AndrewBloom

7/10

[6.8/10] *Ford v Ferrari* could be about anything, and it would be pretty much the same. It’s about car racing, but it could just as easily be about hockey, or architecture, or the world’s most noteworthy spaghetti-eating contest. Its off-the-shelf themes of corporate interference in the artists’ work and transcendent beauty when those masters play the game the ways it meant to be could, and have, apply to just about any movie using the same, well-worn mold. Which is to say that this film doesn't have many, if any, new tricks to show its audience. If you’ve seen any of the plethora of Oscar movies that occupy the same space, or even enjoyable Disney flotsam like *D2: The Mighty Ducks*, you already know the basic beats of this movie. It is thoroughly fine -- well made, well performed, well built -- but lacking any spark to elevate it above a dutifully-constructed bit of awards-season adequacy. *Ford v. Ferrari* is not, sadly, as its title suggests, a movie where futuristic cars do battle with one another in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. It is, instead, the story of car designer Carroll Shelby, race car driver Ken Miles, and their Ford-funded quest to beat the Ferrari team at the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans race, to cement their automotive supremacy. It is, in essence, a standard-issue sports movie, about overcoming the villainous, anti-American bad guys on and off the track, and rising above the, internal opposition to the purity of your mission. But it can boast a better cast than most other movies in the same tradition. Matt Damon plays Shelby as a southern-stewed true believer, who gets to stand his ground and tear up in the various, prestige-honking moments when it’s all-but mandated. Christian Bale plays Miles as the eccentric, stubborn, “not a people person” driver who nonetheless possesses an all but metaphysical bond with the machines he controls. And it’s populated with performers who’ve stood out on prestige T.V. (and, sure, elsewhere too) like Tracy Letts (*Homeland*), Jon Bernthal (*The Walking Dead*), and Ray McKinnon (*Deadwood*). Unfortunately, *Ford v. Ferrari* doesn't give them much to work with, or perhaps, gives them too much to work with. Nobody just talks in this movie. Every single stream of dialogue is some kind of Oscar-reel speech about the majesty of the road or what this means to each of them, or the unadulterated beauty of their art to the point of exhaustion. The sentiments expressed are pleasant, if familiar, but there’s no thought or idea that this movie can’t turn into some sort of grand speech or monologue for its characters. The raft of capable actors in this movie keep that onslaught tolerable, but it keeps the film’s main personalities feeling more like sporadic speech-giving machines than real people. Bale’s take on Miles as the Dr. House of racecar drivers occasionally breaks through that muddle and finds the humanity in what is still a deliberately affected performance. By the same token, Tracy Letts nearly steals the show in a scene where Henry Ford’s grandson genuinely weeps at the transcendence of what his boys have created. But on the whole, you could half-pay attention to every predictable, writerly monologue and not miss much. You would, however, miss the stellar racing scenes with that approach. Whatever *Ford v. Ferrari*’s other faults in a paint-by-numbers story or thudding dialogue, it sure is nice to look at it in stretches. Director James Mangold, cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, and editors Andrew Buckland, Michael McCuskerm, and Dirk Westervelt construct a host of stellar on-the-track sequences. They are the absolute highlight of this film. Mangold and company capture the intensity, the virtuosity, and the beauty of these machines in motion. The few moments when *Ford v Ferrari* can really grab you take place with someone behind the wheel. The film’s visual team knows when to show these cars balletically bounding around some corner, when to cut to the faces inside of them to show focus or determination or joy, and when to hold the tension of two vehicles in dangerous proximity or even contact with one another. As a surfeit of well-crafted racing scenes stitched together by a perfunctory effort at storytelling, the film can more than succeed. But that plot drags this one down considerably. There’s nothing wrong with the tale that *Ford v. Ferrari* wants to tell; its story beats are just shopworn to the point of tedium. Both Shelby and Miles have their legally-mandated “Nah, man, I’m out of the game” moments before jumping back into the thick of things. Both face the internal obstacles du jour before each proves themselves to their superiors. And there’s even a smirking, foreign bad guy driver to function as the avatar for all that’s wrong with the world. That’s the funny thing about this movie. It roots its story in the perspective of Ford and its employees doing battle against the stuck-up Italian carmakers. But it’s easy to picture an equal and opposite film, where the devotees who care more about perfecting their cars than making money do battle against the hubris-ridden Americans who think they can buy a victory on the track and even bend the rules or outright cheat to cause trouble. As oddly apt as this movie is to draw a firm line between its heroes and its villains, it doesn't take much of a leap to imagine the roles reversed. But the sneering dastards of Ferrari are only the external villains of the piece. The film also spends an inordinate amount of time, and arguably its overriding theme, on the trouble caused by corporate suits who don’t know cars but think they can tell artists what to do. Leo Beebe is Ford’s executive director of something or other, and plays the shallowest clueless corporate stooge this side of a music biopic. The film uses him to present the thinnest art vs. commerce notions imaginable, presenting Beebe as the latest, barely-sketched strawman antagonist, in an archetype that cuts across genres but which nobody can seem to find a new or interesting spin on. The irony of this film is that it is nominally devoted to the merits of artistic purity. The broader arc of the film involves Ford’s transition from a company that only churns out undifferentiated cars in massive factories, to one that learns to trust its artists and achieve greatness by appreciating the individual beauty and soul of what it makes. And yet, this movie feels like something that Ford might have produced before this grand awakening. It’s not a bad movie by any stretch. It’s a competent film that checks every necessary box for a replacement level, awards season release. But for a film so devoted to individual splendor and artistry, the movie itself feels oddly soulless. Despite its devotion to the merits of individual artistic purity, *Ford v Ferrari* plays like it just rolled off the assembly line.

