Film Review: "Ford v Ferrari" (2019).

"They took the american dream for a ride." This is Ford v Ferrari. This sports drama film directed by James Mangold, and written by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller. Based on the remarkable true story of the visionary American car designer Carroll Shelby and the fearless British-born driver Ken Miles, who together battled corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

A film based on the rivalry between Ford and Ferrari had lingered in development hell at 20th Century Fox. Initially, under the working title Go Like Hell, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were set to star  with a script by Keller and Joseph Kosinski set to direct. But the project fell apart. At the same time, Michael Mann was developing a Enzo Ferrari biopic with Christian Bale originally set to play Ferrari. But Bale dropped out to due concerns he had regarding gaining the proper weight in time. The project was ultimately shelved. In early February 2018, it was announced that Mangold had been brought on board to direct the film after the success of Logan (2017). The Butterworths were hired to provide rewrites. In March 2018, Christian Bale and Matt Damon were eyed for the lead roles. Damon said the number one reason he wanted to do the film was to work with Bale. In preparation for his role, Bale took race driving lessons at the Bondurant High Performance Driving School founded by the friend of Miles. By early July, Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balfe, Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, Noah Jupe, Remo Girone, and Ray McKinnon rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, with a budget of $100 million, principal photography commenced, and took place in Savannah, Georgia, and Los Angeles, California. In order to recreate the 1960s Le Mans circuit, the scenes had to be shot in five different locations. This proved a challenge in terms of continuity as not only the cars had to be correctly placed for each shot but the weather had to be consistent as well. VFX was critical in fixing a variety of continuity errors some of which were as simple as adjusting clocks to the right time. In North America, the film is marketed as Ford v Ferrari, whilst, in most other countries, it was marketed as Le Mans 66.

The film stars Damon, Bale, Bernthal, Balfe, Letts, Lucas, Jupe, Girone, and McKinnon. Strong performances were given by the cast, especially from Damon and Bale. Even if occasionally it stalls because of its sometimes heavy-handed treatment of Ford and Ferrari's rivalry. Also if its two protagonists were behaving like little more than boys with very fast toys.

A sleek, slick, well-oiled machine, Ford v Ferrari is a finely crafted sports drama with exhilarating race sequences and strong performances from Damon and Bale.

Simon says Ford v Ferrari receives:

Also, see my review for Logan.