Ford v Ferrari is the story of the drivers who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on behalf
of the Ford Motor Company in 1966.
But like all movies based on real events, the filmmakers took a few creative liberties
to bring the story to life.
Early in Ford v Ferrari, the film introduces Ford chairman Henry Ford II , a gruff, emotionally-driven
guy who wants to win at all costs both to boost his company and to live up to his daunting
legacy as the third-generation head of Ford.
When the film opens, the company is in a sales slump the likes of which it has never seen.
Ford is so upset over the company's fortunes that he halts production on a bustling automobile
assembly line to yell at the workers to come up with some ideas to save the company ... or
to consider themselves unemployed.
Forbes says it's extremely unlikely that such a speech ever occurred.
It's a bit of dramatic fabrication to demonstrate Ford's personality and set the plot in motion
as quickly as possible.
It's just not plausible that Ford II, the guy at the top of the company food chain,
would deign to address the rank-and-file.
If he felt such a speech was necessary, he would have designated the job to one of his
many assistants.
In Ford v. Ferrari, Academy Award winner Christian Bale plays Ken Miles, a test driver turned
engineer and race car driver who dominates the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This isn't the first time Bale has played a real person among others, characters Dicky
Eklund in The Fighter and Dick Cheney from Vice are both actual people.
And whether real or fictional, Bale tends to disappear completely into his roles, gaining
or losing tremendous amounts of weight and adopting the perfect accents, even if it's
just the threatening growl of after-dark justice.
"I'm Batman."
But while there was plenty of footage of Cheney and Eklund to study, there was a surprising
lack of research material on Ken Miles.
That meant Bale most likely had to invent most of his character's accent and quirks
out of thin air.
"Nothing in there about my trunk and your lovely little portmanteau."
In Ford v Ferrari, car developer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles first meet during a rollicking
day at Willow Springs Raceway in California, and the relationship gets off to a rocky start.
Miles gets so incensed with Shelby that he throws a wrench at the guy, which shatters
his own windshield after Shelby ducks.
Before long, these two are engaged in a knock-down drag-out fist fight.
It's a nice juxtaposition for what happens later in the movie, as the two become BFFs
who have each other's back at all times.
The only thing is, according to History vs Hollywood, none of this ever happened.
Shelby and Miles didn't meet or forge a working relationship at Willow Springs Raceway.
Since they didn't meet there, that also means they never tried to beat the heck out of each
other either.
This sequence was all an embellishment by screenwriters to establish the personalities
of Shelby and Miles and to create dramatic tension.
"Up yours.
Ah, go to hell."
The clash between the control-hungry corporate overlords from Ford and the engineers and
drivers striving to make history comes to a head in one of the few moments of comic
relief in Ford v Ferrari.
Carroll Shelby's team, hard at work on a still-in-progress version of a car for Le Mans, receive word
that Henry Ford will be visiting to check up on their progress and to deliver word that
Ken Miles will not be allowed to drive in the big race.
So, Shelby connives to get his way, taking Ford for a high-speed, heart-stopping ride
in that race car.
It's a ridiculous, hilarious scene, in which Shelby cruises at ludicrous speeds with Ford
riding shotgun and screaming at the top of his lungs, partly in exhilaration, and partly
in terror.
When it's all over, he starts sobbing and cedes some control to Shelby.
This is all pure movie magic, however.
Forbes says there's certainly no way that Shelby would have been allowed to take the
head of a company out for a spin without any safety precautions.
While the title Ford v Ferrari implies a rivalry between Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari, the film
is actually about the Ford company's push to beat Ferrari's company in an important
race.
Nevertheless, the specter of the European automotive genius hangs over the whole film,
and he makes a conspicuous appearance during the movie's primary, climactic set piece:
the 1966 Le Mans race.
After the Ford team shockingly proves legitimate, Ferrari quietly and symbolically walks away,
but not before locking eyes with Shelby and giving a torch-passing head nod of approval.
While that's a powerful cinematic moment, it's just that Enzo Ferrari didn't congratulate
Shelby at the Le Mans in 1966 because, as History vs Hollywood points out, he didn't
even attend the race that year.
Pretty much all sports movies end with the hero winning the big game or the big race.
Throughout those dramatic final scenes, the film cuts to shots of the protagonist's loved
ones anxiously watching the events unfold, cheering them on nervously from either the
stands or watching on TV.
Ford v Ferrari employs the latter narrative device.
As Ken Miles cruises to glory in the 1966 Le Mans, his wife and young son watch the
race via a satellite broadcast on their small, quaint, black-and-white, vintage mid-century
TV set.
But there's just no way that happened.
The first live, international satellite broadcast, a variety show called Our World, which featured
The Beatles playing "All You Need is Love," was staged in 1967, which obviously went down
after the 1966 race.
Movies need dramatic tension.
It keeps the audience interested, and it keeps the stakes high so that when there's a resolution,
it provides satisfying closure to the story.
In Ford v Ferrari, a big source of that simmering push-and-pull is the relationship between
the prim and proper Ford executive board collective and Carroll Shelby, regarding the employment
of test driver Ken Miles.
Shelby really wants Miles to man his flagship car in the '66 Le Mans race, as he is instrumental
in helping develop the vehicle and realize its potential.
Ford exec Leo Beebe is never quite sold on Miles, finding him to be a bit of loose cannon
and not a team player.
Back in the real world, according to History vs Hollywood, Ford wasn't much against Ken
Miles.
Miles raced for Ford in multiple races ... including the Le Mans in 1965, just a year before the
historic one in 1966.
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