Four stars. Rated PG-13, for dramatic intensity and occasional profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 11.15.19
Christian Bale never ceases to amaze.
His performances are “all in” to a degree most actors couldn’t even contemplate, let alone accomplish. Nor is it merely the surface gimmick of his extreme weight losses and gains; Bale never appears to be “acting.” He simply becomesthat person, whether an industrial worker fearing for his sanity (The Machinist); a former boxer turned crack addict (The Fighter); or an ex-neurologist-turned-stock market savant suffering from Asperger syndrome (The Big Short).
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| Having made yet another series of adjustments, driver/engineer Ken Miles (Christian Bale, left) prepares to test-drive their high-performance vehicle again, while designer Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) waits apprehensively. |
Or, in this case, feisty English sports car racing engineer and driver Ken Miles. Five minutes into this film, Bale ceases to exist. He is this guy. The mannerisms, posture, short temper and pugnacious attitude are wholly unlike any other character he has played, during a career that began when he was 12.
That said, Bale’s Ken Miles is by no means defined solely by his truculence; the scenes he shares with Caitriona Balfe and Noah Jupe — also excellent, as Miles’ wife Mollie and their young son Peter — depict a kinder, gentler and loving man wholly at odds with the automotive genius who suffers fools not at all, let alone gladly.
(For the record, Bale dropped 70 pounds to play Miles, after having plumped up for Dick Cheney, in Vice.)
The notion that Bale has yet to win a Best Actor Oscar defies comprehension.
His sublime performance is far from the only high point in Ford V Ferrari, director James Mangold’s consistently absorbing, fascinating and suspenseful depiction of the American automobile company’s hare-brained, mid-1960s decision to challenge Italy’s boutique car-maker in the annual 24-hour Le Mans endurance race. Despite a running time of 152 minutes, Mangold’s film is never less than compelling … and the racing sequences are breathtaking.
Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael and a trio of editors — Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker and Dirk Westervelt — deserve considerable applause. Sound designer Jay Wilkinson deserves an Academy Award.
Kudos, as well, to scripters Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller, for bravely tackling the corporate back-story and hijinks that led to this automotive clash. The narrative execution is never less than enthralling, to the same degree that 1976’s All the President’s Men turned plodding investigative journalism into a gripping suspense thriller.
Nor do the writers fill time with the soapy relationship melodrama relied upon by 1969’s Winning and 1971’s Le Mans. This film is cars, cars and nothing but cars … and that’s not a bad thing. If you’re not a racing fan prior to seeing Ford V Ferrari, you certainly will be 152 minutes later.
Bale’s Miles shares the story with Matt Damon’s equally vibrant handling of Texas-born automotive designer, driver and entrepreneur Carroll Shelby. Damon’s performance isn’t as “showy,” but Shelby is no less fascinating: a genius engineer and independent spirit whose entire life and career could fuel a substantial miniseries. Ford V Ferrari focuses on a particularly combustible two-year period in the lives of these two men.
Mangold’s film opens with a 1959 prologue, as Shelby wins the supremely difficult 24 Hours of Le Mans (driving an Aston Martin DBR1, alternating with Englishman Roy Salvadori). This victory becomes his last hurrah, due to a heart condition that doctors warn will kill him, should he ever race again. Shelby therefore shifts gears to full-time automotive design and sales, operating out of an airport warehouse space in Venice Beach (a nifty set by production designer François Audouy).
His team of engineers and mechanics includes Miles, initially hired as a test driver; he has an uncanny ability to “become one with a car,” diagnosing problems and shortcomings to a degree that feels magical. (This film suggests that Shelby and Miles have known each other for a long time; in fact, Shelby hired him in the early 1960s, just prior to the events depicted here.)
Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Company is in a bit of a slump, much to the fury of tyrannical CEO Henry Ford II, aka “The Deuce” (Tracy Letts, appropriately imperious). The problem, according to vice-president/general manager Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), is that Ford’s cars are too dowdy for the rapidly accelerating 1960s; for the first time in the United States, 17-year-olds have money in their pockets, and they want something fast and sexy.
Encouraged by Iacocca and senior vice president Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas), The Deuce proposes a purchase/merger with Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone); after all, he makes the world’s sexiest cars. But the wily Ferrari plays the Americans, in order to entice a more attractive offer from Fiat. Now enraged, The Deuce orders Beebe and Iacocca — by any means necessary — to develop a race car that can beat the Italians at Le Mans.
Iacocca, a savvy judge of talent, approaches Shelby; he, in turn, brings Miles along … despite the latter’s cynical conviction that they can’t possibly function within corporate constraints. Sure enough, Shelby’s immediately straitjacketed by “the Ford way of doing things,” with (often ludicrous) edicts usually delivered by the insufferably condescending Beebe.
Long before anybody even gets across the Atlantic, the tension heightens as time passes, and we wonder whether Shelby and Miles will even succeed in getting a car built. Ford’s intransigence aside, basic laws of physics prove equally insurmountable: weight, air resistance, overheating brakes and the basic fact that driving a car that fast, that hard, will destroy it long before 24 hours have passed.
Everything Bale does is entertaining, but his most consistently amusing sequences take place during test drives, as Miles coaxes, pleads, cajoles, bullies, begs and antagonizes various vehicles into doing their best. We’re often looking up at him, from the floor of the passenger seat, with the gear shift — constantly yanked back and forth — between us and Bale’s focused concentration. The result is intense and suspenseful, each time.
Damon, at the other emotional extreme, keeps Shelby cool, calm and collected: absolutely necessary, in the face of idiotic directives from Beebe and The Deuce. Shelby has the stoicism of a poker player: a guy who understands the importance of the long game, and — unlike his hair-trigger friend — carefully chooses which bridges to die on.
Which is not to say that Shelby never yields to frustration; because Damon is so impassive most of the time, his rare explosions are quite dramatic.
Bernthal’s Iacocca also must tread carefully, lest he lose the ability to run interference for Shelby. There’s no question — we see this in Bernthal’s calculated gaze — that, given the authority to do so, he’d not bother Shelby a jot. We see the future Chrysler CEO in Bernthal’s stance and self-assurance, but at this point in Iacocca’s career, he’s not yet powerful enough to call the shots.
Lucas plays Beebe as a smug bastard who never misses an opportunity to impede our heroes: a portrait so damning, I won’t be surprised if his heirs scream defamation of character. Lucas makes a terrific villain: the epitome of the boss from hell, who wants to leave footprints while claiming credit for the efforts of far more talented subordinates.
Ray McKinnon also stands out as Phil Remington — affectionately known as “Doc” — Shelby’s chief engineer. McKinnon makes him a pragmatic peacemaker: one who calms troubled waters, or offers practical, old-school alternatives to some of the Ford engineers’ sillier suggestions.
Aside from (it seems) turning Beebe into such a vengeful creep, the scripters don’t need to embellish any of this saga’s key details; the unvarnished truth is fascinating in its own right, with frankly unbelievable hiccups, hitches, successes, failures and petty betrayals.
This film demands to be seen on as large a screen as possible, with surround sound to further enhance the “you are there” verisimilitude that Mangold so frequently delivers. Ford V Ferrari is a rush, and it’s guaranteed to prompt after-the-fact investigation, to suss out more of the history behind this iconic showdown.
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