Poseidon-3 Fans of Newman can hardly skip this lesser entry in his sizable filmography as he's shown off to his best advantage throughout. He plays a race car driver (of varying kinds) who one night, after a big win, meets up with a lonely single mother (Woodward) and sweeps her off her feet. They set off on a whirlwind courtship, ending in marriage, and Newman agrees to adopt her teen son (Thomas) whose life has lacked a father figure. Things run swimmingly until Newman has to go off on to the racing circuit, leaving Woodward alone to stew and return to her previous, lonesome life. A reunion at the Indy 500 does not go as well as either of them had hoped and soon their marriage in jeopardy. Newman has trouble separating his worries about his wife from his duties on the track. Meanwhile, Thomas is torn between his mother and his new father, who he looks up to and adores. Also, fellow racer Wagner is always right there, ready to take any and all trophies away from Newman if he can. On the surface, this seems like a film about racing, but it's really a domestic drama examining Newman and Woodward's relationship and the hazards of not communicating properly with one another. It's also a fable illustrating that "winning isn't everything", a point that is driven home not so subtly. When they talk about Newman's baby blue eyes, this is a film that really shows them off. His sun-kissed face provides the perfect setting for his piercing, gorgeous eyes. He does a lot of brooding in the film, but there are fun moments as well. He gets to show many sides to his persona and looks terrific in the clean, trim sportswear of the era (and shows off his fit figure in a brief swimming scene.) Woodward gives a solid, thoughtful performance as well, though her various Edith Head get-ups have not aged as nicely as Newman's wardrobe. At one point, to help get Newman's attention focused back on her, she dons a really frumpy wig which, thankfully, doesn't stay around too long. Thomas, in his film debut, makes a strong impression. The director would later use him in "Red Sky at Morning". He, along with the other leads, has a tendency to open his mouth as if to say something, but then doesn't, which can be a little tiresome, but it does aid the point that these people have trouble saying what they really want to say. Wagner is a prop more than anything... a plot device, but he does manage to get one fairly decent scene in towards the end. The film has a fast-cutting, rapid editing style that does help move it along, though truly it is a tad long for the story it has to tell. Though the authentic footage from the Indianapolis 500 is fascinating in its nostalgia and gives the film unquestionable "you are there" realism, a bit of it, along with some other sections, might have been trimmed to allow for a better-greased movie. The fast-clip pacing and thoughtful relationship drama would be completely absent from Newman and director Goldstone's later work, the abysmal "When Time Ran Out". Composer Grusin provides a bouncy, sometimes goofy, but always interesting, score. This film kicked off a love of racing in Newman which lasted the rest of his life, causing one of the few points of contention in his lengthy, real-life marriage to Woodward as she could rarely bear to watch him on the dangerous track.

vandino1 This is an odd duck of a film. It has that sixties-film desire to heap oh-so-serious, stagy, acting scenes onto a film ostensibly about racing, action, and excitement. So, for buffs of sixties car racing, there's plenty of stuff to see (and even wax nostalgic about), yet to get to it you have to plow through several draggy domestic drama scenes all about "revealing character" and "emotional symbolism" and all that other creative writing 101 blather that is really meant for an entirely different audience. Would you like to have a 'Jurassic Park' with Dr. Grant and Ellie spending half the film discussing child-care issues and emotional abandonment? You're there for the dinosaur story. And you're watching 'Winning' for the racing material. Granted that there is nothing wrong with presenting the "lonely life on the road" of a car racer, but we understand the issues of Newman and Woodward (and Thomas AND Wagner) very quickly, therefore the almost ceaseless hammering-on about it all becomes depressing. Too bad, because this had the makings of the best film on the subject. There are not exactly a lot of race car films to begin with, outside of a few from the thirties, then later 'The Racers' with Kirk Douglas; 'The Big Wheel' with Mickey Rooney; 'Grand Prix'; and after 'Winning', McQueen's 'Le Mans' in 1971. And of course, 'Days of Thunder' (blah).Interesting that Newman likes spoken interaction between actors in his films, as in "Harper" where he plays a private eye, whereas McQueen as a cop says little throughout 'Bullitt'; and while 'Winning' is an actor's gabfest, McQueen and his cast are virtual blanks in 'Le Mans.' If you could cinematically combine footage from 'Winning' and 'Le Mans' (maybe even with 'Grand Prix') you could have the best racing film ever. Meanwhile, 'Winning' is debatably the best at this point. And you can't knock the fact that Newman in real life has done plenty of racing and IS married to Woodward. Certainly that adds to the realism. Incidentally, the title credits read: "Introducing Richard Thomas." This was ol' John-Boy's first film role. He's good, too. Oh, and quite the reverse, the music by Dave Grusin is deplorable: it's like some canned soundtrack from a TV action show. Thankfully there's no embarrassing title tune warbled by B.J. Thomas or some other late-sixties cliché singer or rock group.

muffy_diver This movie was made about 10 years after Newman became famous. As far as I can see it was just to waste time dreaming about car racing, I have no problem with that, but the story line was limp. Guess he just needed some tax write-offs.The race scenes are probably good, but having "what-his-name" as the bad guy, did not work. The love scenes were a waste of time. I guess as a period piece and a nod to Newman it has a niche in history, but its really not a very good flic.The nascar crowd undoubtedly adore it but again , its limp. Newman looks way older than his present age, which is almost 40 years ago.Try as I might, I cannot say much good. Joanne Woodward, looks great as usual,but looks alone do not make a movie worth watching.

Rakkasanfido Of all the racing movies I've seen, this is probably my favorite, as the acting in it matches up with the race scenes provided; it's pretty good, in my opinion.Paul Newman (as Frank Capua) does an excellent job of portraying the ice-cool race driver who is dedicated to his profession to achieve the ultimate goal, of winning races as often as he can. Joanne Woodward is good in her role as the supportive wife who needs as much attention as Capua's cars do. In the mix is a teen-aged Richard Thomas as Joanne's son from a previous engagement, and his character blends in well as the new 'adopted' son of Frank. Of course Robert Wagner plays well his character of being the cocky teammate/rival of Frank. Not to mention there is also some good stereotype acting of supporting cast members of other people involved in Frank's world of racing, the car owner, mechanics, etc. There's even a cameo of Bobby Unser in the movie, who actually won the Indy 500 of the year in which the movie is placed at, 1968.I guess I'm partial to "Winning" because it is realistic of what racing was like during the 1960's. Drivers then, weren't committed to strict contracts of not being allowed to participate in a variety of motorsports. Instead, a driver might have competed in a GP somewhere, then be off to a sports car race in Germany, or perhaps a stock car race or USAC Indy car race of some sort in the states. Such practices then weren't uncommon then. I thought that this movie captures this versatility well, by displaying the variety of races that Paul's character is involved in; Can-Am type races, stock car and Indy car races. Also this movie illustrated to some degree, how weekend after weekend would be occupied of setting cars up at certain tracks and, of course, racing them on Sundays, during the tight schedules of the normal racing season. The footage and sounds are great if you have a heart for racing.Dave Grusin's soundtrack is nice too. Just good ol' easy-listening type music.If you like auto-racing, then I'd suggest seeing "Le Mans" (1971) with Steve McQueen or "Grand Prix" (1966) with James Garner, as both have some good footage of actual racing as well. But if you want to see a racing movie with realistic scenes and scenarios of people involved the sport, with great acting, I can't think of any other movie to suggest than "Winning." It really is the only racing movie that I know of that blends in acting and action footage rather well.