See it. Four stars out of four. Best auto-racing movie I've ever seen.
It works so well because it does what so few movies in its genre ever do... it gives us just enough 'this is hardcore racing' stuff to keep us grounded, while never ever losing sight of the characters, emotional stakes, and plain old good storytelling. Which allows Ford v Ferrari to be enjoyed almost equally by racing enthusiasts and those who don't know or care about auto racing alike.
And the racing? Done masterfully. You get the speed, chaos, and intensity of the professional racetrack, without the almost-inevitable-these-days stupid rapid-fire jump cuts that only confuse the viewer and make it impossible to place yourself within the action. The soundtrack is also one of the best I've heard in quite awhile, and really adds to the racing scenes.
Oh, and Christian Bale deserves an Oscar nom for his portrayal of legendary race driver Ken Miles. Most of the supporting cast is excellent as well.
Gripes? Very few. Matt Damon does a solid job but doesn't disappear into his biographical character quite as well as Bale does. Jon Bernthal is miscast as an impossibly good-looking Lee Iacocca. And I wanted to see a bit more of Enzo Ferrari (it's a great performance in a small role). That's about it.
Again, see it. It's exactly the kind of movie Hollywood should be making more of, but isn't.
MH: I want to go like my Dad did - peacefully, in his sleep, not screaming in terror like his passengers.
SS: COMPLACENCY IS LETHAL. VOTE in November.
Homer: I believe that the children are our future. Unless we stop them now.
Plat: I'd rather fellate a syphilitic goat than own a Cervelo.
Seam: Saw Bjork poop onstage back in the day. It blew my teenage mind.
The biggest change to the car was a new braking system. When drivers braked after Le Mans' Mulsanne Straight, the front brake rotors would reach 1,500 degrees F, frying the rotors. An engineer on the Ford team, Phil Remington, created a quick-change brake system which allowed new pads and rotors to be placed during a driver change.
Best racing movie you ever saw? High praise. I am interested to see this but the wife is not so it will probably be a renter, but seems like a big screen kinda movie
An excellent motion picture. Enjoyed the heck out of it. A veritable Hollywood time machine. Yeah, sometimes it went in predictable directions. For one, the relationship between Ken Miles and his wife & kid could've had a bit more surprise or perhaps even comedy. But I loved Christian Bale and I thought Matt Damon did a first class job as Christian's partner/nemesis/foil. Shelby was the businessman. Miles was the sensitive artist.
BTW, I actually met Carroll Shelby once. One of my dad's buddies was on the fringes of the race scene and knew the guy. One day, the buddy got me and dad a pit pass at Riverside Raceway where Shelby was doing this thing. A friendly hello. Then Shelby got back to business. Was Ken Miles there, too? I have no idea.
Mapie is a conventional looking former Hollywood bon viveur, now leading a quiet life in a house made of wood by an isolated beach. He has cultivated a taste for culture, and is a celebrated raconteur amongst his local associates, who are artists, actors, and other leftfield/eccentric types. I imagine he has a telescope, and an unusual sculpture outside his front door. He is also a beach comber. The Rydster.
Nice write up and comments, thank you so much. Seeing it tomorrow.
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Ben Franklin -Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are united together
I thought it was good, not great. There wasn't really all that much racing in the movie, but was more about the development of the race car and the personalities involved. I thought "Rush" was better.
Best racing movie you ever saw? High praise. I am interested to see this but the wife is not so it will probably be a renter, but seems like a big screen kinda movie
Ditch your wife and go see it in the theater (no, I don't mean permanently )
This is one of the greatest automotive grudge matches of all time, and deserves to be seen on the big screen. Oddly enough, my wife wants to see it, so I am good there, I would have seen it already (I usually go to the movies late Friday after my kid goes to sleep, alone since someone has to stay home, for some reason teh theater is a guilty pleasure for me, even though it is definitely not worth it from a cost perspective these days). Then again, my wife is also a Top Gear (the original crew, although I like the previous cast, and on the fence about the current cast) and The Grand Tour, so maybe I got lucky.
Saw this last night with my wife and two boys. For background, my boys and I are huge F1 fans. We watch every race on TV and have been to both Suzuka and Hockenheim for an F1 Grand Prix. I have have been to several more Grands Prix before they were born.
Anyway, this is a really good movie, and an excellent racing movie. What it does best is balance. That is, there is a really good balance of story, character development and racing action. At no time does it feel like it drags.
For contrast, take the movie Le Mans with Steve McQueen. This movie is very heavy on racing action but the story and character development are razor thin. On the other end of the spectrum is Grand Prix starring James Garner. Although this movie features some great racing action at Monaco, Spa and Monza, there really isn't that much of it overall. Instead the focus is on the characters and their relationships and almost plays out as a bit of a soap opera.
Ford v Ferrari has a great story, great characters and some awesome racing scenes. There's even a bit of a technical angle for you gearheads as the car developed. Even my wife enjoyed. Highly recommended.
saw it last nite...some decent race car porn. hard to dislike a flick showing Shelby Daytonas, GT350 Mustangs, AC Cobras, and a bunch of GT40s...nom nom nom.
Damon and Bales turned in very watchable performances.
but, while I get that a main-stream Hollywood offering has to appeal to a wide audience, there were some scenes that annoyed the crap out of me. specifically, the one where Ken Miles' wife is throwing the Family Truckster around a highway like a lunatic. please...
also found several instances that were way too reminiscent of Days of Thunder...the 'rubbin' is racin' thing, ya know.
thankfully only one character (the douchey Ford exec Beebe) used the cringe-worthy reference of 'RPMs'...gag.
best racing movie ever...? not really. for my tastes, Grand Prix and Steve McQueen in LeMans rate higher ...
also, the reverence shown for 7,000 RPM was a little amusing to me...my daily driver has a redline of 8,200.
This seems to be a vintage year for retro buddy films. I gotta say, though, that as enjoyable as Ford vs. Ferrari may be, I saw a couple others that were a good deal better. First, there's The Lighthouse. Talk about intense... Then there's Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is still my favorite film of the year. A virtuoso comedic romp.
Mapie is a conventional looking former Hollywood bon viveur, now leading a quiet life in a house made of wood by an isolated beach. He has cultivated a taste for culture, and is a celebrated raconteur amongst his local associates, who are artists, actors, and other leftfield/eccentric types. I imagine he has a telescope, and an unusual sculpture outside his front door. He is also a beach comber. The Rydster.
...
thankfully only one character (the douchey Ford exec Beebe) used the cringe-worthy reference of 'RPMs'...gag.
You nailed it on all points.
As for the red line stuff, the film could have been more involved and was with drag coefficiency and that of an unrefined cast iron engine pushing limits. The entirety of "braking" was a breaker for me, though, not noted clearly enough. Phil Remington had 1/2 of the victory in his name.
You're only as good as your brakes.
In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Ben Franklin -Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are united together
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(no, I don't mean permanently 
