Ford v Ferrari (2019)
dir. James Mangold
Rated: PG-13
image: ©2019 20th Century Fox
James Mangold’s very manly and patriotic sportscar racing movie Ford v Ferrari is about as slick as big Hollywood blockbusters come. The director with credits as varied as 2001’s Kate & Leopold, the 2007 remake of the classic western 3:10 to Yuma, and not one, but two comic book franchise films about the X-Men’s Wolverine character has turned his craftsperson’s talents to the sports biopic. Ford v Ferrari feels like a movie we might have gotten 20, maybe even 30 years ago. And I mean that in a good, throwback sort of way.
The script – originally penned by Jason Keller and rewritten by screenwriting brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth – features, if memory serves, exactly one female speaking part. At one point, that character is reduced to sitting in a lawn chair as she watches our two manly-men heroes resolve their differences with an old-fashioned American fist fight. The rah-rah patriotism of the picture – which only ever flirts with outright jingoism – brings to mind something like Top Gun, but with race cars instead of fighter jets.
All that aside, Ford v Ferrari is also a damn good time at the movies. It’s a crowd-pleaser that offers unadulterated movie spectacle.
The character development and story arcs of the heroes – to say nothing of the chemistry of the actors portraying them – are intensely satisfying. The racing action sequences are as thrilling as anything you’ll see in the best Marvel movie extravaganza. We’re even provided a villain (or two) that checks off just about every movie making stereotype you could imagine, but it’s all executed with such precision and good will that I never minded. (But seriously, at points during the movie, I waited for actor Josh Lucas to burst into maniacal laughter after certain line deliveries.)
Ford v Ferrari tells the true-life tale of American race car driver and automotive designer Carroll Shelby and racer and mechanic Ken Miles. Set in the early 1960s, Shelby attempts – at the behest of Henry Ford II – to design a Ford race car that can win the world-famous 24-hour Le Mans competition and beat the formidable Ferrari team, which a Ford car has never done.
Shelby won the fabled race in 1959, but a heart condition ended his competitive driving career not long after. To help him behind the wheel as well as to eradicate design flaws in the new car, Shelby turns to hothead British driver Miles. Their partnership is tested by Ford senior executive vice president Leo Beebe, a company man who feels Miles isn’t a team player and doesn’t exemplify the values of the Ford brand.
At the tip-top of infinitely talented character actors owning a role from the first word to the last is Chicago-based stage actor and playwright Tracy Letts as Henry Ford II. Whether he’s expressing outrage at his company being mocked or breaking down in tears after going 200 miles per hour in a race car for the first time – a definite highlight of the movie – Letts sinks his “by God” teeth into the part and he never lets go. Ford v Ferrari is very much a movie about men with something to prove, and it starts with Enzo Ferrari disparaging Ford – both personally and professionally – for being a “fat man who makes ugly little cars in ugly factories.” Those insults come after Ford attempts to buy Ferrari’s company.
Matching Letts in his intensity are the two leads, Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale as Ken Miles. Damon’s exaggerated Texas drawl feels right at home coming out the actor’s mouth. His easy charm and chiseled good looks are a natural fit for Shelby’s down-home demeanor that belies the character’s perfectionist streak. Bale turns in a delightfully hard-edged performance as Miles. His Liverpudlian accent at times leans too heavily on exclamations like “Bloody hell!” but Bale delivers with perfect clarity his character’s drive to be the best. The two men share a rapport on screen together that is irresistible.
It’s this bromance at the heart of the movie that puts in stark relief the superfluous nature of the one female character of any importance. Caitriona Balfe plays Mollie, Ken’s wife, but the screenwriters give the character woefully little to do. In the weakest writing of the film, Mollie confronts Ken about his new role helping Carroll design and test their race car. She’s upset with Ken, but it’s not really clear why. It might be because she’s scared that he’ll be hurt behind the wheel or it might be that she feels left out of this part of Ken’s life. The scene plays as a contrived dramatic moment that the filmmakers felt obligated to include.
Where the movie really soars is the tense car race action sequences. As he proved in 3:10 to Yuma and Logan, Mangold is capable of staging breathless action set pieces. Ford v Ferrari is no exception. Uncharacteristically for this kind of filmmaking, the racing scenes that take place at night and in the rain are some of the most thrilling of the movie. Usually, any number of CGI shortcomings – especially in superhero fare – can be hidden using the mask of night and heavy rain. Mangold and his visual effects team, however, manage to make these shots feel even more vital as the cars careen across the road.
Ford v Ferrari also gave me a genuine moment of shock – among many instances of exhilaration – when a wrecked car explodes in a ball of fire. That shock was due in no small part to the masterful sound design of the film. The throaty roar of the engines, squealing tires, and screeching metal of car on car collisions greatly benefited from the big-screen speaker experience, and, I imagine, will do the same with a powerful home theater sound setup.
The most refreshing thing about Ford v Ferrari is watching a larger-than-life crowd-pleasing blockbuster that takes a break from the seemingly impervious superheroes that have dominated the screens for more than a decade. This story is about very mortal people – albeit all white men – who come together in the spirit of competition to achieve greatness in their field. It’s a thrilling, masterful piece of pop movie-making.
Why it got 4 stars:
- Ford v Ferrari is just a flat out fun, exciting, entertaining time at the movies. Even at 2.5 hours, it moves at a good pace, and the racing scenes are superb.
Things I forgot to mention in my review, because, well, I'm the Forgetful Film Critic:
- No one is more surprised than me at how much I enjoyed Ford v Ferrari. I saw the trailer approximately 100 times before the movie came out, and I was strongly disinterested in seeing it. I’m not a car guy, so I wasn’t excited about that aspect of it. Otherwise, it looked like a standard cookie-cutter biopic. I was happy to be so pleasantly surprised.
- The production design feels very authentic. Mangold and his team recreate the 1960s in every way from cars, to clothes, to music selection.
- Matt Damon delivers some exposition when he explains to a neophyte just how challenging the Le Mans race course is. In lesser hands, it could have been a standard expository dialog scene, but Damon sells it so well. He takes us there with nothing but his words.
Close encounters with people in movie theaters:
- I went to an early afternoon screening that could most charitably be described as the senior special. Lots of older film-goers reliving some glory days. They all seemed into it. It was a unique crowd to be in as a character described why Ford was slipping in car sales in the early 1960s: Baby Boomers were the hip new demographic in the market, and they wanted flashy cars that went fast. It was an interesting clash with the current “OK, Boomer” catch phrase of late.