Hollywood or Bust for Ford v Ferrari…(Photo copyright Merrick Morton, 20th Century Fox)

Our intrepid reporter, having been invited to a sneak preview of Ford v Ferrari shown on November 6th, filed this review. The movie opens in a theater near you on November 15th.

By Wallace Wyss
Photos copyright Merrick Morton, 20th Century Fox

Movies about racing cost a lot of money to produce, and it is likely that the audience could end up just being hard core race car nuts watching it over and over. McQueen had his film Le Mans yanked away from him for going over budget; RUSH didn’t do that well, (I feel it’s partly because the driver’s faces were covered and you couldn’t read their expressions) and it seems that most racing movies seem to have a robot-like interaction between the characters.

Bales, as Ken Miles (left) has a myriad of expressions but Damon, as Shelby, has just three: grinning, stoic, and totally pissed off. (Photo copyright Merrick Morton, 20th Century Fox)

Ford v Ferrari is different. It’s more of buddy-buddy movie like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Matt Damon plays Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale is cast in the role of Ken Miles, hired by Shelby to help make a winner out of the Ford GTs. (Read the author’s initial movie announcement)

It’s also the story of two very different companies slugging it out on a track in France. Ford is the newbie at Le Mans; they were at Indy, in drag racing and in NASCAR, but in the movie, Lee Iacocca convinces Henry Ford II that he needs to beat Ferrari to show the Europeans that, yes, Ford can do anything. And fair warning here; the film centers on Ford, and the Ferraris get roughly 10% screen time compared to the Ford GT40s.

Carroll Shelby was such an interesting guy; a WWII veteran, a failed chicken farmer, a self-taught car racer, a horse breeder, a car builder, big game hunter and a Le Mans winner (’59 for Aston Martin). But although he is one of the two lead characters, this is only a slice of his life, roughly a four-year period from about 1962 to 1966. I was dubious of Damon playing Shelby; too short, for one thing, but in the role, he was convincing, with that jocular manner most of the time, but hard as steel when it came to making a decision.

At Willow Springs (the same track Cobras were tested on back in the ’60s), there’s a scene where the impetuous Miles (Christian Bale) cops a trophy. Several racetracks were used in the filming, including portions of the real Le Mans track. (Photo copyright Merrick Morton, 20th Century Fox)

Nevertheless, Bale steals scene after scene, plus the scriptwriters play up on his character’s past, with references to Miles’ life as a WWII veteran (first Africa, then Europe with the British army) and later as an inept businessman who alienates customers by expressing his opinions in no uncertain terms, necessitating Shelby to go around and put out the fires Miles has started. It’s also the story of his marriage to Mollie, who wanted him to be a shop owner, but she finds out Shelby is trying to involve Ken in something that is definitely not shop keeping, involving cars that go 200 mph plus. There is no Shelby back story shown here (other than a glimpse of him driving an Aston years earlier); no wives, ex-wives, girlfriends, children, nada. This drama is about how Shelby must rein in a cantankerous employee.

The movie recounts the story of the finish of the victorious 1966 Le Mans when Miles was told to slow down for a three-abreast finish, and one sees the pain in Miles’ face acceding to the request, made more poignant by his death later on. Another memorable scene is when Miles fails to get his door closed at the start of Le Mans, and is driving at nearly 200 mph while trying to close the door.

The three-abreast finish for the Ford GT40s ordered by Ford management is depicted as a real downer for Miles. Yet in real life he soldiered on with the team, until his untimely death in testing the J-car that evolved into the Mk IV. (Photo copyright Merrick Morton, 20th Century Fox)

Just as there is a buddy-buddy relationship with Miles and Shelby, there is a lot of head butting between Leo Beebe, a slick Ford executive working for Henry Ford II, and Shelby. Tracey Letts does well portraying Henry Ford II and Josh Lucas is your typical butt-kissing executive, trying to tell Shelby what to do. When Shelby ignores him, Beebe claims any success as “his” idea. The running plot is that Beebe hates Miles but can’t get him fired from the team because Shelby has convinced the Deuce that he is vital to the mission.

