In 1963, Ford Motor Company Vice President Lee Iacocca proposes to Henry Ford II to boost their car sales by purchasing Ferrari, dominant in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Owner Enzo Ferrari uses Ford's offer to secure a deal with Fiat that allows him to retain ownership of the firm's racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, and insults Ford and his whole company. This leads Ford into ordering his racing division to build a car to compete against Ferrari at Le Mans, and Iacocca hiring Shelby American owner Carroll Shelby, a retired driver who won Le Mans in 1959. Shelby enlists his friend Ken Miles, a hot-tempered English racing driver and mechanical engineer.
Shelby and Miles develop the UK-built Ford GT40 Mk I prototype at Los Angeles International Airport. At the launch of the new Ford Mustang, Miles gives a witheringly rude appraisal of it to Ford Senior Vice President Leo Beebe. Beebe campaigns against sending Miles to the upcoming race at Le Mans as a public relations liability. Shelby reluctantly excludes Miles and sends Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren to Le Mans; none of the Fords finish.
When Ford demands why he should not sack Shelby, Shelby explains that despite the GT40's reliability problems, it instilled fear in Enzo Ferrari by reaching 218 mph (350.8 km/h), on the Mulsanne Straight before breaking down. He says a race car cannot be designed by committee. Ford tells him to continue the project and report directly to him. During testing of the GT40 Mk II, the recurrent problem of brake fade causes a crash and fire, which Miles survives. The team realizes the rules permit replacing the whole brake assembly during the race.
In 1966, Beebe takes over the racing division. When he and Ford arrive to inspect the program, Shelby locks Beebe in his office and gives Ford a ride in the GT40. Shelby makes an agreement with Ford: if Miles wins the 24 Hours of Daytona, then he will race at Le Mans. If not, Ford will take full ownership of Shelby American. At Daytona International Speedway, Beebe enters a second GT40 supported by a NASCAR team with quicker pit stops. However, Shelby clears Miles to push his car beyond the 7,000 RPM redline, and he wins.
At the next race at Le Mans, Miles struggles with a faulty door during the first lap. The pit crew fixes it and Miles sets lap records, catching the Ferraris. The GT40 suffers brake fade while dicing with the prototype 330 P3 Ferrari of Lorenzo Bandini, so Miles limps into the pits for replacement of the entire braking system. Ferrari protests but Shelby assures race officials it is legal.
Miles and Bandini duel on the Mulsanne Straight until the Ferrari breaks down, putting Bandini out of the race. With Fords in the top three positions, Beebe orders Shelby to have Miles slow down for the other Fords to catch him and give the press a three-car photo finish. Shelby tells Miles what Beebe wants but says it is Miles's call. Miles initially continues to set new lap records, but decides to comply on the final lap.
McLaren is declared the winner as, having started behind Miles, his car traveled further overall. Miles is placed second. Shelby accuses Beebe of deliberately costing Miles the win, but an unusually sanguine Miles lets it pass, saying to Shelby, "You promised me the drive, not the win." From his vantage point, Enzo Ferrari tips his hat to Miles on the track. As they walk off together, Shelby tells Miles they will win Le Mans next time.
Two months later, during testing at Riverside International Raceway, a mechanical failure in the J-car kills Miles in a crash. Six months later, Shelby parks outside Miles's widow Mollie's house and hesitates. Miles's son Peter arrives and the two talk about Miles. Shelby gives Peter a wrench that Miles once threw at him in anger.
A textual epilogue text reveals Ford continued its Le Mans winning streak in 1967, 1968, and 1969, and Miles was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001.
A film based on the rivalry between Ford and Ferrari for the dominance at the Le Mans endurance race had long been in works at 20th Century Fox. Initially, it was going to star Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt from an original screenplay titled Go Like Hell, by Jason Keller, the name being taken from the book, Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, andTheir Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. However, after writers Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth drafted a script and Joseph Kosinski was brought on to direct, the project fell apart due to the budget being too high.[9][10][11][12]
Race scenes that appear in the film as Daytona were filmed at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana; many other race scenes were filmed at a Honda test track in Mojave Valley (doubling for the Willow Springs Raceway), on the Big Willow road course at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, and at the Porsche Experience in Carson (for the Dearborn test track).
Ford v Ferrari grossed $117.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $107.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $225.5 million.[1]
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Charlie's Angels and The Good Liar, and was projected to gross $23–30 million from 3,528 theaters in its opening weekend.[34] It made $10.9 million on its first day, including $2.1 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $31.5 million, topping the box office.[35] In its second weekend the film dropped 50% to $15.7 million, finishing second behind newcomer Frozen II, and then made $13.2 million in its third weekend (including $19 million over the five-day Thanksgiving frame), finishing third.[36][37] It continued to hold well in the following weeks, making $6.7 million and $4.1 million in its fourth and fifth weekends.[38][39]
Critical response
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 364 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Ford v Ferrari delivers all the polished auto action audiences will expect – and balances it with enough gripping human drama to satisfy non-racing enthusiasts."[40]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[41] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare grade of "A+," while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 87% (with an average 4.5 out of 5 stars), with 68% saying they would definitely recommend it.[35]
Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle gave the film four out of four stars, saying that it "is what it promises to be, a blast from the past" and writing: "Ford v Ferrari could have just been a sports story, dramatizing an interesting chapter in racing, and it would have been fine. But in showing Ford and his minions' constant interference in the dedicated work of Miles and Shelby, this James Mangold film becomes a tale of souls battling the soulless."[42]
Eric Kohn of Indiewire gave the film a "B", saying that "Ford v Ferrari excels at evoking the sheer thrill of the race—'a body moving through space and time', as one character says—and it's compelling enough in those moments to make the case that nothing beats the thrill of competition."[43]
Variety's Peter DeBruge praised the racing sequences and the performances of Bale and Damon, writing: "The best sports movies aren't so much about the sport as they are the personalities, and these two go big with their performances."[44]
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