Thinking About Ford v Ferrari
I am preparing this blog in consultation with my son, Matthew, aged sixteen years. He and I have prepared the text below, so some of the writing is entirely his. He and I saw the movie Ford v Ferrari late last year, and, because we found it thought provoking, I also took Sue to watch it a few weeks later. The movie is PG-13, largely as there is some fallen-world language.
It’s a sports action drama, a period setting from the early- to mid-1960s, the time I was growing up. It was fun to see how authentic the setting was—the style of cars, dress, décor, etc., though it did provoke discussion as to whether the Coca Cola bottles were quite authentic.
Characters and Plot
Based on the true story of Ford’s efforts to build a car that could rival Europe’s prime car, Ferrari, at the renowned twenty-four-hour, high-speed endurance race, the story line goes something like this:
Carroll Shelby is a former race-car driver who had to quit the sport because of a heart condition. Lee Iacocca, a member of the Ford Motor Company’s board of directors in charge of marketing, is challenged by Henry Ford (Junior) to find a way to appeal to an emerging youth demographic—baby boomers—who are attracted to more attractive, high-speed foreign cars. With Shelby, he thinks he has just the man for the job. Shelby decides to build a Ford car that will have capability to win the Le Mans race, and lobbies to have Ken Miles, an old friend, in the driver’s seat. Miles, a part-time racer, part-time auto-mechanic—a British man living in LA with his wife and son—is a hothead who is unwilling to help until the IRS come knocking. And then the need for finance propels him into the position.
After much corporate resistance, the Ford company reluctantly agrees to let Shelby and Miles apply their own ideas in a way that works, even if it does not conform to conventional company values. This climaxes in several thrillingly shot racing motor-racing sequences (the surround-sound effect in a cinema adds compellingly to the experience).
Well Produced
The movie would be entertaining but nowhere near as compelling if not for the strong character acting from Matt Damon and Christian Bale—and the good direction and cinematography that undergirds the production, courtesy the skills of people such as James Mangold. The witty, clever dialogue is the frosting on the cake, as my son insists!
A Key Quote
“There’s a point, seven thousand RPM, where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless, it just disappears. And all that’s left is a body moving through space and time. Seven thousand RPM, that’s where you meet it. It creeps up near you, and it asks you a question. The only question that really matters. Who are you?”
Thought Provoking
The movie elicited several thoughts:
- This is a reminder of how the can-do American spirit can propel gifted people to excellence, notwithstanding several circumstantial challenges along the way.
- Challenging the status quo—that is bucking the system—is sometimes the only way to get something done.
- Life in this world is often fundamentally not fair! (And that is a profoundly biblical line of thought.) Without giving away anything in the movie, suffice it to say that not everyone is rewarded as he should be!
- Facts can be as entertaining as fiction; the movie is well rooted in historical fact.
Matthew offered a parting summary: “A movie about American men doing manly, American things in the masculine America of the time.”
View the Trailer HERE: or below
Featured Image Credit: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ford_v_ferrari/pictures
