The Speed Merchants (1972)

That was an excellent one.

Absolutely Fantastic

A Disappointing Continuation

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This could have been a masterpiece of the final years of the Golden Era of sports-car racing, which reached its glorious but all-too-short culmination in the unintended consequences of the FIA/CSI's typically fat-headed re-write, in an effort to reduce speeds (that had been as high as 215-220mph at high-speed tracks like Le Mans, Daytona, and Spa), of the Group 4 Sports Car and Group 6 Prototype homologation rules, due to take effect in 1970. The CSI believed no team would spend the money to build anything but race-modified production sports cars to meet the 25-car minimum necessary for homologation in Group 5.This supposition blew up in their faces when Porsche, in March 1969, introduced the most outrageous, esoteric, and glorious sports car of its time, and, perhaps, of all time, the pure-racing-car flat-12-cylinder Porsche 917, and they built the 25 necessary. Ferrari had to follow suit to stand any chance of winning anything, and responded with their ALMOST equally fantastic V-12 512S. The two years these cars ran, 1970 and 1971, that passed before the CSI could implement new rules, still stand as the summit of sports car racing. It is these years, and some of 1972, that Keyser attempts to sketch in 1972's "The Speed Merchants."While the documentary has much to recommend it, including low-key and intelligent narration by two giants of the period, Mario Andretti and Vic Elford, the movie suffers badly from a couple of dated cinematic conventions of the time: choppy, "hip" montage editing that throws narrative continuity out the window, and the dreaded "French Jazz Racing Movie Soundtrack," which is also the curse of McQueen's contemporary, fictional "Le Mans."No sports car racing fan should be without this movie, but it could have been SO much better, and should have been completely overhauled, adding footage and ditching the dreary music, during its remastering in 1999. Pity.

Quite probably the best documentary on sports car racing or motor racing in general ever made. As a still photographer in that era I can attest to the accuracy of this film. Well photographed with great attention to detail the film takes viewers into the hearts and minds of the drivers depicted. A couple will be winners, one will retire and a close friend will lose his life. A better script could not have been written by Hollywood. The film also gives you views into places you might not get to see such as the Ferrari factory of 1972, Autodelta garage, the Matra-Simca garage at Le Mans and great film of the Targa Florio. I saw this film at its premier in 1973 at Watkins Glen while shooting the 6 hour endurance race with these same cars and watched it again just recently. It still holds up as a great motor racing film.

As a race car driver and having lived thru this era, I love the movie. Very nice how they showed personal sides and insight into the featured racers lives. Racing was far more dangerous in those days and these men were the persona of the breed.Documentary format and moves well. Music/score was well written and very effective. Highly urged for those who want to see the lives and gain insight into this discipline.As an aside, what is the name of the song that the folk band was playing at LeMans in the scene where the spectators are eating and drinking?

The dangers of motor sports are high, but were especially high back then with the vehicle technology far exceeding driver safety. These gentlemen knew the stakes were high. They drove for the love of driving. However because of the sacrifices made by these men, the level of safety we now have today is at it's best. The film really piqued my interest of that era, and not only documenting Racing history of the late '60s early '70s. This is my target of interest largely because of being raised up in the "Racing Capitol Of The World" during that same time. The director knew exactly what he wanted to record.The personal life of the drivers as well shows how serious each one was about their job, and also added the opportunity of getting to know each one personally.The filmmakers caught all these elements in a most spectacular way.