Ford Vs Ferrari, Auto Racing Movie

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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
I expected it to be cornball here and there, an action flick with cars, but about thirty minutes into it, I realized it would have no Dukes of Hazard moments, was carefully directed, researched, cast and acted. Matt Damon plays Ford racing car designer Carroll Shelby, and Christian Bale plays Ken Miles the late great Daytona and Sebring winner, and La Mans front-runner. The film captures the human beings who build and race cars, their families, and the engineers and money men behind them, for good and ill. If you enjoy listening to big engines at top speed, and are still a kid about anything with wheels, you might more than enjoy the film. If you are a real car guy, and racing guy, you might spot something off track, but the racing consulting on this was pretty good. I'm just so-so on the technical part, but I sure can hear them RPM, despite my own stogy driving.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
The entire cast is well chosen and even minor supporting roles like pit crews do a fine job. The actor who plays Enzo Ferrari is superb, as are various Ford corporate men. They do a lot with body language that seems authentic. Relating to cars, I joked to my late wife that she was NASCAR qualified, though I perfected being a serene passenger -- no one ever cussed or honked, she was that good. My current wife was a remarkable driver around Manhattan, which is sort of like a racing circuit except it's harder to park, and the Long Island Expressway that is quite similar to Sebring, except for long periods of being stopped.
 
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SpookedPiper

Lifer
Sep 9, 2019
2,055
10,504
East coast
Pretty decent flick ait too long like 15 min or so and very loud. I watched it in an IMAX theater and felt like my head was coming off. There's quite a bit of racing and the Ferrari and Ford's sound like you are in the track.

Good story of the famous Shelby and others involved in the business back then.
 
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jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,643
51,984
Here
My best friend saw it and was telling me about it. I was unaware of the historical events, so I watch some YouTube clips.

The whole situation was very interesting. There's an associated documentary now on Netflix that I intend to watch, then will keep an eye out for that film when it filters down to streaming.


10360
 
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Jun 27, 2016
1,280
126
The story is one of the most epic in all of racing history, but I'm interested to see how the racing looks. If it's good, I'll be interested to see how it was made. In my book, everything goes against the big dawg, "Le Mans", especially when you look at how they made it. Nothing like that has ever been done since, except for maybe "Days of Thunder", & let's face it, "Le Mans" blows "Days of Thunder" out of the water. "Rush" was really well-done & tells a great true story, but they used scaled-down mock-ups & didn't film during actual races.
 
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
Le Mans was an amazing movie. Of course, as many know, Steve McQueen raced cars and motorcycles for most of his life and probably preferred it to acting, and used acting to sponsor his racing habits. That the first 35 minutes or so are entirely the soundtrack of race cars at Le Mans is one of the glories of film history. I think McQueen's handling of asbestos brake pads likely contributed to his early death, but if he'd been told that, likely it wouldn't have slowed him down, literally or figuratively. He was the character he played only more so.
 
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tbradsim1

Lifer
Jan 14, 2012
9,212
11,821
Southwest Louisiana
When I got out the Navy in 64, my buddy was Captain on a dredge boat out of New Orleans , he said I bought a new car, didn’t know about a Cobra, but that’s what he had, tooted up we punched it and skipped across Canal street sideways, it was early wee hrs and it was a blast. He didn’t keep it I recon he kicks himself for that. But I can say I drove one.
 
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voorhees

Lifer
May 30, 2012
3,833
941
Gonadistan
As a follower of the story and fan for many years, I enjoyed it immensely. I also had the pleasure of meeting and seeing Carroll Shelby on a couple of instances. Damon did an ok job portraying him, but he obviously never met him. Shelby had a bit more swagger and authority about him while retaining his cool Texas nature.
 
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