Ford v Ferrari: Review by @Kush_Hayes
Ive never left a movie with such a conflicted opinion. Dont get me wrong, Ford v Ferrari is a very good movie, but its pace doesnt synch up for me. Where I either want a movie to be shorter, or to be longer, on this one I feel like they could have gone either way. Let me elaborate on that. At two and a half hours, this movie needs to drop some of the repetitiveness that occurs in its place for a nice tight 1hour 47 mins film… OR… it needs to be four hours long and explore ALL the details that brought us to watching the Ford Motor Company engage in a pissing contest with Italys Ferrari N.V.
What it boils down to in its raw form, is this is a movie about two men who have a friendship built around their obsession with racing. The trailer would have us believe that Matt Damons Carol Shelby has to convince Christian Bales Ken Miles, but when we begin our movie, Miles and Shelby are already working together, with Shelby racing and Miles leading the team supporting them. This is part of the repetitiveness where when Ford Motors has issues with Miles attitude and question his skills behind the wheel and Shelby having to convince and convince not only Ford but Miles about the involvement of the race we are building too.
This is my biggest gripe with the films story. The rest of the time, we are exploring the relationship of Ken Miles with his family, where not only is he trying to be a role model to his son who loves racing as much as his dad, but maintaining that love and life with his wife, who supports his passion for racing, but also maintains the household and skims the difficulties within that in the late 1960s. While this is going on we have Matt Damons character going back and forth between the top brass of Ford and his own racing team. Also being a former racer his sole purpose is getting his friend into the biggest race for the first time after being in the shadow of being the only American to ever win the race - at that time.
While we have this theme of Fathers and Sons bonding, and living in shadows or casting large shadows, if we went the four hour route we could explore the shadow that Henry Ford II was dealing with. Theres a nice trigger moment where Enzo Ferrari declares that Ford II is not the man his father was that ultimately pushes us into our conflict of developing a race car faster than the best of the best.
I know nothing about cars so for the fellow uneducated audience member, theres lots of car talk. Theres lots of looking at engines and spitting out very fast verbiage about changing an oil pan. And then theres lots of fast driving. Very well cut scenes where you feel like youre in the race seat with the driver. The races that we’re apart of, are just that, youre apart of the action, not just witness to the action.
I think people will walk away from this film feeling good about themselves. Its definitely an underdog story, even if our underdogs work for some swollen ass stuffed soulless suits. If you walk away from the film wanting to know more about these characters, about this story, you can check out Adam Carollas documentary The 24 Hour War which not only chronicles the event of the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the actions that led there going as far back as the Great Depression. I would go on to say that while Matt Damon brings a great performance to this movie, its Christian Bales movie and his chemistry between his wife, his kid, the rest of his race crew, make you root for one of the most imperfect protagonists to be exhibited on the big screen and should lead to getting him another nomination for those Gold Statues in February 2020.
Five out of Six Blueberries
Rated PG-13 for some language and peril
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