trelerke-politics Review of Ford v Ferrari

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

well done for its genre, but only just, good acting on the part of Bale and Damon

[6/10 · 23 November 2019]

I used to race cars, still spend a bit of time on the track, so I know this story, even met some of the actual people involved here (I'm old), and I wanted to really like the movie more than I did. Of course the car porn was fantastic, the casual way in which iconic multi-million dollar cars were placed around the set and even some of the scenes showing the GT40 moving around the airport tarmac were very good. For the latter, they captured speed well here, which is very difficult. So, kudos. But the actual danger involved, although shown to some extent, was not given the attention really needed. I understand the dramatic demands for a movie, but I would think emphasizing the danger would only help. Just to be clear, there were two deaths in a five month period, Miles and Macdonald, although deaths and massive injuries were very common then, these deaths actually had an effect on the racing community. Also, to be clear, the Ford effort was massive, they simply hired the very best in the US to get the GT40 developed. It really was a huge disparity between Ford and any other team. In reality, once Ford got out the kinks, it was a foregone conclusion, no matter that Ferrari made amazing cars. In this regard, little was made of the genius and absolute necessity of Phil Remmington to the entire GT40 project, he was the actual development lead on the car and he was made out to be a Disney -like character, uncle Phil with almost no real role to play. Well, actually, the character of Miles, also an engineer on the project was a compiled character that included "Rem" but because Rem was the essential piece for GT40 development, they had to gesture towards him, I suppose. Again, it was an okay movie, very much in the genre, although a bit better acted, Damon and Bale fighting with each other, using food, a thrown wrench, the supportive, loving wife. Within the context of a buddy movie, the movie does work, but its too long and you feel it, although I did like the way Miles death accident was shown, not a lot of buildup, save for the music, and then a highspeed muffled crash, no huge histrionics after and then the both true and movie cliche line "sometimes they don't come home." I wanted more of the internal mechanics of that, I wanted more of Henry Ford crying in the car, a great scene, actually because both the absolute insanity of being in a racing car as well as his joy were conveyed, I thought that was a magnificent human moment, unexpected and worth the movie, on it's own.