Ford v Ferrari

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 2 hours 32 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: A-

IN A NUTSHELL:

Directed by James Mangold, this underdog racing story gets your heart racing even though your head tells you that you probably already know what’s going to happen. Unless you know the actual story from 1966, you’re probably wrong. While motorheads will absolutely love Ford v Ferrari, almost anyone else will enjoy the story of competition and ingenuity between the American car manufacturer, Ford, and the Italian legend, Ferrari.

I saw this underdog racing story in IMAX, which was great, but if you plan on doing that, definitely bring ear plugs. It’s really loud! I won’t be surprised if the sound design team gets nominated for an Oscar for their very realistic and immersive sound effects.

Oscar nominations may be headed for the two leading men: Matt Damon and especially Christian Bale.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Some profanity in English and Italian. An Italian guy’s accent was really thick, but it sounded like he dropped an F-bomb in English.
Some Italian is spoken with and without subtitles
Racial slurs against Italians.
It’s a really long movie. Children will get bored.
Some crashes and people die.

THEMES:

“The only question that matters: Who are you?” – Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon)
Doing what you WANT to do, LOVE to do, and HAVE to do
Corporate mentality and the importance of optics
Being a team player
American ingenuity, creative collaboration
Friendship
Determination, passion, and DRIVE!
Father/son relationship, family

THINGS I LIKED:

Both Matt Damon and Christian Bale were expected to give great performances and they did. They both agreed that their brawl scene was the funnest to film. Christian Bale had recently gained a lot of weight for his role in Vice so he was incredibly disciplined to lose 70 pounds to play the role of Ken Miles, who was known to be thin. He trained at the Bondurant High Performance Driving School with the founder of the school who actually knew Ken Miles really well. He was going to play Enzo Ferrari in another movie coming out in 2020, but he didn’t think he would be at the right weight for filming that one, so Hugh Jackman is going to play that role next year. I love Hugh Jackman.
The entire ensemble cast is really great and includes Jon Bernthal, Caitriona Balf, Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, and Ray McKinnon.
I remember when Lee Iacocca’s first big book Iacocca; an Autobiography hit store shelves and everyone’s dad was reading it. Sadly, he died just four months before this movie came out. He was 94 years old! I thought Jon Bernthal did a great job playing the young mobile executive.
Some creative camera angles and impressive cinematography.
Fans of Outlander: The Complete Series Season 1-4 [ DVD, 2019] will be happy to see Caitriona Balfe.
You get to go to Italy and France.
Touching ending that got me teary-eyed. Thanks, Matt Damon. Tracy Letts also provides an emotionally powerful moment.
You get to see pictures of the real Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby at the end of the movie with a little bio information on the screen. I always like that.
In order to film the Le Mans track, they used five different locations. The continuity issues had to have been huge, but they were handled so well.
Jacky Ickx won the Le Mans race six times and can be seen in one of the scenes during the Le Mans race.
If you love this movie and want to know more about the true events, check out the documentary called The 24 Hour War by Adam Carolla and Nate Adams.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Sometimes it’s hard to understand what people are saying because of their British or Italian accents.
A lot of scenes of pedals, clutches, and people’s feet shifting gears.
It’s probably about 20 minutes too long.

FUNNY LINES:

“We’re lighter. We’re faster. When that don’t work, we’re nastier.” – Carroll Shelby
“James Bond does not drive a Ford.” – Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) “That’s because he’s a degenerate.” – Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal)
“I don’t speak Italian but he ain’t happy.” – Carroll Shelby
“He thought you was just finer than frog fur.” – Carroll Shelby

INTERESTING LINES:

“Drive like you mean it: hard and tight.” – Ken Miles (Christian Bale)
“You can’t buy a win, Lee, but maybe you can buy the guy who can get you a shot.” – Carroll Shelby
“You can’t make every lap perfect.” – Peter Miles (Noah Jupe) “But I can try.” – Ken Miles (Christian Miles)
“That’s not the plan.” – Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) “Plans change.” – Carroll Shelby
“Sometimes, they don’t get out of the car.” – Phil Remington (Ray McKinnon)
“Sometimes words are not useful.” – Carroll Shelby

OTHER MOVIES LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

<br />

WATCH THE Movie Review Mom YOUTUBE REVIEW WITH THIS LINK: