Ford v Ferrari review: Is this the best racing movie ever?

This review contains no spoilers.

Motor racing movies are fraught with danger for car enthusiasts. Too often Hollywood goes over the top and makes films that bear no resemblance to what the sport is really about – Days of Thunder, I’m looking at you.

In this author’s opinion, no motor racing movie has yet surpassed John Frankenheimer’s 1966 classic Grand Prix for its authenticity and ability to capture the drama of the sport. Amateur racer Steve McQueen tried with the 1971 film Le Mans, but was too much of a motor racing fan that he forgot to make his movie entertaining.

But this week’s release of Ford v Ferrari, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale should please both movie buffs and car lovers in equal measure. It comes the closest to capturing what Grand Prix did –the spirit of why we love driving fast cars.

Let’s be clear from the beginning, this is not a documentary, it’s a Hollywood movie. Fortunately, there’s an excellent documentary on this subject called The 24 Hour War, which I highly recommend watching if you’re a fan of this period of automotive and motor racing history.

Viewed through the prism of entertainment, however, Ford v Ferrari tells the story of the historical grudge match between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari over bragging rights at the world’s most famous motor race.

For those unfamiliar with the background, in the early 1960s Ford spent months and millions of dollars trying to create a merger with the famous Italian brand only for the enigmatic Enzo to scupper the deal at the last-minute and instead sell to Fiat. That angered Henry personally and he vowed to win Le Mans with a Ford. The resulting car was the Ford GT40, still one of the most iconic American cars ever made.

Ford v Ferrari, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale should please both movie buffs and car lovers in equal measure.

Which is where Damon’s Carroll Shelby and Bale’s Ken Miles enter the film. Shelby was just getting his successful Cobra and Mustang business off the ground, and as the only American to have won Le Mans as a driver, was hired by Ford to lead the charge.

Naturally the film condenses the timeline and dramatises Miles’ role in the project, but at its heart, that is what Ford v Ferrari is about – Shelby and Miles taking on the world.

Damon does a nice job of bringing the legendary Shelby to life on the big screen, but it’s Bale who is really the star of the film. Miles was an underrated talent with a chip on his shoulder and Bale plays that role to perfection.

What really makes it special are the scenes Bale is behind the wheel of a Cobra or GT40. He drives with passion, talking and laughing to himself, which may not be true to reality, but gives the audience a greater sense of what it would have been like to drive those magnificent cars in their heyday.

The racing scenes themselves have their pros and cons. There’s the classic Hollywood folly of too many gear changes and too many shots of drivers pressing down harder on the accelerator (I’ve yet to meet a racing driver who drives at half throttle on a straight!).

But the shots of the cars on track, regardless of whether they are real or computer-generated special effects, are stunning. The GT40 is such an evocative car and to see and hear it (the V8 soundtrack is epic in a cinema) is worth the price of admission alone.

Director James Mangold (Walk the Line and Logan) even hired current racing drivers to play the other Ford team members. Former Top Gear Stig, Ben Collins, is Miles’ teammate Denny Hulme, and Alex Gurney plays his late father Dan – in a particularly heart-warming piece of casting.

Is Ford v Ferrari the best racing movie of all-time? No, that honour still belongs to Grand Prix in my opinion, but like the 1966 Le Mans race depicted in the film, it’s a photo-finish.