Historical movie about the Le Mans race of 1966

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2020)

I am old enough to remember back in 1966 when a Ford car won the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race. Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) had gotten into car racing as part of the company's marketing effort for the Mustang, and Le Mans was considered the ultimate race because the cars were going as fast as 200 miles per hour over a 24 hour period. It took place not on a racetrack but on regular country roads. Ford engages sports car designer and former Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), who once drove for Aston-Martin, to build them a car capable of winning the race. Shelby had retired from racing because of a heart condition, so he recruits English car racer Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to be the principal driver of the car, called the GT40. The film is very entertaining, the period details seemed right, and the car race scenes are excellent. It was the Oscar winner in the film editing and sound editing categories and nominated for sound mixing.
The dominant racing car up to that time was Ferrari, and the rivalry between Ford and Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) became personal after the latter rudely rejected Ford's merger proposal. Other conflicts are between Shelby and Miles, who are old frenemies, and between the two of them and the top management at Ford, especially Josh Lucas as senior VP Leo Beebe. Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), then vice-president of marketing, does his best to mediate. Damon and Bale are good, but Caitrioni Balfe as Miles's wife Molly is large wasted. Letts turns in the best performance in the film as Ford trying to live up to his grandfather's legacy.