Erebos

5/10

Spoilers

Boring characters, boring script, boring story, full of inaccuracies and over-the-top dramatizations. Very little that is shown on screen happened in real life. We see way too little of Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari. Basically, they each had a scene and that's it. Leo Beebe took way too much screentime. Also, too many pointless scenes with Miles' son or with Shelby and Miles arguing bloated up the runtime of the movie. [spoiler]In reality, Henry Ford II didn't need to be persuaded to enter motorsports. He always wanted to have a Ford run the Le Mans. We never see how the first car was designed and built in England. It's not even mentioned that the first three versions were based on a Lola Mk6, probably the most innovative car of its time. Only the MkIV that won the 1967 Le Mans was designed and built in America.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Caroll Shelby wasn't part of the team from the beginning, he was brought in after the disappointing debut season of 1964. The Ferrari 330 P3 was not as competitive as the Ford GT40 MkII. By nightfall, Bandini's Ferrari was at 12th place and the GT40 MkII's held comfortably the 1-2-3-4 positions.[/spoiler] [spoiler]During the final hours of the race, Miles & Hulme's car had a 4-lap lead on their teammates McLaren & Amon, but the #1 car had to pit one more time to switch out a wrong set of brake rotors which cost them most of their lead. Now, Miles gets the team order to back off so that he can finish neck-to-neck with McLaren (the 3rd car was 12 laps behind). Miles lets McLaren catch up but decides to slow down further right before the finish line in protest, thus allowing McLaren to win by more than a car's length.[/spoiler] [spoiler]In the end, it was a battle of attrition. Only 3 of the 13 Fords finished and only the two 275 GTΒs (and none of the 330 P3s) finished from the 14 Ferraris entered, while Porsche managed to finish all four 906 cars in positions 4-5-6-7.[/spoiler] And something that really bugged me: [spoiler]Miles' brakes overheated IN THE RAIN!! Fucking ridiculous. Not only is traction on the wet limited, so Miles wouldn't be able to brake as hard because his tires would be slipping, but the rain would also have cooled the brakes and not allow them to overheat to the point of glowing red-hot. I guess the director wanted the recurring theme of failing brakes for the last accident, which is not how it happened in real life. Miles' prototype J-car had some untested aerodynamics which caused his crash at the end of the long back-straight, and the aluminum honeycomb chassis proved too weak and shattered, bursting the car into flames, killing Miles.[/spoiler] You'd be better off watching Steve McQueen's Le Mans from 1971.

JPV852

0/10

Well made sports-racing movie with excellent acting by Damon and Bale (no surprise there) and the racing sequences were great, not to mention the sound design. Kind of was concerned there wouldn't be enough story to fill the nearly 2.5 hour runtime, but this kept me engaged, though the ending was a bit anticlimactic. Still, good work from James Mangold. **4.5/5**

tylero

0/10

Exactly what you'd expect from a movie featuring Led Zeplin in its trailer (+1 star for Christian Bale's compelling performance).

SierraKiloBravo

0/10

Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/IByQpyGV9Lg Despite not being a big fan of track car racing - I’m more of a rally man - the chance to see Matt Damon and Christian Bale lead in a true life story attracted me to _Ford v Ferrari_. It’s a very good movie that tells the tale of the development of Ford’s race program to topple Ferrari as the champions of Le Mans. Here’s the official description: _American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966._ I’ll say up front that even though Ferrari is mentioned in the title, they don’t really play a huge part in the movie. I was expecting things to bounce between each camp as they tried to one up each other in the race for glory. While Ferrari are here and there throughout, the main battle of the movie is Shelby and Miles trying to get their work done amidst the interference from factions within Ford’s management. It still makes for a great story though, and it’s a movie that takes you on a ride of many highs and lows. From technological failures and success, to corporate shenanigans, to father-son moments, this hits so many beats that it kept us entertained the whole way through. Not only does it hit them, it does them very very well. There were some moments where I was genuinely holding my breath. It’s great stuff. Even from a technical point of view there is a lot to love about this. The cinematography was a stand out for me - some of the sunset shots were stunning, as were the very intense race sequences. I’m sure there’s CGI all through this but it was of such a good quality that it was barely noticeable. Damon and Bale are outstanding and lead from the front, with Bale in particular seeming to inhabit the role and transform, as he so often does. Even all the side characters bring their A game and the end result is a pleasure to watch. This is an excellent film, it’s the whole package and feels like a real film as opposed to much of the cookie cutter movies we get a lot of these days. I thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend it.