I had accidentally posted a rough draft with grammatical errors and incomplete ideas. I am embarrassed by this and I apologize. The review has been
Sexuality/Nudity Acceptable
Violence Acceptable
Vulgarity Acceptable
Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable
I am not a big racing guy. But I was thoroughly impressed by the sheer scale and artistry it took to put together a movie like Ford vs. Ferrari. I would imagine that if you are really into cars and racing then this movie will resonate with you in a way that it did not for me. And yet, there is much in the movie to admire.
The movie is based on the real life story of how the Ford Motor Company decided that it wanted to update its image by defeating Ferrari in the brutal 24 hours of Le Mans. With the baby boomers coming into prosperity as teenagers, Ford wanted to tap into that market. However, as one of the main characters points out, money cannot by a win, only a car.
Enter Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon). He is an ex-racer who is now a car salesman, popping pills for his chronic medical difficulties. On his spare time, he manages race car driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale). Ken is a man with a short fuse because his passion for racing and cars runs so hot. He is also a family man, struggling to make ends meet with his small auto garage to support his strong wife Mollie (Caitiriona Balfe) and their son Peter (Noah Jupe). Both Carroll and Ken seem to be heading down the long slow decline of middle age when Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) approaches them with the idea of designing and racing a Ford car to beat Ferrari.
There is so much of this movie that works. James Mangold has captured the look of the era in much the same way that Tarantino did with Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. The movie shines with a nostalgia of a less cynical world where a car represents the American ideal of freedom. And Mangold shots the film with grace, beauty, and visceral thrills. You can feel the roar of the engines and almost experience the g-forces as the cars push their engines to their breaking points and beyond as they speed down the tracks. And Mangold does not phone it in for the quieter moments. There is a tender and sad moment towards the middle of the movie between Ken and Mollie that is so perfectly lit by the industrial lighting, that could not be more romantically shot if it was done with candlelight and a roaring fire.
Thematically, the movie taps in to the American spirit of fierce independence while at the same time emphasizing the importance of teamwork. I was worried that this film would be a big corporate commercial for Ford. And to be sure, the cars they make look beautiful. But the movie shows how a great deal of the human spirit can be swallowed up by corporate culture. Ken reminds Carroll that there are hundreds of people who will all want their hands in the planning, design, and coaching of the race. It gets to the point where Carroll has to tell the head boss Henry Ford II that you cannot win a race by committee. You need to trust your men on the ground, but that is a high risk, high reward situation.
The performances are very good. While Damon and Bale have done better work, I don't know that I have seen them this likable in recent movies. Carroll and Ken are a bit on the arrogant side, but that is because they know that their competencies are being hampered by the incompentencies of others. Bale is very good at showing his wild and violent creative side while believably portraying Ken as a loving and tender father and husband. Balfe particularly stands out to me as someone to look out for come awards season. She may be overlooked, but her performance is reserved and powerful. On paper, she could come off as the simple, doting wife. But her Mollie is every bit the match to Ken's passion and intelligence. Tracy Letts is also excellent as Henry Ford II. You can see how Letts shows Ford trying to look imposing and strong. He plays him as a man who is constantly under the shadow of his greater predecessors. This comes out in a comedic, yet revealing way when, after receiving an unexpected trauma, Ford refers to his father as "daddy." You can see the way the actor shows Ford's continued idolization of his father and how he feels like a little boy dressing in a great man's clothes. Bernthal has a cool swagger about him as Iaccoca. Ray McKnnon does a nice supporting job as Phil Remington, a grounded and down to earth member of Carroll and Ken's team. Thought it appears that Josh Lucas has now been relegated to the smarmy jerks of cinema.
As the movie was coming to an end, I began to think that this might be the greatest racing movie I had ever seen.
SPOILER ALERT DO NOT READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU DO NOT WANT OT BE SPOILED
But like the movie A Star is Born, Ford vs. Ferrari completely defecates on itself in the last ten minutes. The movie had a chance to end on the perfect point. There is a moment that is bitter-sweet, and yet it was filled with a sense of accomplishment at the past and hope for the future. But then, the movie. FOR NO REASON, decides that it needed to pull at our heartstrings more by killing off a character. This death is not necessary to the plot. And even if it happened in real life, it would have been much better to mention this in the end credits. Instead of feeling a greater sense of catharsis, I ended the movie quiet angry and annoyed. All of the emotional good will that the movie built completely evaporated in an overly-sappy emotional pablum. Endings are important. Watching this movie was like finishing a delicious meal and then accidentally sipping some spoiled milk. As good as everything was that came before it, the linger bad taste ruins the memory of the rest.
END SPOILER
Without this ending, the movie would rank much higher. But they crashed and burned just before the finish line.
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