Indianapolis (1969)

Indianapolis: Directed by James Goldstone. With Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Robert Wagner, Richard Thomas. Frank Capua is a rising star on the race circuit who dreams of winning the big one–the Indianapolis 500. But to get there he runs the risk of losing his wife Elora to his rival, Luther Erding, and strains the relationship with his stepson.

“Self confident professional race car driver Frank Capua (Paul Newman) falls for Elora (Joanne Woodward) working at a car rental place. He befriends her teenage son Charley (Richard Thomas) taking him under his racing wings. Luther Lou Erding (Robert Wagner) is his main friend-rival.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s about racing. It has lots of racers. Itu0026#39;s a love story with his wife. Itu0026#39;s obviously a personal passion project for Newman. It doesnu0026#39;t mean that itu0026#39;s any good. The drama has pretty limited tension. The romance has no drama to begin with and when it turns, it retroactively destroys its bland sweetness. In between the personal non-drama, the racing has some good real action and stunts. The filmmaking is still not modern enough to make the racing exciting. It comes off mostly flat but has the interest equivalent to racing deleted scenes.”