directed by James Mangold
written by Jez Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller
After what feels like an eternity in development hell for those of us following this film, Ford v Ferrari finally hits theaters worldwide this weekend, and boy, does it hit hard.
The film begins with race car driver Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) winning the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans in an Aston Martin, only to be told in the very next scene during a doctor's visit that he can no longer race because of a serious heart condition. He then turns his attention to designing and selling cars in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) grandson of the late, great Henry Ford, is having trouble selling his stodgy old cars to the baby boomers now coming of age with lots of cash to spend. One of his junior execs, the energetic Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) comes up with a bold idea: make the name of Ford synonymous with international motorsport glory by buying up the company of Italian racing legend Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) who has apparently expressed interest in selling it. Ford greenlights the idea, and Iacocca makes the trip to Ferrari's factory headquarters in Modena, Italy, only to be shot down in spectacular fashion when Enzo turns down the offer, having used Ford's offer to purchase to leverage a higher price from Italian automaker Fiat, who had also been looking to purchase Ferrari's company.
Humiliated, Ford comes up with a different plan: he dispatches Iacocca to assemble a team of the best automotive engineers in the world so that he can build a car to beat Ferrari at the single most important motorsport event in the world: the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race which Ferrari's cars have won for the last five years. This directive brings Iacocca to Shelby's doorstep, but Shelby will only agree if he gets to bring his team on board, including his irascible driver and mechanic Ken Miles (Christian Bale) a World War II vet who is not only a wizard behind the wheel but has an uncanny knack for understanding what makes a car go even faster. Miles is at first averse to the idea of working for a corporate slug like Ford, but with his LA garage being locked up by the Internal Revenue Service and a family in the form of wife Mollie (Catriona Balfe) and son Peter (Noah Jupe) to take care of, Miles accepts Shelby's offer. Unfortunately, as they begin their quest to build Ford's world-beating car, Shelby, Miles and crew are beset by the Ford's right-hand man, the slimy Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) whose main goal is to sell more cars. Unfortunately for Shelby and company, Miles doesn't quite fit into Beebe's image of a "Ford Man," i.e., a driver who can sell cars. Thus the true battle of the film begins: Shelby and his small crew of artisans find themselves in a pitched battle against the consummate capitalist Beebe and his own assembled crew for the right to bring glory to the Ford name.
I was drawn to this story upon reading A.J. Baime's thoroughly engrossing book "Go Like Hell," which narrated the events of this movie, albeit rather more expansively, and I was really looking forward to seeing this made into a movie. Though Ford v Ferrari is not based on Baime's narration of the events, and even though Mangold and his writers have excised a few key players from these events, like Ferrari driver John Surtees, they've preserved what really matters about this truly incredible story and, despite some inevitable creative flourishes, have crafted something that honors the legacy of everyone involved, especially the previously unheralded Ken Miles.
Damon and Bale are in top form as these two motorsport icons. While the latter is perhaps rightfully getting a bit more attention for his portrayal of the fiery ex-tank commander-turned race driver Ken Miles, in equal parts because of his steely performance and his somewhat shocking weight loss, Damon's turn is no less impressive given that it's a far more subtle role. He not only conveys Shelby's ability to navigate both the world of the corporate mogul and the pure racer, but also captures the barely-expressed but nonetheless visible anguish of a racer who has been forced out of the sport by events beyond his control. As he would take his pills for his heart condition I could almost feel him groaning.
It's together, though, that Damon and Bale truly deliver dynamite performances. Their onscreen chemistry is sensational, and really put me right in the moment, helping me feel the pressure that their real life counterparts must have felt knowing that they had a very tall order to deliver against considerable odds. Bale also has a great onscreen rapports with Catriona Balfe as Mollie, a strong and supportive wife who manages to elevate her somewhat minor role, and with Noah Jupe as Peter, whose hero worship of his father is tempered only by his wide-eyed fear that every time Ken climbs into a race car may be his last, but it's Miles' onscreen relationship with Carroll Shelby that defines this film.
Though Damon and Bale carry the film, the rest of the supporting cast make their presence felt as well. Letts shines as Henry Ford II, or "the Deuce" as he was popularly known in automotive circles, a mogul struggling to emerge from the long shadow cast by his late, pioneering grandfather, whose ruthlessness as a businessman is matched only by his personal insecurity and his pettiness. I'd argue that Ford was the biggest casualty of the inevitable trimming that the screenwriters had to do to cram this story into its surprisingly brisk two-and-a-half hour running time, as Baime's book expounded quite a bit on what was going on in his head, but Letts definitely makes the most out of the role and then some. I wouldn't be surprised if his name comes up when award nominations are announced in a few months' time. Bernthal turns in a nicely-nuanced performance as Iacocca, another eventual automotive icon in his own right, but who, back in those days, was just a suit with ambitions of being a rebel just like Shelby and Miles, ambitions that he unfortunately had to keep in check to please his boss. As his colleague Leo Beebe, whose sole ambition is to please his boss, Josh Lucas goes quite broad with the oiliness, and I might be inclined to critique him for it, but he's so effective as what is effectively the film's bad guy that it's hard to begrudge him his approach. There were other actors in smaller parts who left quite a nice impression on me as well, like Ray McKinnon as Shelby's crew chief Phil Remington, and even Remo Girone in his brief turn as the legendary Enzo Ferrari.
While Mangold smartly focuses on the human element of this story, when the action hits the racetrack he also definitely delivers the goods as well. Personally, I have seen a fair number of racing movies, both in theaters and on home video, including classics like John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix, adrenaline rushes like Tony Scott's Days of Thunder and Ron Howard's Rush and even parodies like Adam McKay's Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and I have to say, as far as recreating thrilling racing sequences goes, Ford v Ferrari is right up there with the best of them. According to the filmmakers, the use of computer-generated imagery was kept to a minimum, which means a lot of the high-octane sequences were as close to the real thing as it can get. The film teases the on-track action early on with snippets of Shelby's win at the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans and, a little later a gripping race at Willow Springs which Miles wins by the skin of his teeth. Apparently one of the film's few embellishments was that several of the victories Miles claimed in his career were nowhere near as close as the movie made them out to be, i.e. he won them by (ahem) miles. This was perhaps one of the movie's foibles; several of the otherwise gripping races were decided by late lunges or last-lap gasps by Miles, an occurrence that most racing fans can attest is not all that common in one's entire racing career, let alone in one season. Ron Howard's Rush was a little more faithful to history in this respect. Still, given the fantastic cinematography and choreographed driving at work, and the overall panache with which the on-track action was presented, it's really hard to hold this bit of creative license against the filmmakers. And as someone who pored over Baimes' book and Youtube videos on the subject, I can attest that the extraordinary ending is quite accurately depicted. As a fan of film soundtracks I also greatly appreciated Marco Beltrami's and Buck Sanders' jazzy, dynamic, era-appropriate soundtrack.
This movie is a must-see for gearheads, sports fans and fans of underdog stories in general. Anyone not familiar with the events depicted should steer clear of Wikipedia or other internet articles talking about them to maximize their enjoyment. I may have known exactly what was going to happen, but I still had a marvelous time.
9.5/10
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