Sony was surely expecting a big reaction for its new movie Gran Turismo, but it’s certainly not what the company was expecting. Explanations.
This day when reading this news (August 9, 2023) you can discover in dark rooms Neill Blomkamp’s latest film on one of Sony’s biggest licenses. If this arouses your curiosity as a cinephile, know that you can take advantage of our review on Gran Turismo on the site. Obviously, the feature film has beautiful moments but remains far from unforgettable, due to certain sequences which do not provide the long-awaited thrill. In fact, if the film causes a thrill, it would be rather shameful judging by some opinions on a very controversial subject. We explain everything to you in detail.
Gran Turismo faces a big controversy
The film Gran Turismo rests entirely on the career of Jann Mardenborough, who, for the record, was a working-class gamer who ended up on the podiums of motor racing. In reality, at the age of 19, Jann studied to become an interior designer, but he learned about the GT Academy, a challenge organized by Nissan on the game Gran Turismo 5. He is one of the winners and is hired by the Japanese manufacturer for its GT program. If the story is beautiful, it is however marked by a tragic fact. Indeed, during the VLN Endurance Championship race at Nürburgring in Germany on March 28, 2015, Jann Mardenborough’s car, a Nissan GT-R, hit the public following an incident on the circuit. The drama caused the death of a spectator and injured several others.
A tricky question
This accident highlighted safety issues in motorsport and inevitably had a psychological impact on the driver. except in the movie Gran Turismo, the event occurs the night before Mardenborough’s race at the 24 hours of Le Mans, where he finished third, using his guilt as motivation for the exploit… It is the travesty of a concrete fact that critics point out, especially when the goal is to make it extra motivation to win a race. This management of a drama questions, because it could clearly offend the sensitivity of the family of the deceased. On this point, some of the criticism found in the media such as journalist Charlotte O’Sullivan does not mince words within the Evening Standard media:
In reality, the build-up to Mardenborough’s Le Mans triumph went smoothly, and the horrific accident happened two years later. To suggest that the incident helped propel Jann to victory isn’t just wrong, it’s reprehensible.
This viewer’s family had their worst nightmare turned into a walking feast. Shame on you Sony.
To a lesser extent, this controversy is reminiscent of that of the Netflix series on Jeffrey Dahmer which also uses drama to serve the story without (obviously) having consulted the family. Translating a tragic event onto the big screen is not a problem, but it becomes one when the whole thing is made up / disguised in order to serve a reprehensible idea. In this case, using the death of a spectator to make it a sporting motivation is still a rather dubious choice.
For your part, what do you think of this controversy over Gran Turismo?