Exciting races with great performances and touching moments

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2020)

Ford v Ferrari (AKA Le Mans 66 in some European countries) is a story based on the rivalry between Ford and Ferrari in the 60s. It's a sport biopic of sorts with the characters of Ken Miles played by Christian Bale and Carolle Shelby played by Matt Damon of course being real individuals. The story of course exaggerates lots of things for the sake of dramatisation even more than other films so it isn't necessary a typical biopic. The film is directed by James Mangold who directed the masterful film "Logan" but the film certainly feels drastically different from Logan. Still, I came in with high expectations because James Mangold directed it and plus all the oscar buzz around the film.
Firstly, the story is very compelling and engaging for a film about racing cars. The human drama between the Ford executives and the main characters is very natural albeit cliche. However, the director manages to balance out the racing with the human drama naturally so that none become too overwhelming or boring. Despite being titled "Ford v Ferrari" the film is more about the clash of Miles and Shelby against the meddling executives. The heart and passion of Miles/Shelby with the cold and calculative business choices of the executives is really the heart and soul of the film with some added bonus of intense racing. There are a lot of poignant and genuinely heart warming touching moments but with some funny moments and that is not normal for these type of films. Secondly, Both Christian Bale and Matt Damon give great performances with strong chemistry between the two that makes the friendship more believable. The supporting cast Jon Berthal, Caitriona Balfe,Tracy Letts give good performances as well and definitely do well in making the world more alive. Special mention to Josh Lucas who I say is the REAL antagonist of this film by somehow being suave but absolutely detestable. Thirdly, the race scenes are incredibly done and intense with great wide shots and none of the shaky camera garbage. The film really excels at creating exciting and thrilling auto action which is in part thanks to excellent score by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders. The score captures the electrifying race scenes but also uses score and music from the 60s to elevate the era the film is set in.Likewise, the sound and sound editing in this film are done perfectly as I could feel the engine turning or when the gears change. It's just really good.
I do have some issues with this film and the first is the amount of cliches used by this film. The monologue at the beginning being used at the end again, Ken Miles being the typical cliche underdog character from a sports film, the montage with the amount of failures, the main character knowing more than the experts and machines etc. The cliches are done masterfully but it did surprise me a lot about how many cliches were in this film. My other minor issue has got to be the run time which is at 152 minutes. The pacing of this movie is mostly fine but there are certain points in this movie after they build the car where it just kind of drags. These are mostly in the scenes where there are paperwork or meetings where it just feels a bit too long for no reason.
Other than some minor nitpicks, the movie is almost near perfect. The film is carried by great performances with thrilling car scenes but some genuinely touching and funny moments. The movie drives you along a road of contrasting emotions that leads you to an exciting finishing line. Give this film a watch.