1:42.08

1:42.08 (1966)

*** (out of 4)

This seven-minute short is one that was done by George Lucas for his Senior Project while at USC. From what I've read, Peter Brock actually borrowed a car so that Lucas could film it doing laps at a race track. The title refers to the amount of time it took to complete a lap. For the most part this here is a pretty entertaining film thanks in large part to the way it was filmed and for the sound. The various sounds captured as the car flies around the track was put to good use and it certainly makes you feel as if you're right there inside the car. There were some nice shots including one where the camera was placed at the front of the car giving you a terrific view. There's certainly nothing here that would lead you to believe Lucas would become somewhat of an icon but it's certainly worth watching.

George Lucas made this as his USC film school senior project at Willow Springs, a race track outside of Rosamond, CA, and near Los Angeles. Filming of the Lotus 23 on-track was done with a specially modified Corvair camera vehicle. The film helped identify Lucas as a latent gear-head; he's also credited on IMDb as "additional camera operator" on the racing classic "Grand Prix" in the same year (1966). His "American Graffiti" ode to the '60s later confirmed his interest.

Pete Brock, designated driver for the Lotus, achieved significant status of his own in the automobile world. Among his credits: 1) designer of the world-champion Cobra Daytona Coupe that bested Ferrari's GTO in international sports car competition, 2) contributing designer to the original Chevrolet Stingray concept and other projects while at GM, 3) team owner/manager of Brock Racing Enterprises, which helped establish Datsun as a household word through numerous victories on U.S. tracks in the '60s and '70s.

This is little more than George Lucas's indulgences coming at a cross-section, his love of race car driving (he stopped doing it after an accident just regular driving as a teen nearly killed him) mixed with his love of impressionistic, "tone-poem" style filmmaking, and the two modes mesh well together. Here, in his first color and sync-sound production, Lucas has the story of a driver who is trying to make the timing right at the mark of the time of the title. There's not much story here except for one key thing: if at first you spin off during a bad turn, you have to try again. And really the power and strength is in the editing; while Lucas had some help in assembling the footage, this feels like the best indication of where his head was at for the future of his films. This isn't as intense a style of montage as he would employ in something like the Star Wars Death Star dogfight... actually, no, it's more intense than that in some spots, and in others Lucas takes his shots longer to spend on seeing the car from afar (there's also a few, though brief, from inside the driver's POV). It's a cool little short, but if you're not fully interested in Lucas's more logistical approach to montage and composition, it may leave one cold.

USC film student George Lucas always liked cars. He hung around Carroll Shelby's firm enough to convince the Shelby Daytona designer, Pete Brock, to drive a borrowed Lotus around the Riverside track. There are no words in the movie, but see if you can read Pete's lips when he spins out.

Nice cinematography for a student.

This Movie depicts George Lucas in his Racing Days( he had a very bad accident that nearly killed him) it has no words in it and has a lot of intense racing in the short! This is just George Lucas Short Film Gold!!