“Ford v Ferrari” (2019) stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale as respective race car drivers Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles in a period piece set in the sixties. In a bloodless World War II rematch, Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) has recruited them to make his car company competitive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race after Ferrari insults him and his company. Only Shelby has won this endurance race, but can no longer race; however, Shelby knows Miles can do it. Miles’ temperament rubs management the wrong way, but his talent, skill and passion are undeniably the best. James Mangold directs, and he is best known for directing “Cop Land” (1997), “Girl, Interrupted” (1999), “Kate & Leopold” (2001), “Identity” (2003), “Walk the Line” (2005) and “Logan” (2017). His worst movie may be “The Wolverine” (2013). Writers Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller have a more uneven resume though their highs are quite laudable.
“Ford v Ferrari” can act like a Rorschach test for any viewer. It is as shallow or deep as you want it to be, but whatever you are looking for, it was unnecessarily long with a run time of two hours thirty-two minutes. It is not even an aggressive period piece. I like to watch a movie with as little information going into the experience as possible so I judge the film on its merits, and it took me a considerable amount of time to determine when it was set. The biggest hints come from the script, but as Jon Bernthal as Lee Iacocca and Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe play the execs with more swagger and aggression than customary, I began sensing a Mad Man-esque vibe and gradually other visual details like costumes makes attentive listening less required.
For a viewer simply looking for entertainment, “Ford v Ferrari” is straightforward and about competition, but there is more to this movie than fast cars. The story describes racing as a transcendent act, boiling a man down to his essence and shutting out the meaningless trappings. Why are these men having an existential crisis about their place in the world? Every one has survived World War II either as a vet or someone who contributed to the war effort. So there are two compulsions at play: not wasting life, i.e. finding meaning in returning to quotidian life, and finding a healthy outlet for aggression that was not out of place on the battlefield. It is the United States versus Italy.
Every character in “Ford v Ferrari” is angry and looking for a fight. Ford II is seething at the prospect of his factory just making cars after making weapons. Ford II starts his aggression in the boardroom, but moves battlefields once he loses that fight. Miles drove tanks on to Normandy on D Day. Miles challenges any man who crosses his path even when being diplomatic would save his family from financial ruin and prefers a career driving in the face of death. Shelby developed his taste for speed as a pilot, but when he is denied that speed after winning Le Mans, Shelby almost gets into car accidents every time he gets behind the wheel. Even though the histories of the execs are underexplored, when Miles and Shelby conspire to separate Ford from Beebe so they can escape office politics and just focus on merit, Beebe does not hesitate to act physically and swiftly to reclaim his place of power. Instead of being a stereotypical exec afraid to get his hands dirty, Beebe is about that life and shows that his ego is writing checks that his body can cash. As depicted in the film, he is not just the pencil pusher who cannot do anything. He would probably ascend the ranks in any venue, but like the others, viewers are supposed to infer that he chose a particular arena because it was the civilian equivalent of life in military service. Ford Company disassociated itself from the film because of Beebe’s portrayal and there is even a blogpost puzzled with Beebe’s villain role in the film. He worked and served with Ford long before Ford became head of the company so while they were not necessarily friends, they had a long standing professional camaraderie that suggests Beebe was not chosen for being a conniver, but because they worked well together. Beebe appears to be Ford’s man on the ground, not a man using Ford so while I am not questioning the movie’s depiction, maybe Shelby and Miles were unwilling to face the fact that their problem was with their benefactor, not his lackey.
“Ford v Ferrari” resonates in another, more understated battle of souls. If the Americans see Ferrari as a substitute for the fascists they fought, by the end of the film, Enzo Ferrrari is closer to Miles and Shelby than Ford and his execs. Ferrari, Miles and Shelby land on the side of people who are actually good at doing their job and believe in quality whereas Ford and his execs care more about image, money and status even if they are not conscious of it. This issue is still an American versus European problem. Americans hate experts, and while Ford is light years away from Presidon’t’s politics and policies (I hope), there is an image of the oligarch incapable of excellence and bending the truth to serve him.
More importantly, the concept that people are like machines in that if you demand much from them, you owe people for what they give you, and Ford and his execs do not adhere to that policy in practice with the denouement. Bale delivers a magnificent speech to his onscreen son, “If you’re gonna push a piece of machinery to the limit and expect it to hold it together, you have to have some sense of where that limit is.” In America, we simply do not do that. Even during a pandemic, some employers complain that people do not want to work instead of acknowledging that people do not want to die for nothing or are already dead thus unavailable to continue working. American workers toil endlessly with little pay and no benefits. Miles is willing to sacrifice his life and delivers, but Ford betrays him. This story is still relevant. What is it about some employers’ insatiable need to demand a psychological cost or worse from workers even when they hold up their end of the bargain? Some employers expect a fealty that they do not offer and want revenge for someone doing a job that they themselves do not want to do.
While I enjoyed “Ford v Ferrari” more than I expected, I basically consider it a Lifetime movie for men. I am not into sports, and this film is a sports drama. Racing seems insane to me because I would prefer never to drive. Though it thankfully steers clear of tropes such as the nagging wife, the woeful lack of women and other types of representation further makes it not the kind of movie that I would have paid to see. I may consider reading the book that the movie adapted, A. J. Baime, “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans.” I was amused that Bale in a helmet reminded me of Batman, and I was happy that he finally got to use an accent that at least came from his homeland even if it was not his.
