Look out there. Out there is the perfect lap.
Certain films transcend their subject-matter - prison life or the fashion industry or boxing - to embrace an audience far wider than the demographic you might expect. Ford v Ferrari (marketed here in the UK and elsewhere as Le Mans '66) is a prime example. I'm no gearhead, a fact to which my battered old VW Golf will testify, but from the first engine rev James Mangold's new movie had my attention and it only kept increasing its hold.
In the early 1960s the Ford Motor Company decided to take on Enzo Ferrari's genius at crafting racing cars by creating one of their own - a win at France's Le Mans 24-hour car race becoming the acid test of their achievement. To that end they hired ex-racer turned automobile designer Carroll Shelby (played in the film by Matt Damon) to come up with their dream car. But Shelby had the wisdom to know he'd need to partner with an active racing driver for the project to succeed. The man he selected was brilliant but volatile English racer Ken Miles (Christian Bale given the behind-the-wheel honours).Their friendship had the combustive spark required to ignite the project, but their problems weren't limited to how far you can push a sports car. Ford's management had their own ideas on the venture and these odd-couple heroes - so the film tells us - were soon struggling with more than carburettors and brake failure to achieve their near-impossible goal. They had The Man to contend with too.
Ford v Ferrari possesses the old-fashioned quality of human drama wrapped up in a sports picture. This story's pace is as stately as the cars are fast. It hangs out with its leads and lets us get to know them, it follows the machinations of the Ford executives as they angle to get the better of their Italian rival, it sets everything up painstakingly so that once the racing kicks in - and damn does it kick in - we really care about the guys in the car and the pit. By then we know the human stakes as well as the business ones and we're securely on board for the ride.
Steering us around a literate screenplay (UK's Butterworth brothers John and playwright Jez both have a hand in it) is Mangold. With Walk the Line and Logan under his belt he's simply one of the most accomplished journeyman directors working today; despite this movie's length it demonstrates streamlined film-craft in keeping with its RPM subject-matter. The cinematography makes the cars gleam with primary colour brilliance and scenes like the one where Ken Miles sits and chats with his son on the floodlit Daytona Speedway tarmac are just plain beautiful. But it's in the race sequences that the directorial brilliance really shows through. Track-level and car-interior shots tell the story of each contest superbly and to white-knuckel effect. You can know diddly-squat - like me - about the sport, yet you're still there with Miles, clinging to each bend and barrelling down every straight, willing him with Shelby to 'wait for it... wait for it...' until that optimum moment to accelerate.
It helps that Damon and Bale provide such a compelling central relationship. Shelby is the slick salesman, fending off the pressure of Ford to sideline his partner, while Miles is the edgy, spanner-flinging race-guru - infuriating but instantly likeable nonetheless, not least because he's frequently hilarious. And if Bale's Midlands accent sometimes takes detours around the far-flung byways of England, the sheer passion and depth he brings to the role render that quibble entirely moot. The men's friendship is combative but heartfelt, providing ample emotional context for the speed.
Meanwhile the film makes room for Miles' family life - Catriona Balfe and Noah Jupe supply touching moments as his no-nonsense wife and adoring son respectively. We feel the dynamics of the car-building team as they wrestle with the logistics of what they're creating. And the internal company politics adds a whole other intriguing layer; Jon Bernthal and Josh Lucas are competing voices in the boss's ear, while Tracy Letts makes for an imposing if insecure Henry Ford II. It all pushes the runtime, but thinking about it after, there's not a single element I'd discard.
Ford v Ferrari is much more than you expect going in. For all its focus on shared aspiration towards an unfeasible-seeming dream, it's also about the tension between creatives and management (and thus an allegory for every Hollywood movie ever made), and about the drivenness that threatens to end certain lives before they've been fully lived. But above all, it's a tale of friendship forged through common purpose, a theme that the movie's finale underscores. Racing car fans will have a great time here - but anyone who loves well-made film drama with an old-school twist will have their own engine turning over in delighted response.
Gut Reaction: It made me laugh, it accelerated all my vital signs, it glued my palm to my jaw at points through sheer high-speed tension. The epic '60s soundtrack wowed me too.
Memorable Moment: Carroll Shelby's unforgettable high-risk stategy.
Ed's Verdict: 8.5/10. It goes against the times in more ways than one, but this is a technical stunner of a film and massively enjoyable to boot. Basically - vrooooom.
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