Ford v Ferrari is the true story of Ford attempting to end Ferrari’s dominance of the racing circuit in 1966. If you are a fan of racing and muscle cars, you probably already know this story and are going to love the movie. If you couldn’t care less about those things, you will probably still enjoy this because of the performances, writing and incredibly-shot racing scenes. Either way, this is a damn solid film.
Back in the 1960s, Ferrari ruled racing and the idea that they could be beaten by an American car was laughable. However, Ferrari was also nearly broke. Believing the old saying “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Henry Ford II sent an executive delegation to Italy with an offer to buy Ferrari. They didn’t accept the buyout and instead just hurled insults at Ford. Also believing in the old saying “if you can’t beat ‘em, fuck ‘em,” Henry Ford II then decided to essentially write a blank check to beat Ferrari at Le Mans, a 24-hour race in France that Ferrari basically won every year. Ford hired Carrol Shelby, a legendary race car driver and designer of the ridiculously badass Shelby Cobra, to design a car and get a driver that could win the race.
Regardless of if you care about this story, the performances and directing make it worth watching. Matt Damon (as Carrol Shelby) and Christian Bale (as Ken Miles, Ford’s driver) are so goddam good that you would swear that these are the real people. The chemistry between them is perfect and you find yourself really pulling for Miles, an underdog largely due to his highly erratic behavior. If I understood the Academy Awards, I would expect both of them to be nominated. The supporting actors are also superb, with my favorite being Tracy Letts playing Henry Ford as a grumpy, vindictive bastard that still somehow manages to be endearing. This is a movie filled with interesting people, to the point that several interesting movies could likely be made as side stories focusing on specific characters during the events of this movie.
If characters aren’t your thing, Ford v Ferrari also has some of the best racing scenes I have ever seen. Although I love cars, I have never been a racing fan because it bores the crap out of me. If races were shown the same way that this movie was filmed, I would watch that shit all the time. The races here are intense. I don’t mean a cheesy, fuck-physics Fast & Furious kind of intense. I mean watching this on a big screen makes you feel the speed and exhaustion of the drivers more than any other movie I have ever seen. The editing and camerawork are amazing, creating the closest thing to being in a race car while sitting in a movie theater.
My biggest issue with the film is the length and it is a long sit at 2 and ½ hours. The script does an admirable job of going through the entire process that Ford went though, from assembling the crew to designing the car that would be the Ford GT, but you do start to feel the length around the 2-hour mark. I thought the movie was nearing the end and then realized that we were only at Daytona and hadn’t even gone to France yet. This is a pretty straightforward story and I’m not entirely sure what I would cut out, but this would be a serious contender for best film of the year if it was twenty minutes shorter.
Director James Mangold (who paradoxically directed both the awful The Wolverine and the excellent Logan) has created something of a unicorn with this movie: an adult drama with mass appeal that isn’t a goddamn remake. You don’t see many of those these days. I may be a little biased because every car I have ever owned has been a Mustang, but I recommend seeing this in a theater.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_v_Ferrari#/media/File:Ford_v.Ferrari(2019_film_poster).png
