Review: Straiten Those Laces for ‘Ford v Ferrari’

The story of Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, and the legendary 1966 Le Mans has been something of an improbable project for Hollywood. This project has switched hands so many times, first seeing those of Michael Mann, then Joseph Kosinski. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were supposed to star, then writers dropped out, and then in early 2018, James Mangold stepped in to carry the film over the finish line. So the Ford v Ferrari film we have in front of us is a little something of a project that escaped development hell.

So how is it? Kinda strait laced. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Cars going 200+ miles per hour are always fun to see when there’s the added layer of dramatic tension in the mix. Ford v Ferrari doesn’t reinvent the wheel for the biopic formula, but there’s more than enough gas in this tank to make it a well-executed film with standout racing.

The year is 1963. The Ford Motor Company is struggling to remain relevant in a new era of automobiles. Facing an existential crisis, Henry Ford II issues a challenge met by one Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal): Ford will start their own race car team. To do so, Iacocca enlists the help of the man behind the famous Shelby Cobra and former Le Mans winner, Carrol Shelby (Matt Damon), to build him a race car to beat Ferrari — which at this point in time had won four of the last five races at Le Mans. With astute wheel man Ken Miles (Christian Bale) in the seat of their Ford GT40, they set out to become the first American manufacturer to win the prolific 24 hour race.

Just like the cars at the center of the film, this story has muscle. Its masculine energy flies loose and fast all in the competition. Both Miles, Shelby, and Ford are driven by the desire to win, only pushed further into their aggressions when competition gets the better of them. Mangold makes this an emphasis of his subjects, and the masculine competition depicted in front of us becomes readily apparent when Mollie Miles — wife to Ken played by Caitriona Balfe — is injected into the narrative, often as portrayed as the archetypal wife character that watches her significant other neglect her needs for the pursuit of victory. Throw in plenty of Aaron Sorkin-esque moments of grand standing dialog, and you’ve got a biopic that will surely resonant with older male demographics.

The ebbs and flow of success in the lives of Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles are in sync with expectations. Success is met with set back, and set backs drive perseverance, resulting in a confrontation with the insurmountable. Without spoiling anything, for those that don’t know the history of the Ford GT40, the outcome you anticipate from the start will be the outcome you get. 

Minimal subversion in the biopic formula is to be expected. It is a biopic about overcoming a challenge through the lens of a personal issue, something we are all very familiar with, and in that sense the film is rather strait laced. There is no shame in enjoying exotic cars go really fast against one another though. It is thrilling and the most engaging part of the film, especially when the racing sequences themselves are executed, shot, and edited with positioning — which car is where and what events are pertinent at the moment on screen — in mind. For these moments alone, you kind of forgive everything off the track.

And for a movie about sport cars, you can bet your pink slip the sound design is great. In fact, it is astounding. Your average theater goer will not notice sound design. It is a largely invisible craft that blends into the background and it’s one of those things that audiences come to expect automatically much in the way good editing concedes itself to the narrative. But Ford v Ferrari’s sound is so pronounced that it’s hard to not acknowledge it. The hiss of air being sucked into a roaring V-8, the squeal of rubber on pavement, the high-pitched gain of increased RPMs. All pushing and pulling in grand harmony as competition between man pushes their respective machines to the limit. Undoubtably the stand out star of the film.

This story of the 1966 24 Hours at Le Mans is a narrative primed for a biopic so much so that it has all the conventions of it. Ford v Ferrari has the technical backing to make the race sequences perform above expectations, but it is everything in between that hovers around the status quo. Like I said, that’s not a bad thing inherently, but it makes for something you watch for the basic story elements and enjoy for the fast cars.

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