Racing is an unforgiving sport. When all the rules and regulations are in place to make it as competitive an endeavor as possible, every mistake is magnified. Overheated brakes? You’ll lose control. An underpowered engine? You’ll be gasping to keep up. Making this even more difficult is the limited amount of space in a vehicle meant to be as sleek and aerodynamic as possible without actually lifting off into the skies.
It’s creating a space shuttle meant to remain on Earth.
At the start of the Ford v Ferrari, a team of Ford marketers are baffled at how to lift their flagging sales. When Lee Ioacca (Jon Bernthal) suggests sexing up their dusty brand by throwing Ford into the Le Mans 24, the most punishing and unforgiving race on the planet, the goal is set: to compete with the otherworldly Italians at Ferrari. The man they task to lead the way, Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), knows how impossible their mission is. Luckily, he knows just the driver, Ken Miles (Christian Bale), to help him bridge the gap.
That’s the historical layout of the story. But what makes Ford v Ferrari work so well is how hard the filmmakers work to make their own cinematic Ford GTO, swapping out and exchanging parts for the sleekest earthbound spaceship possible. Ford v Ferrari existed as a script for nearly 10 years, with director James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line, Logan) checking in from time to time. It needed one last push, one last exchanging of and honing of pieces to get it ready for the green light. So Mangold ditched the ensemble feel of the film and focused on the relationship between Shelby and Miles. They sacrificed some historical accuracy for the betterment of the emotional truth of the story: that true friendship is the only race we can always win. It makes this vessel of filmmaking lighter, tighter, and powerfully grounded.
Mangold completely understands that the laws of gravity work just as well in storytelling: that every force will be met by an equal, opposing force. So the friendship doesn’t start smoothly, something the film circles back to in increasingly thoughtful ways. Shelby and Miles are two very different people who really need each other. Miles is the only driver Shelby can win with; Shelby’s the only one who will fight for Miles when corporate Ford fights his lack of PR skills. Before they finally get on the same page, they have a pretty hilarious public fight, with groceries flying and awkward fists landing. It’s Batman fighting Jason Bourne, a necessary scuffle to make sure they both know they’re gonna stick with each other to the end.
There are other exotic parts that make up this finely tuned vehicle including a wife (Caitriona Balfe) as demanding of partnership and honesty as she is a true companion, a magnificently villainous Tracey Letts as Henry Ford II (aka The Deuce), and enough throttling, ferocious car camerawork to make the Fast and Furious series a little jealous. In the end, it all comes back to Miles and Shelby, to Batman and Bourne. Their friendship is forged in the fires of passion, an earthbound rocket chasing the amber sunset long after the checkered flag.
