Despite the fact that we cover some of it on our show, I am not a big fan auto racing. Even though I see how it appeals to a lot of people, I’ve just never really seen the point of watching a bunch of cars go around over and over and over again. To be honest, if I ever went to a big race and hear the cars drive by with that loud roar, I mate have a different opinion. With the backdrop of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, James Mangold (Logan) brings his latest film in “Ford v Ferrari”.
Starring Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), Matt Damon (The Martian), Jon Bernthal (Baby Driver), Josh Lucas (Glory Road), Caitriona Balfe (Outlander) and Tracy Letts (Lady Bird), this is the story of Carroll Shelby (Damon), who is recruited in the 1960s by Henry Ford II (Letts) to build a car that will win the famed day-long race in France after he tries (and fails) to buy the Ferrari company. With the renegade driver Ken Miles (Bale) and under the watchful eye in a good way from Lee Iacocca (Bernthal) and in the worst way by Leo Beebe (Lucas), they set out to take down the Italian car company’s dominance at one of the most grueling races in the world.
The film, the sets, and props were time period correct to help tell this story, and I was impressed on what had to have been a number of different cars that had to be used in production. When it comes to the acting, Bale and Damon are good together, but Damon tries to do the roughneck with the cowboy accent and falls a tad short, but not as bad as Wahlberg in his “Transformers” films. The rest of the cast does fine, but I do not truly see any nominations next year when it comes to the acting.
“Ford v Ferrari” is a little long at about two and a half hours, but it is made up in the race scenes. There are actually a few times where I thought I was actually in the race or in pit row. I know this film is based on true events, but there were definitely some liberties taken but nothing that took me out of it. It truly is good, but it seemed like there was just a little special something that was missing. I will still recommend this film as a matinee showing in the theaters, and if there is a showing in Dolby, I think it may be worth the extra cost due to some great race scenes.