page contents data-mobile="true" data-tablet-width="1100" data-tablet-small-width="840" data-mobile-width="640">
Log in

Ford v Ferrari. It’s not worth the drive | Movie Review

Actors, Matt Damon (left), and Christian Bale, star in the movie, Ford v. Ferrari Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox Actors, Matt Damon (left), and Christian Bale, star in the movie, Ford v. Ferrari

When Henry Ford II, president of the automobile empire, Ford Motor Company, is slighted in a business deal and personally insulted by a fellow car manufacturer, Enzo Ferrari, Ford decides to take on the Italian automaker in the venue that Ferrari’s vehicles donated for years, the Le Mans car race, formally known as, 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Academy Award-winners Matt Damon plays the auto designer and Christian Bale star as the driver of a state-of-the-art car that Ford pours millions into, to combat his Italian rival. Ford v Ferrari, is a long, drawn-out (over two and half hours!) story about how far a powerful man went to achieve victories over his opponent. This is a film you should wait and rent.

It’s loaded with what I call false conflicts. Screenwriters’ tool of creating quandaries that there’s really no question as to how they will be resolved. For example, there’s a plotline raising doubt over whether Matt Damon’s character will be hired by Ford to draw up and build the car. Also, the Ford executives don’t like Bale’s character and want someone else to drive at Le Mans. But because Damon and Bale are the stars, it’s obvious how all of this turns out.

Some commentators opined that even if you aren’t into this sport, you’ll be intrigued. Wrong. If you don’t like the sport of car racing, this film will bore you. Especially at the insufferable length of two hours and 32 minutes.

Set in the 1960s, this story will appeal to those who long for that time when white men exclusively held the reins of power. Before notions of equality and diversity took hold. The acting is superior. Damon and Bale shine, as does Tracy Letts as the legendary auto executive Henry Ford II, and Caitriona Balfe who plays Bale’s loving and supportive spouse.

Ford v Ferrari gets a “D” for cast diversity. Other than a few scenes of blacks working in the Ford factory – Ford has a long history of hiring African Americans as early as 1916 – there are few people of color in this film. Understandably, there would not have been black people in executive offices or socializing with the powerbrokers featured in this movie. But blacks made up about a third of the Motor City’s population during that time, including some of my family members. So, they should have been on the streets and other background scenes of the film.

Ultimately, Ford v Ferrari has some historical value and moments of intrigue. But for non-race car fans, this film is too long in length and too short in entertainment.

Ford v Ferrari is rated PG-13 (for language and peril). And it’s a Rent It.