Ford v Ferrari – 2019
The definition of “idyllic” is spending childhood summers in the 1950s and 60s at a small Sierra Nevada logging town in the remote outskirts of Fresno County. Unless I wanted to spend three months swimming, fishing, building forts and roasting marshmallows by myself, whoever emerged from the cabins scattered around the mill were my new best friends. And those best friends were all boys from Central Valley towns where car racing reigned supreme, mostly NASCAR but formula, drag, off-road, touring, sports—if it involved four wheels, it commanded attention. Add in stacks of Motor Sports magazines and raging Ford vs Chevy arguments while passing greasy wrenches back and forth, tinkering with a Willys Jeep and you have a good flavor of mill life.
Watching Ford v Ferrari was a throwback to those times. I could practically feel the grease and smell the burnt rubber! A life lesson on power and the powerful unfolds as we sit, students of history watching two international titans clash, America’s proud yet ruthless Henry Ford (Tracy Letts) taking on Italy’s regal yet derisive Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone). Two renown automakers stake their brand and their reputation on winning Le Mans, a 24 hour contest for man and machine, the “Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency.” In 1966 it becomes the ultimate match race between perennial winner Ferrari and upstart competitor Ford. Loyalty and brotherhood, treachery and deceit, it’s all there. Win. Just win.
Shifting Team Ford into high gear is talented, passionate, straight-shooting expert car designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) always strutting around in his black cowboy hat, matched with cocky, hotheaded, confident, driver par excellence Ken Miles (Christian Bale), forming an entrepreneurial and fearless duet who, curiously enough, are making their first paired film debut in this rip-roaring true story. The Shelby/Miles bromance works perfectly in ratcheting up drama interspersed with comedic exchanges including a hilarious fistfight that so amuses Ken’s wife Mollie (Caitriona Balfe) that she unfolds a chair to better watch them roll around on the lawn, until she graciously fetches them cold sodas while they catch their breath lying side by side in the yard.
The chemistry between Damon and Bale hold the movie together from the starting gun through the checkered flag. Their on screen relationship, although tumultuous at times, is deeply defined by mutual respect. Two mere mortals, one Brit, one American, share rare membership in the elite “perfect lap” club, who understand 7,000 RPMS as a spiritual experience.
“There’s a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades.
The machine becomes weightless. It disappears.
All that’s left, a body moving through space, and time.
At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where it waits for you.”
The film runs long at 2 1/2 hours and could have been shortened while not losing a beat by cutting out Mollie and Ken’s young son, Peter (Noah Jupe). Their roles are undeveloped and unnecessary to plot development. Carroll and Ken offer enough of the family feel. Ford Company executives Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) and Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) try to muscle in between Carroll and Miles to no avail. The Iacocca role holds up as an insider ally to Carroll but Beebe as the story’s contemptuous villain is a loss leader to nowhere. He can go. Men dominate the screen at least 98% of the time reflecting the industry and era. Probably still holds true. The racing sequences drop you directly into the drivers seat at track level with thundering decibels and breathtaking speeds. When I drove away from the theater I revved my 4 cylinder Honda into high gear and blew right past a Toyota! The thrill of victory and all that heady stuff.
Ford v Ferrari is an instant classic. If you are a racing fan, you’ll love the energy of this film. If you are a connoisseur of cinematography, you’ll enjoy the technical savvy. If you are an observer of human behavior, you’ll appreciate the intuitive depth. Ford v Ferrari may be the racing movie equivalent of the perfect lap. As Ken Miles asks, “Do you see it?” Seeing this movie may be the closest way of answering yes.
