"Le Mans", Original Release Japanese Movie Poster 1971, Rare, STB Size (51x145cm) I350
"Le Mans", Original Release Japanese Movie Poster 1971, STB Size (51x145cm)
Japanese title: 「栄光のル・マン」 (Eikō no Ru Man — “The Glory of Le Mans”)
Size: STB / 20 × 57 in (51 × 145 cm)
Country / Studio: Japan / Cinema Center Films–Solar Productions (Towa distribution)
Why this is a holy grail
Steve McQueen did not merely star in Le Mans—he built the film around his obsession with motor racing. Produced through his Solar Productions company and photographed at the Circuit de la Sarthe, it incorporated footage from the real 1970 24 Hours, including material captured by Solar’s three-camera Porsche 908 running in the actual race. The racing sequences were staged and photographed at genuine speed, creating an immediacy that conventional studio filmmaking could not reproduce.
This original-release Japanese STB is the ultimate graphic expression of McQueen’s most personal film: almost five feet tall, complete in two sheets, visually radical and considerably scarcer than the standard Japanese B2. For collectors of McQueen, Porsche, endurance racing and international film paper, it is a genuine holy-grail piece.
Design highlights
This is one of the defining Japanese STB designs of the 1970s. Monumental vermilion characters descend through virtually the entire 145 cm composition, transforming the title itself into a road, a stopwatch and a visual engine. McQueen’s helmeted face occupies the central junction between the two sheets—blue steel, narrowed eyes and white balaclava—while a checkered flag cuts sharply across the surrounding negative space.
Below, a compressed field of racing prototypes charges directly toward the viewer. The running driver, Elga Andersen’s poised figure and the sweeping lines of cars pull the composition outward, giving the entire poster a sense of speed. The black English title, THE 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, sits behind the Japanese typography like an international racing banner, while the red-and-blue Cinerama emblem at the foot provides a perfect period finish.
The ochre vertical copy at right reads in essence:
“Staking all his passion on glory, McQueen takes on a harrowing 24 hours—the ultimate test of a man.”
Credits at left identify Director: Lee H. Katzin, Producer: Jack N. Reddish, Music: Michel Legrand, with billing for McQueen, Elga Andersen and Siegfried Rauch.
Cultural impact
Le Mans rejected the structure of a conventional Hollywood star vehicle. Dialogue is sparse; engines, weather, exhaustion, danger and mechanical rhythm carry much of the drama. Although its original reception was restrained, the film developed into a cult classic, and its full-speed race photography remains a benchmark for motorsport cinema.
McQueen’s Michael Delaney—Gulf-blue helmet, white racing suit and implacable stare—became one of the defining images of his career. This poster translates that iconography into pure Japanese commercial art: monumental typography, Pop-era photomontage, disciplined negative space and billboard-scale impact. Among international posters created for Le Mans, the Japanese verticals rank at the very top, and this STB is the showpiece format.
Condition
Very Good+, unrestored. Both original sheets are complete, the colours remain rich and the central imagery presents extremely well.
There is an isolated but visible red-ink stain across the right very upper image area of the lower sheet, with corresponding traces visible on the reverse. The staining visually integrates with the poster’s red and ochre collage work and gives this individual example additional character as a genuine vintage cinema object with an honest 50-plus-year history. Please see the detailed front-and-back imagery provided.
Authentication
Guaranteed original; Certificate of Authenticity included.
About STB (Tatekan) posters
STBs are tall, two-sheet Japanese verticals measuring approximately 51 × 145 cm, effectively formed from two B2-format panels positioned one above the other. They were created for display on tatekan cinema signboards and used as miniature billboards inside theatres and along busy exterior approaches.
They were produced in considerably smaller quantities than regular B2 posters and were vulnerable to folding, pasting, weather exposure and routine disposal once a film’s engagement ended. Complete first-release survivors are consequently rare. For Le Mans, where the typography and imagery were conceived to flow through the entire two-sheet height, the STB is not simply an enlarged poster—it is the definitive version of the design.
