source: Winning

Trailer—Winning

Winning

The feeling I had during the movie is: this could have been better if it was totally different: More relations between characters and less cars. And even when there is a race, we get weird 60's shots of people not even watching the race. How about more about the rivalry between Newman and Wagner. What does Joanne do- is she a housewife, raising by herself a child since he was three? Richard Thomas (Charlie) and Newman should have had more scenes before Charlie is sad of the breakup; I would have been sad losing a father like Newman, but we should see why Charlie is sad. Newman puts as much character to Frank as the script allows. Too long, not too predictable (not that there are any big surprises, other than the credits coming a bit early in the last scene). Paul and Joanne are great together, see Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990).

Paul Newman struck gold with this one: he teams up again on screen with his wife Joanne Woodward, and he gets to make a movie about a real-life passion, racecars! Winning is basically like any other sports movie. A talented man becomes too consumed by the competition, and his relationship with his wife/girlfriend/children strains as a result. In this movie, it's racecar driving, so if you like cars, don't miss this one. If you're bored to tears by loud cars driving around in a continuous circle, try another Paul Newman sports movie, like Slap Shot. Off-screen spouses argue and try to make the audience fear for a will-they-or-won't-they conflict, but it's not really convincing. There's so much love between them it seems highly unlikely they won't reconcile by the end of the movie. And as for a love triangle, why would anyone consider leaving Paul Newman?

Winning is a dull and numbing experience, despite the leads of Newman and Woodward. Capua wins everything, so the one thing he can lose gets taken from him, but he doesn't want to let her go. Newman and Woodward are solid in the film, but the kid's annoyingly needy and forthright. Why was this film made? It all seems rather pointless. The racing scenes drag and aren't entertaining and there's no great story being told here. Also, there's odd theme music played at irrelevant times.

I first saw "Winning" in 1969 and was utterly unimpressed with it. When TCM recently showed it, I decided to watch it again to see if my opinion of it had changed after 36 years. Nope. Underwritten, episodic plot line, dull characters , documentary-style, almost indifferent racing footage and, worst, the usual restrained, passionless chemistry between Newman and Woodward. Whatever has kept these two together for almost 50 years remains a mystery. Both Woodward and Newman have shown a playful sexiness with other screen partners (most notably, Woodward in "3 Faces of Eve"). However, I wish they'd given Newman another love interest. About the only high point of "Winning" is Richard Thomas as Woodward's son. Thomas works very well with Newman. Maybe they should have made HIM Newman's love interest. Oh well. I give "Winning" a "5".

From very near the start, Newman and Woodward look so comfortable in each others presence. Well, they had been married for eleven years by then! There are other films where the "married" couple just look as though they are acting, and are not real. Here, it is so different and makes watching the rest of it worthwhile, and pleasant. OK, so we know that neither Newman nor Kapua won the 1968 Indy 500, so-what? It is easy to join in the excitement and appreciate the drama. The joining of real footage, especially of the first-lap pile-up is neatly and realistically done. Coping with infidelity is always going to be hard, by both partners, here they do it OK. Richard Thomas as the adopted son is good enough and led me to then watch his simply brilliant "All Quiet on the Western Front".

I am a big fan of Paul Newman but this must be one of his lowest films, even though he is OK at it. I think this movie deserves 5.5 stars. One of the biggest problems is that it last 120 minutes, it should have lasted 20 minutes less. I think the plot was good but not the way it was developed. What I liked the most was the final scene between Paul and Joanne, this scene deserved to be in a much better movie. The race scenes are good. Frank Capua is a car racer who gets married with Elora who has a 16 years old son who gets along with him, but there will be serious problems in the couple when he puts his career before her........... I recommend watching it if it's on TV and you like old race cars movies or if you are a Paul Newman's die hard fan

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. It's about racing. It has lots of racers. It's a love story with his wife. It's obviously a personal passion project for Newman. It doesn't mean that it'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.