Besides the battles between the Ford execs and Shelby and crew, a larger battle is portrayed between Ford, who wants to have a better image in Europe, and Ferrari. Enzo is shown as a minor king, who walks out of negotiations with Ford over details of the purchase of Ferrari by Ford (the film implies Ferrari was also dealing with Fiat).

Noah Jupe does a bang-up job portraying Miles’ son, and greatest fan.(Photo copyright Merrick Morton, 20th Century Fox)

I don’t remember racing movies with memorable child actors, but Noah Jupe, the lad playing Miles’ son, does an excellent job. You cringe each time he goes to the track or Shelby factory and sees his father drive, because you (and anyone who Googles Ken Miles before they go to the movie) know the tragic death that awaits Dad. Jupe is matched by Caitriona Balfe who plays Mollie and shows her fears that her husband’s profession has some overwhelming dangers.

I have been watching racing movies ever since Mickey Rooney’s The Big Wheel. They all have similar plots, and like earlier race epics, Ford v Ferrari is made for the general family, not for racing fans who know all the ins and outs. The hardcore fans will pick it apart, noting Enzo never went to Le Mans in the sixties, that Shelby was not involved in the GT40 until 1965, etc., but if the one-hour longer version Director James Mangold referred to in an interview is ever released, you can bet the fans will buy that in droves to see the scenes that were left on the cutting room floor.

The most frequent publicity photo choice is unfortunate and misleading, because it makes the 6-foot plus Shelby, (played by Damon) look shorter than Miles. (Photo copyright Merrick Morton, 20th Century Fox)

The story of Texas wheeler-dealer Carroll Shelby was itching to be told but this is not it. I think Shelby’s story might work in a TV series which could illuminate many different phases of his life. But as it is, Ford v Ferrari is an entertaining film even for those who never attended a car race – and for the rest of us, well, we know you’ll go anyway.

THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is the author of SHELBY: The Man, the Cars, the Legend and 17 other books. As a fine artist, he is portraying sixties racing in oils, and can be reached about the art at Mendoart7@gmail.com

By Wallace Wyss

After several failed attempts, it looks like the story of how Ford beat Ferrari at Le Mans is finally being prepared for the big screen. Shooting on the new 20th Century Fox venture has begun filming already; release date is a year away.

Alas, this is not the whole Shelby life story. And too bad; having written two bios of Shelby, I think his rise from dirt poor chicken farmer to automaker makes good copy.

No, this narrows in on that four-year period after Henry Ford II got the door slammed in his face by Enzo Ferrari on a buyout offer. That’s when he summoned his minions and told them that Ford would ‘build their own damn endurance racer’.

Charlie Agaipou, a stalwart British mechanic on the Shelby team (left in the painting, with Phil Remington on the right) is a consultant to the production company who says he’s impressed by “how much the production designer wants to re-capture the look of the original settings.”
Painting by Wallace Wyss

Shelby, at the time, already worked for Ford, who supported his Shelby American company by ordering Cobras. Shelby came into the picture only after Ford tried to do an endurance racer without him in 1964 and fell flat on their collective faces. He “saved” the Ford GT effort by re-engineering the car and making it a winner. In 1966, Ford GT40s took 1st-2nd-3rd at Le Mans.

The working title is Ford vs. Ferrari, which is not the title of the A.J. Baime book that 20th Century Fox bought. (There is in fact a book called Ford vs. Ferrari by the late Anthony Pritchard.) Lucas Foster and Alex Young share producer credits. Kevin Halloran is the executive producer.

The director is heavy-hitter James Mangold famous for Logan, 3:10 to Yuma, and Walk the Line. Screenwriters named are the brother team of Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (who have a sideline of being pig farmers in Somerset). They have the advantage of being based in the UK where presumably they can interview racers and GT40 builders who were there in the ‘60s. They are known for Edge of Tomorrow together, and Jez did the screenplay for the James Bond movie Spectre.

