“If you’re going to push a piece of machinery to the limit and expect it to hold together, you have to have some sense of where that limit is,” Ken Miles tells his son Pete, in one of the most touching and illustrative scenes in Ford v Ferrari, the latest from director James Gold.
If Ford v Ferrari were that machine, that limit would be a blunt refusal to fall into pedantry, over-acting, over-sentimentality, or the fear of not telling the story more or less as it happened. Ford v Ferrari is a racing movie and, like most sports movies, it plays out according to the basic 3-act structure, and packs plenty of genre cliches, but one thing that it is not is lackluster.
Ford v Ferrari tells the story behind Ford’s GT40 sports prototype racing program, which Henry Ford II launched as an attempt to revive the brand’s image by sticking it up to Ferrari, who had won all 5 previous editions of 24-hour Le Mans up until that point. Ferrari was unbeatable and Ford, with its focus on production, conveyor belt-approach to manufacture, and stiff corporate environment, didn’t seem like it could stand a chance against the Italian stallion, all class and elegance, and technical perfection.
Ford II (Tracy Letts) brings former racer turned car builder Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) on board, promising him that he would get carte blanche and as much money as he needed to build a race car that would take down whatever Ferrari came up with for Le Mans, the world’s most prestigious and difficult endurance test. The only caveat is that he’d have about 90 days to get the job done.
Shelby, in his turn, brings on board a mechanic slash race pilot he’d worked with before: Ken Miles (Christian Bale), a British with what would best be described as a giant chip on his shoulder, relocated to California in pursuit of the sometimes-elusive American dream. Miles is charming and funny, but he’s also extremely aggressive and blunt. He can go from charmer to violent faster than any of the cars he drives to victory on the track, so Ford deems him a behind-the-scenes-type of guy.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
In the polished world of Ford, there is no place for someone like Miles. Driving skills and technical savviness be damned.
Shelby and Miles build the GT40 Mk. II, the car that Miles would eventually, after more conflict with the suits at Ford, drive at Le Mans in 1966. The film dedicates most of the second act to the inner struggles between various Ford employees, specifically the suits on the executive board and the team at Shelby American, working on the GT40. The same conflict even spills into the third act and mars Miles’ historic win at Le Mans, by robbing him of the title.
In that sense, Ford v Ferrari is a misnomer. This isn’t as much a story about David Ford picking a fight with Goliath Ferrari because, by all means, Ford was the giant back then, at least in terms of motorsport ability and popularity. Neither is it the story of an underdog: Ford was a massive corporation owning a large share of the market and, with unlimited resources at its disposal, it was willing to funnel millions of dollars into a race car. Only because Ford II wanted what Enzo Ferrari had. And because he couldn’t stand to be told the truth about how he wasn’t a visionary as his grandfather had been.
If we must use the biblical comparison, Ford v Ferrari is a story of 2 Davids going up against 2 Goliaths: 2 engineers building a car that would take on and defeat the machines Ferrari made, while going up against the corporate system at Ford. There are moments in the film where you don’t even know which enemy is more dangerous: the Mafia-like bosses at Ferrari or the slick, smiling suits back home – the same ones holding the check and the power to veto.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
This is a story about the quest for perfection and unbridled passion – not for cars in general or how fast they could go, but for that elusive “perfect lap,” or that feeling of weightlessness and timelessness you get at 7,000 RMP. Both Shelby and Miles are driven by them, while aware that the pursuit could end in death. To regular folks, their drive may seem inexplicable, but to real sportsmen or anyone who has had any form of contact with the world of sports in general, it makes sense: this film is a tribute to the spirit of a champion.
And it is here where Ford v Ferrari excels. Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line, Wolverine, Logan), the film keeps running at a fast speed whether it’s showing dialog or race scenes. Despite the heavy and numerous cliches (ranging from the stereotypical portrayal of Italians, to certain key plot elements) and under-characterization for anyone whose last name is not Shelby or Miles, Ford v Ferrari doesn’t irk.
It thrills. It shines. It lives. It grabs you by the wrist and holds you down in your chair until the final credits roll on the screen and you’re down for the ride, even though the ending is just history. Mangold takes the viewer and puts him in the driver seat using smart camera placement, practical effects and as little CGI as possible. Most stunts, put together with help from stunt coordinator Robert Nagle, aimed for credibility so real race drivers and real race cars were used, replicating some of the tension and the action on the track.
“There’s a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. It disappears,” Shelby says in a voice-over at the beginning of the movie. “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.”
And that’s where Ford v Ferrari aims to take you, the viewer. It does so with success: the ride is by no means perfect, faultless, but it’s exhilarating, emotional and packed with everything you’d expect from a racing movie, from the beautiful Ford GT40s and Shelby Cobras, to re-bodied Porsche 911s, Ferraris and Corvettes, to technical details on how to turn a standard sportscar into a race car and defeat physics.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
Ford v Ferrari runs for 152 minutes (but it actually feels shorter than that) and was released in U.S. theaters on November 15, 2019.
Bottom Line
This is not a documentary, so there’s no sense nit-picking on what it gets right and wrong. Like most “based on a true story” biopics, Ford v Ferrari adds plenty of fictional details for dramatic effect, to push the narrative forward, but it’s still able to come across as convincing storytelling.
Coming from a recent comic-movies background, Mangold brings to life the story of a hero who never needed a cape in order to fly. Make that two heroes – and all they need to fly is creative freedom and their tools.
Excellent acting, lots of attention to detail and smart camera action (and editing) turn Ford v Ferrari into a fast-paced, beautiful racing movie that packs an emotional punch. Sure, it’s about (grown) boys with toys, but oh what a compelling story they tell!
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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