Review By Daniel Occelli (Mexico City)
“7,000 RPM. That’s where you meet it… Asks you a question. The only question that matters. Who are you?”
Ford v Ferrari, or as it was properly named in Europe, Le Mans 66, is directed by James Mangold, the director behind Logan and The Wolverine, and it stars Christian Bale and Matt Damon as the men in charge to build a race car good enough to beat Ferrari at Le Mans.
It sounds like a simple premise, but the film is much more than that. It’s a movie about passion, friendship, father-son relationships and pride.
I absolutely loved Ford v Ferrari. This film did for racing films what Creed did for Boxing films. What it showed you that there are new ways to shoot this scenes, not only the left to right “pod racing” technique, or the CGI packed scenes we see in Rush. This film brought the cranes back to the racetrack and truly immersed the audience in a way I haven’t seen since the epic 60´s classic Grand Prix.
And the film doesn´t stop in its marvelous technical achievements. It goes beyond it’s great sound design, it’s beautiful cinematography, and it’s spotless editing, to tell a beautiful story with amazing performances by Christian Bale and Matt Damon, and great surprises that shouldn´t be overseen, like child actor Noah Jupe ,who’s making a name for himself in Hollywood, bringing his A-game playing Ken Miles’ son, and the amazing performance Caitriona Balfe delivered as his wife, my favorite character in the movie.
This film truly pushed the boundaries of filmmaking, and it’s been completely overlooked since 1917 did it in such an obvious way. Not to say 1917 wasn’t a technical masterpiece, but Ford v Ferrari has been ignored ,and it really is insane all they managed to do in the racetrack to make us feel like part of the races themselves.
I may be biased, since I’ve loved the sport ever since I was a child, and it was all thanks to my dad, which makes the themes of the movie resonate with me a little more.
All that being said, I do have one issue with the film. There is one scene, when we see a car taking the last turn to finish an important lap in the final race, all the film had looked beautiful and real and this scene felt like it was pulled straight out of a Gran Turismo videogame trailer. Maybe they wanted to get the whole scope of the event by having the car approach in and the stands go crazy in the same shot, but it took me out of the movie for a second. The CGI was impressive, but it was noticeable, and it hadn’t been during the whole film. It’s nitpicking, I know, but I just do it because the film is so damn good in every other aspect.
I will give Ford v Ferrari a 9.2/10 I really loved this film.
Rating: 5/5
How about, “It’s been * weeks, Shel. Sometimes they don’t get out of the car.”
HORSE POWER
Ken Miles: If you’re going to push a piece of machinery to the limit, and expect it to hold together, you have to have some sense of where that limit is…
EXACTLY!
Race cars boats planes motorcycles people … but stop risking the lives of horses who die trying. ..if you have to use force fear and a whip…its not a sport..
They die every day on a racetrack somewhere..while gamblers watch or dont watch…most from fractures cardiac events and bleeding lungs with the last few minutes of their lives spent being whipped into blinding traumatizing panic…during a stampeed.
Next we need a movie about AL Hobert an american Porsche driver and Le Mans winner
If you dont see who is talking Matt Damon sounds exactly like Tommy Lee Jones….at times I thought Tommy was narrating the movie…seriously.
What’s the quote about the chevell
After Henry Ford has the machines turned off he tells everyone around him how pathetic its founder would find this situation regarding sales of their cars and that the Ford co. was taking it in the tailpipe by the likes of a chevy chevelle. ..he ends saying he wants employees to offer new ideas or quit..you get the idea…its a pep talk..
To my self after a inaccurate comment..
Scratch that…I got that wrong…he says chevy impala
Where’s “nice stopwatch”
“You want one, they’re Italian”????
I was just looking for the quote………Carroll Shelby narrating ”…….when it all comes down to… Who Are You?”