by Jake Grubb
In an early scene of director James Mangold’s expansive film, “Ford v Ferrari,” racer Ken Miles (played by an inspired Christian Bayle) calmly suggests; “well, let’s have a cup of tea” amid the unfolding maelstrom of his chosen world of bare knuckle sports car racing. This all-but-unnoticed telltale is testament to Mangold’s insightful success in tapping into Miles’ rare sensibilities, as well as imparting the special essence of what racing was in the glory days of the mid 1960s, when driven characters like Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby could conquer that world.
In actual fact, those who knew and worked with Ken Miles, a British iconoclast and brilliant race driver, were witness to his first insistence before any daunting task was to begin: “shall we have a cup of tea?” Miles, a man of laser focus in all pursuits – whether in racecar design and engineering, or track prepping a racecar, or driving 10.2 tenths to win an unwinnable race – was said to be a man of external calm that could flare into relentless competitiveness in a split second, which some colleagues viewed as a tragic flaw, yet was clearly his genius. Director James Mangold and his perceptive writers wisely captured this key trait, and did so throughout their telling of the unique characters, compelling cars, wrenching tribulations and pinnacle successes of this timeless story that defines American motor racing.
Never mind that experienced racers will question technical details such as the Daytona racetrack scenes that are actually shot on the motorcycle configuration of Auto Club Speedway, or that Henry Ford II’s hair raising track ride in a Ford GT40 with Carroll Shelby may not have actually occurred. This is a movie, with movie stuff.
But the way Ken Miles looked at Shelby when he learned that the Ford GT40 Le Mans racing budget was unlimited – and actor Matt Damon’s pained gesture as a contrite but determined Carroll Shelby when he faced Henry Ford II after their failures of Le Mans ’65 – the cold eyes of Enzo Ferrari when told by Lee Iacocca that Ford’s generous offer to purchase Ferrari removed Mr. Ferrari’s decision-making control of Ferrari’s racing operation – the burning eyes of Henry Ford II after being jilted by a personally derogatory Enzo Ferrari – the knowing tone of Carroll Shelby when encountered in the Ford Le Mans paddock by a sleepless Ken Miles on the rainy night that preceded the start of Le Mans ’66, as Miles set out to “walk Turn 1.” While these and so many other key moments of high- minded pursuit that forged the Ford v Ferrari story may not have been portrayed precisely as they occurred, their essence transmits to mesmerized audiences, racers, motor sports enthusiasts and regular folk alike.
As for the racing: Powerhouse! Once again, active racers might be able to pick apart details of a particular drafting pass or nuance of a turn radius or apex, but it hasn’t been since John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix (or possibly Steve McQueen’s Le Mans) that in-car and exterior action film capture of car racing has been shown with such dynamic impact and austere realism on the big screen.
And as bittersweet as the final scenes of the film are, it was necessary that they be that way due to the brutal yet tender true-life events that they depict.
Ford v Ferrari is a cinematic treasure for all time. – Jake Grubb
