By JASON GUYER
By Jason Guyer
The cinema experience is one of sights and sounds. We experience them through our eyes and ears — the same way we experience many things in life.
One of those life experiences that rely on sights and sounds is motorsports, or more specifically the sport of auto racing. Auto racing, in any form, is one of the best sports for sights and sounds. There is no better experience in life than one that includes loud engines, fast cars, and the smell of tar, gasoline, and rubber.
Auto racing and the auto racing experience comes in many forms. Some of the bigger series are NASCAR, Formula 1, Indy Car, World Rally Championship, World of Outlaws, Sprint… the list goes on.
Then there is the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world’s oldest endurance race and that style of racing is much different than the ones above. Often called “The Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency,” the 24 Hours of Le Man is one-third of the Triple Crown of Motorsports. The other two being the Indianapolis 500 (Indy Car) and the Monaco Grand Prix (Formula One).
My favorite of the three is the Indianapolis 50, but that is not to take away from the other two.
Graham Hill is the only driver to have completed the Triple Crown. There have also been 19 drivers in motorsports history who have competed in all three legs of the Triple Crown and have won at least one of the events. Fernando Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya are the only active drivers to have won two of the three events. Alonso has won the Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Montoya has won the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix respectively.
Steeped in history, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world. One part of the long history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the story of driver Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby’s GT40 MK II.
The film “Ford v Ferrari” tells this story.
“Ford Vs Ferrari” goes in depth with the story of American automotive designer Carroll Shelby and his fearless British race car driver Ken Miles as the pair battle to build a revolutionary vehicle for the Ford Motor Co.
They plan to compete against the race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.
Miles, played by Christian Bale, and Shelby, played by Matt Damon, fight corporate interference, the laws of physics and their own personal demons to get a chance to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Bale is wonderful in and his acting brings to life a real life character. Bale does a great and commendable job with Ken Miles’ thick Brummie accent.
The Brummie accent is an accent one where the speakers have a tendency to end sentences in a downbeat or low octave.
It is spoken in the West Midlands of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
Miles was affectionately known by a couple of nicknames as well: “Sidebite” since he talked out of the side of his mouth and sometimes as “Teddy Teabag” for his excessive tea drinking.
Bale shows off his acting talent to have a thick Brummie accent but while still being pronounced and audible for the to be able to hear him clearly.
This is not Brad Pitt in “Snatch” where you can barely understand him, even though Pitt is wonderful in “Snatch” and it did not affect the film negatively, bad accents can negatively affect a film.
Bale also brings a unique gait and posture to help define a unique person. This is one of Bale’s best performances in becoming and giving voice to a person.
In “Ford v Ferrari,” Bale is far more subtle with his character and it is left to speech and physical traits rather than a physical transformation.
Bale has stated he is done with such transformations especially in regards to extreme weight gain or weight loss. We all benefit when Christian Bale transforms into a character and there is more than one way to do so as excessive weight gain and loss can be unhealthy.
In “Ford Vs Ferrari” the actor who benefits the most from Bale’s transformation into Ken Miles is Matt Damon. Damon ups his skill level to keep up with Bale.
Matt Damon is a wonderful actor but he is the kind of actor who can play up to his acting partners or down if that is the case. Damon is always better when paired with a better caliber actor. The proof for that is in his films. Just watch “Ocean’s 12,” “Rounders,” or even “The Martian.” Those will show you Matt Damon at his best.
Others like “Stuck on You” or “The Great Wall” where there are fewer good actors, Damon is less than stellar.
In “Ford v Ferrari,” Damon brings tries on a Texas accent that works well enough. You can hear the occasional Boston note in his accent especially during the action or moments in the film where it would be harder to concentrate on an accent.
Bale and Damon display a true on screen friendship that emulates a real life friendship. The acting by the two leads is spectacular and should get both Bale and Damon nominated for Oscars. If I had to pick one of the two to be nominated though, it would be Bale.
The two actors get outshined in “Ford v Ferrari” by what can be considered the best parts of “Ford v Ferrari,” the racing and story.
Actors can often take back seats in films but it is better when the acting is great but the film outshines them. This is the case in “Ford v Ferrari” where the true story of Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles and the racing scenes are just that good.
“Ford Vs Ferrari” is a true American film and tells a true American story. One were we are the underdogs fighting to win. The underdog story of Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby, along with the GT40 MK II car are well known and its is a great thing to be seen made into a great film.
My fascination was with the racing scenes. They are very well done. They bring to life the world of the 24 Hours of Le Mans racing in the 1960s.
There was a scene or two where I thought I could smell gasoline and rubber.
Obviously, this is drawing on a love for racing and the film brings to me the familiar sights and sounds that draw on my real life experience at race tracks. When a film can bring into play your own experiences and use them to amplify the experience of the film itself, then you have a wonderful film.
“Ford v Ferrari” brings to life an experience many are familiar with combined with a story that everyone is familiar with and pairs the two with actors everyone is familiar with. The films best aspect is that it makes the audience feel a familiarity with every aspect of the film and makes the audience feel as though they experienced these events themselves. “Ford v Ferrari” brings a much needed familiarity to what an American story is and what it means to be an American when you are apart of or see and American story.
One should leave “Ford v Ferrari” with a sense of nostalgic familiarity and some semblance of national pride in a story that should make America and Americans proud.
Well, except for the travesty of Ken Miles’s 24 Hours of Le Mans finish.
Ken Miles, Shelby Carroll and the Ford Motor Co. were underdogs to the Ferrari racing machine and there are few better stories than the underdog story.
There may be one exception that is better though and that is the underdog story where someone comes up just short.
Shelby Carroll and Ford Motor Co. won the 1960s when it came to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ken Miles won and lost and that makes his personal story more profound and far more important.
“Ford v Ferrari” does what many other films aspire to do and that is to cross the finnish.
Christian Bale, Matt Damon and “Ford v Ferrari” not only crosses the finnish line but it brings the audience with it.
James Mangold, the director, should win the Triple Crown of Cinema for “Ford Vs Ferrari” since he completes the cinematic trifecta, great directing, great story, and great acting.
All pulled together to make a great film.
However, there can only be one winner in auto racing and “Ford Vs Ferrari” stays true to that formula and “Ford Vs Ferrari” has only one winner and no one wins more with “Ford Vs Ferrari” than the audience.
IRATE SCORE: 4/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the graphics department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected].
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