fiction . Still , as a spectacle '' Grand Prix '' is on the whole such a success that the fact it is n't anything more than a spectacle hardly matters . " Forty-five years later , upon its release on Blu-ray Disc , '' The New York Times '' reviewed the film again , with Dave Kehr saying " considered purely from a technical point of view , the new disc is a beauty , with crisp , richly textured images that do justice to the original 65-millimeter Super Panavision format , and a roaringly dimensional soundtrack ... As a movie , though , '' Grand Prix '' was never that grand . First shown as a reserved-seat , road-show attraction in Cinerama theaters , it is little more than a 176-minute version of the roller-coaster ride '' This Is Cinerama '' that introduced the format in 1952 , a high-speed tour of the principal stops on the Formula One tour , with the spectator , as often as possible , strapped into the driver 's seat . " At the 39th Academy Awards , '' Grand Prix '' won Oscars for Best Sound Effects ( Gordon Daniel ) , Best Film Editing and Best Sound ( Franklin Milton ) . John Frankenheimer was nominated for Outstanding Directing by the Directors Guild of America
39th Academy Awards
39th Academy Awards
Grand Prix (1966 film)