The story of when two wealthy auto scions, Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari, went to war on the race track to settle a grudge. Caroll Shelby and Ken Miles made it happen. If any genre of non-documentary action film has consistently failed to deliver on the promise of capturing the excitement and the quirky human aspect of its principals, it's automobile racing. The exception, of course, is Ron Howard's Rush, which though quite popular internationally barely made blip on the radar of American viewers. Historically, the problem is not the on-track action sequences–Steve McQueen's Le Mans offers some of the most realistic on-track and driver's point of view motor racing sequences ever recorded and basically re-wrote the rule book for automotive action photography–but the script. Whether fictional or historically accurate, the backstory rarely lives up to its potential, the off-track segments of many motor racing films simply interludes to string the action sequences together. We sincerely hope Ford v Ferrari, which is scheduled to premiere on November 15, 2019, breaks this unfortunate tradition.
Based heavily on Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans (2009), A.J. Baime's exhaustively researched and comprehensive account of the all-out assault by the Ford Motor Company to beat Ferrari at Le Mans, the trailer for Ford v Ferrari appears promising. (FTR, reports of Baime's dissatisfaction with the Hollywood's treatment of him and his work are beginning to surface.) Starring Christian Bale as Ken Miles, the Shelby test driver and racer who helped develop the Ford GT40 Mk II, and Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby, it certainly has no shortage of Marquee actors to bank on.--AW
No word on if Matt Damon used N.O.S. cans of Carrol Shelby's Pit Stop deodorant before shooting his scenes.
Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Josh Lucas, Caitriona Balfe, John Bernthal
