Ford vs Ferrari - Review

Ford vs Ferrari

Academy Award-winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale star in “FORD v FERRARI”, based on the remarkable true story of the visionary American car designer Carroll Shelby (Damon) and the fearless British-born driver Ken Miles (Bale), who together battled 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.

REVIEW:  I love this movie and for so many reasons. First besides having a first rate screenplay, it is singularly the best movie I have seen about racing as well as the best at giving you the audience that raw naked experience and sense of cars moving at unfathomable speeds.

Secondly, the casting is an example of pitch perfect acting across the board. Every single character, whether their roles were big or small, felt like they had something important and essentially relevant to portray to the overall story.

Third, without being overly obvious as a specific moment in the film itself the impact of designer Richard Shelby and mechanic - driver Ken Miles coming together in the 1960’s to race in the prestigious 24 hour Le Mans Race was also a key historical moment when American consumers stop looking and buying cars simply as some utility like a toaster or waffle iron, but rather began to seeing cars and themselves in those cars as a social symbol of achievement, status and sex appeal.

Director James Mangold who also brought us other excellent films as “Walk the Line”, “The Last King of Scotland” and “3:10 to Yuma” keeps this latest work moving flawlessly at an even speed for all of its 2:30 minutes running time. His direction kind of reminded of the way they use to make movies where the story is front and center and the ensemble of actors give the story its lift as being something memorable while exhilarating and entertaining to watch.

In 2013 Director Ron Howard made a true story film about Grand Prix racing called “Rush”. While I found it an above average decent effort I always felt I was watching parts of it through some CGI special effects filter. That is not the case with “Ford vs Ferrari”. There is not one moment when Ken Miles or Carroll Shelby are behind the wheel that you don’t feel the vitality, the rush and the perilous dangers always around the next curve when man and machines come together to push the boundaries and limits of speed.

However two of the most important things about this film was just how tender and genuinely sincere the relationship that is nurtured on the screen between Ken Miles and his son Peter Miles played wonderfully by Peter Jupe. Their father and sons moments will make you smile and tug in your heart as their bond seemed as natural as anyone could imagine. The other memorable aspect to this film was the casting of Matt Damon and Christian Bale as best friends; together they are superb with loads of natural chemistry together. But in the end it was Christian Bale’s performance (again), that stands out and should garner him another Oscar nomination.

I have seen a lot of Bales work and in my life time I have not seen an actor who could have been literally nominated for almost every film he has released over the past 10 plus years starting in 2007 with both of his “Rescue Dawn” and “3:10 to Yuma”. His 2008 “The Dark Knight”. His 2009 “Public Enemies”. His 2010 “The Fighter” (he won Best Supporting Oscar)/  Both of his 2013 “Out of the Furnace” and “American Hustle” (nominated). His 2015 “The Big Short” (nominated) and finally both his 2018 “Hostiles” and “Vice”(nominated). He has transcended for me as a film fan as one of the top five actors I have ever seen all time as his recent work here (as in the past) delivers stellar believability and authenticity as well as humor and warmth like no one else working today on the big screen.

So trust me when I say, pleas don’t wait to rent this, speed out today to see “Ford vs Ferrari”…………..it is a 7000 RPM rush of a film, with lots of entertaining gas and tons of checkered flag acting perfection to get you to the finish line.

4.00 Stars