Le Mans ’66

Le Mans ’66      2019

Le Mans ’66 (or Ford vs Ferrari if you want it’s original non UK title) is directed by James Mangold, who in the last 25 years has an excellent list of directorial credits to his name. From Copland and Girl, Interrupted in the 90’s, Walk The Line and 3.10 To Yuma in the 2000’s and Finishing off in the last few years with The Wolverine and my favorite film of 2017 Logan.

After steadily declining sales figures, being used in a buy out deal to boost an offer from a competitor, and being personally insulted by Enzo Ferrari, a furious Henry Ford II orders his racing division to build a car to break Ferrari’s five year stranglehold over the 24 hour Le Mans race. For this task, Lee Iacocca (vice president of Ford) hires Carroll Shelby, a racing driver who won Le Mans in 1959, but was forced to retire due to his heart condition. In turn, Shelby enlists the help of Ken Miles, a hot-tempered British racer and struggling mechanic.

Carroll Shelby, played by Matt Damon and Ken Miles, by Christian Bale are the driving force (no pun intended) in this film. They are both excellent. There is talk of Bale being the star here but not for me. Although the script lent itself to Bale’s character I thought Damon was never left behind. Neither of these roles would have pushed their considerable acting talents to the limits but they both effortlessly brought heart, warmth and believability to their roles and that showed as every scene flowed beautifully. The supporting cast were solid too, Tracy Letts playing the bull-doggish Henry Ford, Caitriona Balfe as Mollie Miles who isn’t there to play the hand-wringing wife in any capacity; she talks, Ken listens, and Noah Jupe as Peter Miles (Ken’s son). Noah continues to make great film choices and is definitely one to watch. I was less impressed with Josh Lucas as Leo Beebe, senior executive vice president of Ford, and Remo Girone as Enzo Ferrari but that was mainly down to the script. I think for Lucas it had at the top of his pages “generic bureaucratic prick” and for Girone, his may have just said “sneer and shout a lot in Italian”. They were both a little too Hollywood villain for my liking. Those two criticisms were tiny in the overall film though so they shouldn’t detract from the quality on show.

Mangold’s direction eases us through the film with almost perfect pacing, it felt much shorter then the 152 minute run time with a great blend of thoughtful conversations and visceral in-car action sequences that leave you wanting more of both. The editing was on point too. Slick cuts gives you a real sense of drama in the race scenes. Also, the cinematography needs a mention. This is one brilliant looking film, Phedon Papamichael (who made Nebraska, 2013 look just about as beautiful as any film I’ve ever seen) nails it again. There are numerous desert scenes at either sunset or sunrise which are stunning, the embracing of natural light and dust to get the best shots is something that is massively difficult due to time constraints and it needs applauding.

This UK title absolutely makes more sense as the battle between Ford and Ferrari is almost unimportant. It is a character piece based around two car drivers that love what they do and couldn’t (as much as they try) do anything else. They bring a zen-like feel to the car in general, and especially the racing scenes, that I didn’t think would be possible, which is shown well in this quote:

“There’s a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades.
The machine becomes weightless. It disappears.
All that’s left, a body moving through space, and time.
At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where it waits for you.”

There is Oscar buzz around this film and rightfully so but I’m not sure it’ll go down in the history of film as a classic. It did however have this man who has never driven and cares very little about cars enthralled from start to finish. If any Oscar nods are to be had, I think it will be for the acting – I challenge anyone to think ‘there’s Jason Bourne and Batman’ instead of ‘there’s Shelby and Miles’ when watching this, such is the skill of these actors.

Film lovers will like this, petrol heads will like this. Petrol headed- film lovers may just lose their shit!