I call that the “Llama Bite”. Oscar season is basically right now, and this movie is vying for a spot, let me tell you this movie has a better shot at winning than Dolomite is My Name, which is a contender for some reason. This could have very easily been terrible, the entire movie can be boiled down to a training montage, which unfortunately it does at one point but it more than makes up for it in the excellent finale and the discussion Shelby has with his father pertaining to Ken. Both Bale and Damon have fantastic performances, the last 15 minutes of the movie take place after the death of Ken Miles and Damon plays that portion extremely well, he is sad his friend is dead but, in some way, he is happy knowing Miles died doing what he loved. There is some truly great stuff in this movie, a heartwarming relationship between Miles and his son, Peter, a brotherly love between Miles and Shelby, a great story in the first place (seriously how was this not a movie before) and an ending that is bitter sweet in the most satisfying way possible. Make no mistake, this movie is about cars, but it’s also about the relationship between the two men who changed the racing world. I particularly like how headstrong and risk-taking Carol Shelby is portrayed. There is a scene where he comes into Henry Ford’s office and tells him off about how to win a race and basically how he is doing it wrong. That takes guts. The dynamic between the two is great, Ken driving the cars while Shelby is dealing with the brass works very well and make it very easy to follow both sides of the story. The best scene that shows this is a late-night scene when Shelby comes out of the office and Ken prods for Shelby to tell him what’s wrong, Shelby denies, so Ken asks, do you have a plan? Shelby confirms and it’s a very simple trust they have. They are focused on a goal, an extremely tight goal but attainable no less. These men worked day and night to get the car where it needs to be and all in a fashion where a racing fans and non-racing fans can follow along clearly. I know nothing about racing yet I understood everything that happened throughout this movie in relation to the cars they were working with, heavy engines, ground clearance and brake overheating are very easy to understand on a basic level, we don’t need to know how brakes overheat or the correct fluid to fix the problem. We understand enough to follow the story without losing the more intricate details of the plot. It’s not a bad movie but there is a scene where it goes from good to great, the fight scene in front of Ken’s house is a turning point of sorts of the movie, apart from it purposefully looking like a two five year old’s are fighting over the last chicken tender there is a shot that is very telling of Shelby’s character. Ken is coming the store with groceries in his arms and as the argument escalates the groceries end up on the ground. Halfway through the fight Shelby reaches down with the intent of hitting Ken with whatever he grabs. He takes a can of beans, or peas, or greens – it doesn’t matter. He realizes he has a can in his hand and instead of hitting Ken with it he throws it away from both of them and hits Ken with a loaf of bread. That scene is great, that shot is telling of Shelby’s character and both the men’s relationship. That scene is also very funny, Shelby uses his “llama bite” which is a punch to the side? I think, or maybe a side grab and twist? That scene shows us these men are more than friends or partners, they are brothers by choice and that is a relationship not a ton of people can obtain in a lifetime. Taking a step away from Shelby and Ken, the guys from the Ford Motor Company are well written and are fine for supporting characters, Leo turns out to be the antagonist because he has a personal vendetta against Ken which feels a little forced. A lot of times it feels like Leo is just being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole, and it’s that character trait that ultimately brings Ken’s downfall. Aside from Leo, Henry Ford and Jon Bernthal are great in their roles and they even out the trio, Leo is staunchly against, Bernthal is extremely supportive and Henry is on the fence and gets swayed throughout the movie. That might seem like he’s a push over, but his character introduction shows he is no such thing, even if this man gets suckered by his board from time to time he is a powerful man and his character does not come off as a push over, but as an extremely determined man who will do anything to achieve his goal.
Let’s talk about the bad stuff. I have one major problem with this movie, but I don’t think it takes away from the movie a ton. I mentioned earlier that this entire movie can be conceivably boiled down to one montage scene. It spends 100 minutes avoiding that temptation, 100 minutes of subverting my expectation of a montage scene and then we have a two-minute montage sequence. If the problem is not obvious already, if you show the audience that what you have been watching for the last hour and a half could have been a five minute sequence it feels like you have been stringing them along for the entire movie and they can feel cheated. Secondly, if you choose to have a montage sequence in a movie like this you realize that under minds the previous minutes of the movie? We are here, we paid money, to see these people work hard and try to win the Le mans. You show us the hard work and then you skip over other pieces of hard work, it doesn’t make any sense, it subverts the entire idea of the film. I understand why James Mangold decided to do that, the fact of the matter is the movie is a 2.5-hour movie and it’s hard to get much longer than that without being rambling or feeling that it overstays it’s welcome. I think they should have changed things in the script to drop the montage sequence. They were caught between a rock and a hard place and didn’t have a lot of options, if you’re not Martin Scorsese you can’t make a three-hour movie. All of that said I still think this movie is great. It’s smart and doesn’t every really stop, always moving, incredibly interesting for racing and non-racing fans alike and probably most importantly the relationships you see form are A+ stories that can stand by themselves if you wanted them to. Ford V Ferrari is fantastic.
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