I would like to first start off with the actors before I begin with the review. Carroll Shelby was played by Matt Damon while Ken Miles was played by Christian bale and Lee Iacocca was portrayed by Jon Bernthal. The tough character of Henry Ford II was played by Tracy Letts. Not to forget, the character of Leo Beebe was played by Josh Lucas.
The movie starts off with a note from Carroll Shelby that at 7000 rpm everything fades and life turns into question whether you take the leap and push the car or rest it. The movie slowly becomes a battle not only between Ford and Ferrari but also between the formerly mentioned company’s top bosses. In the middle of this great battle, the artistic Carroll Shelby and top driver Ken miles are also in the center. The movie’s action start when a deal-breaker takes place between the two automotive firms and the deal doesn’t go on further. This happens because of the sole reason that Ford’s executives tried to take control of Enzo Ferrari’s racing division
In the movie, when Ken Miles gets a turn at the GT 40 made by Shelby American, it showed that he was a man who knew how the car felt and how he wanted it to feel . I really loved the part where Carroll Shelby stakes his entire company to make Ken miles the driver for the race. This showed that every time he took a hunch on Ken Miles, it always turned out to be the result he wanted. I absolutely loved the part where Carroll Shelby took Henry Ford II a ride in the newly built GT 40 and it was nothing as what the top level boss of Ford Automotive had expected.
One part that shook me but brought me back was the incident where Ken Miles was testing the GT40 and got brake fade and lost his brakes and almost died. It was a part that made me go right off the seat but then he was saved and I also sat back. I really enjoyed the scene in the movie where Ken Miles takes on Ferrari in the Mulsanne Straight and comes a lap ahead of the racing experts. The one thing that really didn’t take off with me was that the first year the executives of Ford didn’t want Ken Miles to come. The result of the first year cemented enough that only Ken Miles was the one man capable to drive the enormously powered GT40 and no one else knew the car like how Ken Miles knew it.
The attention to detail of everything in this movie was perfect to the second and was completely a mind boggling thing to watch. Just seeing the cars take off or how every nut and bolt was tightened, was really an awesome sight to behold as everything was period correct to that era. They even got the sound of the cars right as that’s what car buffs usually look for perfection in and I’m happy to say that the movie makers got it right. There was one place where it didn’t seem right was at the unveiling of the new Mustang, Carroll Shelby says “I’m Carroll Shelby and with Ford we’ll make the fastest cars”. This didn’t seem right as it isn’t Carroll Shelby’s actual monologue. His original monologue is, “My name is Carroll Shelby and performance is my business”.
I would like to conclude by saying that this movie really hit it out of the park and could also be nominated to the Oscars. I would also say that this movie could be watched on repeat as it is very rich in detail.
The Vehicular Planet 