FORD v FERRARI RIVALS IN ANY SCALE
One of the biggest rivalries in all of racing history has just roared onto the big screen. The film is Ford v Ferrari, and not since Steve McQueen’s classic Le Mans nearly 50 years ago has there been a film that captures the soul of sports car racing this effectively.
Of course it depicts the American manufacturer’s quest during the 1960s to unseat Ferrari as perennial champion of sports car racing’s crown jewel event: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It features larger-than-life auto-motive icons like Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, Henry Ford II, Lee Iacocca and Enzo Ferrari, plus plenty of spectacular racing action, intrigue, danger, triumph and tragedy, all set against sports car racing’s most famous race during the sport’s most heroic era. It’s the kind of epic you would expect Hollywood to invent…except it didn’t have to, because this story is true!
The cast is headlined by a pair of Oscar winners: Christian Bale as driver/engineer Ken Miles and Matt Damon as automotive icon Carroll Shelby. To that you can add an impressive supporting cast, which includes some legitimate automotive star power in the form of racer Alex Gurney portraying his legendary father Dan, rallycross ace and stunt driver Tanner Foust as Ronny Bucknum, and Top Gear’s “The Stig” (aka race driver Ben Collins) as Denny Hulme. While Bale’s Miles and Damon’s Shelby are obviously the focus of the film, I was thrilled to see Phil Remington—played with subtle brilliance by veteran character actor Ray McKinnon—get nearly as much quality screen time, for he is perhaps the greatest non-driver hero of the era, and at least as responsible for the GT40’s success as Shelby or Miles.
But as good as the human cast is, it is the dazzling lineup of some of the most beautiful, charismatic and historically significant cars of all time, headlined by the explosive Ford GT40 and Ferrari’s seductive 330 P3, that steals the show. The things that make a great racing movie