Ferrari won Le Mans in 1965 with a 250LM, but the glory days were numbered. Hugues Vanhoolandt photo

So far it’s reported that Matt Damon is signed to play Carroll Shelby while Christian Bale fills the role of engineer/race driver Ken Miles.

It sounds from the preliminary publicity that they might be exaggerating the role of Ken Miles who was Shelby’s development driver (he was in fact killed testing the Ford GT J-car) but they want to portray Miles as working closely with Shelby in developing strategy when my research shows he drove what he was ordered to drive and made recommendations on how to fix what didn’t work.

Shelby fans look forward to seeing how well Bale will capture the cheeky irreverence of Miles, especially when contrasted with Shelby’s exaggerated drawl (always sounding like he just fell off the turnip truck…).

Unlike most racing movies this one will feature the business end more than usual with a Lee Iacocca character, possibly to be played by Jon Bernthal of The Punisher series on Netflix (and previously a star in The Walking Dead ). A female role that’s been cast is Caitriona Balfe from Outlander as Ken Miles’ wife. There’s no mention so of who will play Shelby’s wives, of which there were many, one of which was a glamorous movie star, Jan Harrison, who ironically dumped him just before he hit paydirt with the Cobra. They married in Tijuana, Mexico, and John Edgar drove them in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud while they have champagne and caviar served en route.

Ford’s efforts fractured the Ferrari team. Jonathan Sharp photo

Previous efforts

Putting ol’ Shel on the big screen has been tried before. Reportedly Tom Cruise was working on a film about Shelby back in 2013 and of course he’d play the lead. There was a foot height difference, but who can say “no” to Tom Cruise?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the TV effort announced back in 2011 with the British production company Fremantlemedia and an American company, who together optioned (meaning they bought option to buy the rights to the book for a limited period of time) a book (immodestly, my book SHELBY The Man, the Cars, the Legend) but at the same time they were developing a Philip Dick sci-fi book into a series built around the idea of the Germans winning WWII. They went with The Man in the High Castle, and that became a successful series.

And the original book Fox started with Go Like Hell by A.J. Baime, was resold by Fox to a TV production firm run by Peter Dinklage and Channing Tatum who are simultaneously doing a TV series on the Ford vs. Ferrari battle. Fox will be basing their feature on different material.

Christian Bale has been circling around a car racing film for some time. Ironically, he previously signed with Michael Mann to play the lead role in Brock Yates’ Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races. That film also didn’t get made.

Filming begins

One item of proof that the Fox venture is going to happen is that the State of California announced that the producers of Ford Vs. Ferrari will be getting a grant of several million dollars providing they shoot a major portion in four counties in California and even some in New Orleans. A second crew will shoot in France.

One thing’s for sure, Carroll Shelby’s story will be told. This isn’t the whole story by any means but the part that, besides the Cobra, is remembered by most…

CASTING CALL (but alas, only if you live near Savannah) If you are interested in appearing in the movei, click below for the story and where to send your pictures.

http://www.savannahnow.com/news/20180802/casting-call-matt-damon-christian-bale-need-your-help-on-their-movie-filming-in-savannah

A personal addendum

AN OPEN LETTER TO LUCAS FOSTER:
Hello Mr. Foster. May I add three titles to your source materials bibliography? Shelby’s Wildlife; the Cobras and the Mustangs, SHELBY The Man, The Cars, The Legend, and Ford GT40 and the New Ford GT. I’d be only too happy to be of service to this project. You can reach me at Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com

All the best,
Wallace Wyss

Sources

California Film Tax Credits To ‘Ford Vs. Ferrari’, ‘Coming 2 America …
https://deadline.com/…/california-tax-credits-ford-vs-ferrari-coming-2-america-scarfac…

Ford v. Ferrari (2019) – News – IMDb
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1950186/news

James Mangold Directing Ford vs. Ferrari Film – Variety
https://variety.com/2018/…/james-mangold-next-film-ford-ferrari-logan-1202687686/