Ford vs Ferrari: Ode to the Cooperation it Takes to Compete

Ford v Ferrari Review

“There is a point at 7,000 RPM…where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. Just disappears. And all that’s left is a body moving through space and time.”

Ford v Ferrari (a biographical sports film) opens with Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) victory at the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans, cutting sharply to later where Shelby sits on a doctors table being told that due to increasing trouble with a heart condition can no longer race cars. This story begins with the end of one race car drivers career – “7,000 RPM. That’s where you meet it. You feel it coming. It creeps up on you, close in your ear. Asks you a question. The only question that matters. Who are you? – segueing straight into the struggling career of another race car driver, Ken Miles (Christian Bale).

The scene introducing Miles shows us a mechanic who struggles to explain to a complaining customer why his sports car is not running like it used to. What Miles attempts to explain is that sports cars need to be driving like sports cars. That he suggests his customer might be happier driving a Plymouth doesn’t go over so well nicely demonstrating why Miles is struggling as a mechanic. While Miles clearly has a British accent, he is the second great American competitor.

From this scene the film cuts to show a gaggle of suits (executives) that briefly highlights the third great American competitor, Lee Iaccoca (Jon Bernthal) looking behind him before turning back around and following the other suits to meet up with their boss and this films fourth great American competitor, Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts). The scene culminates in Ford giving his own version of Blake’s “coffee is for closer’s” speech in Glengarry Glen Ross. Ford gives his employees an ultimatum, go home and ruminate and either come back with an idea on how the Ford Company can regain their prominence and keep their job. The rest of the second place losers can go home.

Written by Jez Butterworth, his brother John-Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller, there is a Mametian poetry to their dialogue as the italicized quote Damon’s Carroll Shelby narrates at the opening of the film, and Ford’s blustering “second place losers can go home” ultimatum demonstrate. David Mamet is a playwright who had captured the edgy poetry of gritty American’s long ago, and Ford v Ferrari is filled with gritty American’s (a few with British accents) who all seem to have a touch of the poet in them. Ford vs Ferrari is an ode to competitors. It is an ode to the immense amount of cooperation it takes before the competition can even begin.

Directed by James Mangold, a director whose work varies from Copland to Kate and Leopold to Wolverine and Logan, the breakneck pace rarely slows down, even when it is just a bunch of suits in an office doing the petty things suits offices do. Lee Iaccoca being one of those suits goes to Ford with the idea of buying Ferrari as a way to become competitive in the sports car market. However, this strategy goes south when Iaccoca discovers Ferrari was just using Ford’s interest in his company to get Fiat to offer more money. Enzo Ferrari (Remo Geroni) also insults Ford, both the man and his company. Infuriated Henry Ford II becomes determined to build a car that could defeat Ferrari at Le Mans.

Iaccoca hires Shelby who in turn enlists Miles to help him build and then drive a race car that could beat Ferrari. Some might see the ensuing backstabbing and ruthlessness of suits breaking promises and working to undermine their own race car driver as a tale about the noble sportsman vs the soulless corporate executive, but it is probably more accurate that this film handily captures the bitter competition within a team before and even while that team ultimately competes with other teams. It is not just an accidental scene that Ford threatens his employees to be first place employees or go home.

Of course, there are soulless executives working for Ford and Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe is one of them. He’s the backstabbing, ruthless breaker of promises who had it out for Miles from the get-go. Miles is hardly an innocent victim. He’s a cantankerous stubborn mule but a damn good race car driver. The former rankles Beebe to the point that he could care less about the latter.

Matt Damon has long been the best bland actor around, even when he’s playing dynamic characters such as Shelby. Some might take that to be an insult instead of the compliment it is intended to be and his compelling blandness is a perfect match to Bale’s cocksure and cantankerous Miles. These two are the Lennon and McCartney of race car drivers. Shelby the forever optimist and Miles the constant cynic. Beebe’s backstabbing betrayal of Miles becomes the latter’s self-fulfilling prophecy.

Fortunately, Shelby’s self-fulfilling prophecy that all will work out in the end is as strong as Mile’s assurance they couldn’t get much worse. If you can’t have fun getting to the finish line why even bother? A race-car movie should always be thrilling all the way up to the finish line and Mangold’s film is precisely that. If the film were to focus solely on the building of the race car and driving that car, it would not have been nearly as thrilling as it is to watch Shelby manipulate Miles, Iaccoca manipulate Beebe, Beebe manipulate Miles, Miles manipulate Shelby and Shelby manipulate Ford while Ford manipulates them all is quite the spectacle.

Even though it is a film about racing cars, it is noticeably light on females. Many racing films are prone to cram in as much as they can of the gorgeous female fans of race car drivers, but here that burden is all placed upon (and smartly so) Mollie Miles played by Caitriona Balfe. Clearly a huge fan of her troublemaker husband, she doesn’t represent the bimbo generally seen in these kind of movies, but instead the smarter and ultimately far more supportive female fan, the long suffering wife. Shelby was married seven times and we don’t meet any of his wives.

Instead we meet the long supportive female in Mollie Miles. It is an economical choice as well as an economical design intended to push the story to the finish line faster. Much like building a race car where after test runs deciding to strip the car of extraneous parts to lighten the load, it appears as if Mangold and his screenwriters have done the same with the wives of all these competitors. Anyone who knows the history of the Shelby/Miles partnership knows how that ends and will have some clue as to why it is Mollie who is the wife we meet. Balfe handles this burden with aplomb.

As thrilling as this film is, it is also somewhat of a prestige film that might very well snatch an Academy Award nomination for best picture. A great script, directed by an increasingly great director and starring two powerhouse actors who have long been great happily translates into a great film. Even if you don’t like race car driving story’s there is a good chance you will like this one. Not because Ford vs Ferrari will change your mind on race car driving, but because it so much more than just a film about racing.