Ford v. Ferrari

If you've been to the movies lately, and thought to yourself that films seem longer lately, it is not your imagination.  Of the past 10 movies I've reviewed, only three of them have not reached the two hour mark or beyond.  It used to be that only really important movies or your "epics" would stretch past two hours in length.  Now it seems like it won't be long until only kiddie movies will be the only films that flirt with 90 minute lengths. 

I bring this up, because James Mangold's Ford v. Ferrari, an otherwise very good film, could have probably been a great movie if it had another visit to the editing room.  At its current length of just over two and a half hours, the film at times seems obsessed with the finer details.  I'm sure that there are people in the audience who will love how much this movie dives into its subject matter of racing, right down to portraying and explaining the finer details and nuts and bolts of auto racing.  I actually have a very good friend who pretty much only watches documentaries, and will only like a movie if he feels it has been researched meticulously.  I get it.  Sometimes I enjoy it when a movie draws me into its world.  And sometimes a movie's eye for detail seems to grind the film to a halt.  I did enjoy this film, but probably would have liked it even more if the pacing was a bit snappier. 

The film is a loose telling of the story of how Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) entered into a racing rivalry with Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) during the 1965 and 1966 Le Mans.  Ferrari has won the title consecutively over the past few years, so in order to beat him, Ford has his executives Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal) and Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) set out to hire former Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) to design a race car.  Shelby is given the task to design a car that can beat Ferrari in a short amount of time, but he can choose his team.  One of the key people that he picks is the British race car driver, Ken Miles (Christian Bale).  Ken is famous for being "difficult", and he lives up to that reputation by angering the heads at Ford, who want Shelby to use a different driver to serve as Ford's "face" on the racing circuit.  Ken may be hard to work with, but he is brilliant behind the wheel, and knows what the car needs in order to win.  Shelby stands by him, and the two eventually make history in the racing world.

Ford v. Ferrari is not afraid to give us the ins and outs of the racing world, and what it takes to design a championship car.  I'm sure there will be a lot of people who will love that, but I thought it went on a bit long at times.  What was more interesting to me were the lead performances of Damon and Bale, and the relationship that they built during the course of the film.  Damon's Shelby is smart, cool-headed and calm, while Bale brings a lot of angry intensity to Ken.  The movie does let us see that Ken has a softer side, as he has a strong relationship with his wife and young son, who support him wholeheartedly.  But the best scenes pit both Shelby and Ken's conflicting personalities up against each other.  In one of the film's better scenes, the two come to blows during an argument, and they start walloping one another right there in front of Ken's house.  Rather than try to break up the fight, Ken's wife grabs a lawn chair, picks up a magazine, and waits for the guys to be done with it. 

This scene displays the contrast of the characters that drew me into the film.  It knows how to play upon these strong and differing personalities, and have everyone grab our attention.  Not one character gets to dominate a single scene.  Everyone is strongly developed, and gets to stand out..  And even if I thought some of the detail on the finer points of racing went on a bit long, I have to admit, many of the racing scenes themselves are absolutely thrilling, and have been edited in such a way that they really bring forth the intensity of what auto racing must feel like.  I also like how the film took on an unusual angle where the antagonist is not exactly the rival racers, but rather the corporation that is sponsoring the heroes.  Henry Ford II and especially Beebe are depicted as people who will make promises, go back on them, or sometimes try to change the agreement in order to make the company look even better.  Sometimes this can conflict directly with the project or the people involved.  This is something I haven't seen in a lot of sports movies that I really admired.

There really is a lot to enjoy here.  The only reason I harped about the length is I really do feel that Ford v. Ferrari, a good movie as it is, would have been an even better one if it had been tightened a bit more.  Still, we have some fine performances, some moments of wonderful humor (the scene where Henry Ford II gets to ride in the race car is hilarious), and some very rich characters on display.  Even if it runs longer than needed, its quality can't be denied.

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