Ford v Ferrari

There's a certain thrill to watching great actors work together and play off of one another.  It can sometimes feel like you're watching a competition.  While watching some movies, I've asked myself which person's performance am I more convinced by and which performance would I rate higher.  This is, of course, a silly thing to do, but a fun luxury and part of the whole treat of the movies.  Everyone gets to be a judge and a critic.  It's especially fun when two people are cast in roles they've clearly decided to go all in for.  I found this to be the case with Matt Damon and Christian Bale in Ford v Ferrari.  

Christian Bale plays Ken Miles.  Ken's a down-on-his-luck live wire who doesn't seem to find it possible to filter his thoughts.  He's a car guy - a smart mechanic, an even smarter driver, and he loves to race.  Bale is an obvious choice for the role and he, again, lost a significant amount of weight to play Miles.  At a certain point in the movie, I realized how good his performance was because it snuck up on me.  I was watching Ken Miles, or the Ken Miles that Bale wanted me to see.  True to his past roles, Bale puts in a really terrific performance.  As an actor, he's probably been at his peak for a while, but it really shows in this one.  

Matt Damon plays Carroll Shelby.  If I have to tell you who Shelby was, then you need to look up a 1967 Shelby Mustang right now.  In my humble opinion, the guy designed the prettiest car that will ever be made.  Damon takes this legend and makes him an every-man who's just a little smarter and bolder than the rest of us.  In his own right, Damon put in one of his finest performances ever.  He makes Shelby someone you want to meet, want to learn from, and want to root for.  He shows you the mix of frustration and admiration that Shelby probably had for Miles when they worked together.  Together, Bale and Damon make Miles and Shelby two sides of the same coin.  They are both strong individuals, intelligent car enthusiasts, and have enough of a rebel edge that they'd never be the corporate types that control big business.  The movie would have you believe that Miles was simply Shelby without the ability to control his emotions, and vice versa.

The movie tells the story of the competition between Ford Motor Company and Ferrari as Ford attempts to win out at the 1966 24 hours of LeMans race.  The drama erupts from both highlighting the contentious relationship that Miles and Shelby had with the Ford executives and how dangerous the races were to compete in.  The race scenes are as exciting as they come, and on the big screen they were roaring and felt real.  The production is top notch, which makes the whole thing a bit of an anomaly in today's movie theaters.  The whole production felt like a throwback to another era of moviemaking.  It could have been made in 1999, 2009 or 2019.  It feels odd in 2019 simply because it's just not the kind of movie that gets made much anymore.  It's clearly a high budget movie, but instead of special CG effects, it gets by on human drama and what looks like very real cars on the screen.  I'm sure there was some digital trickery somewhere, but it was unnoticeable.  

A really great movie can sometimes be pure entertainment while also offering you something to think about in yourself.  That's how I'd sum this one up.  It is outstanding, old school, Hollywood entertainment with top caliber talent that made me excited about life.  We get to be here.  We get to drive cars, sometimes very cool cars.  We get to compete, and sometimes we get to win, but mostly we get to lose.  We get to fight back and keep going when we do lose.  We get to have small moments to ourselves and with the people we love.  It's all in this movie.  In celebrating the competition between Ford and Ferrari that took place in 1966, and the people who were involved, the movie becomes a celebration of life itself.  Whether it was meant to be that or not, I'm not sure, but that's what I found.  It was thrilling.