Poor Ken Miles wasn’t favoured to go to France and race at Le Mans so he works in the garage and diagnoses the drivers’ mistakes off the wireless… I know the scene is supposed to convey how expertly Ken understands his motorcars, but I yell at sports too if I’m alone; if Jack Billings of the St. Kilda Football Club gets tackled holding the ball, “why didn’t you handball it?!” I say. See, I know better too, and I’ve never played footy in my life.
Ford v Ferrari is directed by James Mangold, and tells the story of Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale), who are approached by Ford Motors to build a racing car to rival Ferrari at Le Mans, a race where competitors drive for 24-hours straight. Shelby is an automotive engineer and the only American to ever win at Le Mans previously, and Miles is his friend, and best driver he knows, despite a reputation for being difficult. Ferrari have been leaps ahead of the competition for a few years, and Ford’s push to out-race them is a move from left-field, as Ford wishes to evolve its image away from family car manufacturing and into something sexier.
Matt Damon has been on a real cooler in recent years and nobody is really talking about it; movies like Suburbicon, Downsizing and The Great Wall have all underperformed critically. Shelby isn’t a wild draw from Damon’s wheelhouse, and Ford v Ferrari provides the role Damon has needed to put him back on the winners list. Christian Bale, on the other hand, is transformative again as Ken Miles. It’s hard not to laugh with Ken; an overgrown child who throws temper tantrums when obstacles get in the way of his racing. Bale personifies Ken through his walk, slight hunch, British accent (which is native to Bale anyway), and a way he contorts his mouth to create a stern thoughtfulness. Bale has obviously played characters with savant-like tendencies before (Michael Burry in The Big Short), but you could look at this performance and think that there’s no way that this actor could be believable as the serious Bruce Wayne, or be convincing at Vice President Cheney, but he is and he can. Bale is so good at taking uncanny roles in mainstream movies, and making them his own; he deserves to be commended for it.
Jon Bernthal also has a small role as the Ford executive who suggests the company should branch out into motorsport, but he fades into the background to Josh Lucas and Tracy Letts, as Ford executive Leo Beebe and Ford CEO Henry Ford II, respectively, who become major thorns in the side of Shelby’s team who just want to race fast cars.
The main thrust of the story comes through negotiations between Ford and Shelby; they clash for control, and mainly disagree on the most suitable person to drive Le Mans. Unlike other ‘versus’ movies that come to mind, like last years’ Borg v McEnroe where both players were given equal time to explore their motivations, Ferrari essentially sits uninterrupted at the top of the tree of racing. At times it feels like Ford is centric because this is a Hollywood movie, and the Americans are bound to come together and triumph over adversity, like when Shelby is leaving spare nuts in the Ferrari pit, to watch the inferior Italian intellects go bananas. We do know that Ferrari doesn’t respect Ford, and given the choice (which Ferrari is) would rather stay faithful to its Italian heritage and partner with Fiat over entertaining a merger with the American company. By the end of the movie though, it’s pretty clear that Shelby and his crew to be the true heroes of the story, and since they spent most of their time deliberating with Ford, that is what we see.
I was worried before viewing Ford v Ferrari, that I might get lost in the technical mechanic-speak of automobiles since cars aren’t really my thing, but the movie does a good job of explaining the relevant finer points of car engineering as they are required. I now know how revs can push a car to destruction, and liked how break tension was easily translated to audience tension through orange sparks flaring up behind the cars’ wheels as a sign of trouble. Bale’s character is used well to comment on the driving within a race as well; where he is either cheering himself or berating something going wrong whilst in the driver’s seat. With all the disagreements on how to present Ford at Le Mans, the movie sometimes needs to remind its own characters that the movie is about car racing as well; the best example of this coming when Shelby takes Mr. Ford (the second) out on the track to experience what real speed is like.
I could have done without the few moments where Ken gets deep with his son; once at the racetrack and once looking at his son’s drawing of the racetrack, talking about “the perfect lap.” For a movie predominately about business squabbles and horsepower, those poetic scenes take the movie off-road (see what I did there). We already understand that Ken feels like he is being overlooked as a serious racer due to his temper and because he started racing too old, but he is shown to be vindicated when he is able to win some big titles and break lap records over and over again. Ken takes the moment to soak in his achievement during Le Mans, right before he deicides to slow down and finish alongside the other Fords. I think the “perfect lap” ideology is supposed to be poignant, since Ken transcends life by the end, but I think the message gets across that Ken finds peace within himself, and his accomplishments, without those scenes with his son, the way they are written. The moments where Ken is spending time with his son are worthwhile but they’re spiritually driven, more than necessary.
Just on that photo-finish for Ford though – my first instinct was “how can these bozos ask a competitor to slow down when he is clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the field?” Does Ford even understand sporting endeavour? But, when the Fords all came together and the spectating media started going crazy, I thought again – “maybe it’s special enough that Ford are going to finish first, second and third; that’s got to be a rare sight in sport in itself. Maybe it would be unfortunate to rob ourselves the opportunity of creating an iconic moment, and fitting to celebrate a team victory overall.” I could suddenly see both sides. What did you think? Considering Ken got duded over by Ford and a racing technicality put him in second, I wish he’d won by ten laps and left Ford in the dust, but it’s the sentiment of the decision that is in question.
For a movie that promises to deliver the time Ford first took it up to Ferrari on the racetrack, you get what you expect, but Ford v Ferrari has more gas in the tank than similarly transparent projects. I found the battle between businessmen and rev-heads really enthralling; the racing and mechanics exciting enough for a novice like me. Bale is fun and quirky; what’s not to adore! See how vanity can get in the way of creation in Ford v Ferrari, and even if you’re not fanatical about racing, I think there’s something here to enjoy.
4.5
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