In my world, Ferrari should be the heroes and Ford should be the baddies. Cash-strapped, self-made passioned artisan from a small village in deep Italy vs. huge multinational corporation.
I agree, but you can't have a film where the bad guys win.
Bump. Went to see the movie last weekend (even managed to drag my girlfriend to the theatre). Enjoyed it, good acting, nice shots of tracks and cars from a beautiful era of motorsport. Overall the story was told a bit too cheesy for my taste, and the racing scenes were overly dramatic (i.e. "press the pedal harder, find another gear and overtake"-stuff), but I think that's the price to appeal to a broader audience.
As a racing enthusiast, the start scene from the 70's McQueen movie, even if much quieter, is still ten times more exciting than any explosive crash.
I liked it overall as a film & story, but i've found all the racing sequences to be quite underwhelming.
Usual cliches, unlimited gear changes to go faster ( ), side by side looking through the windows, some quite bad CGI crashes.
Everything about the on-track race in Le Mans felt like a videogame, at least to me.
In that regard. Grand Prix is still unbeatable. (but also the Steve McQueen's Le Mans)
I liked it overall as a film & story, but i've found all the racing sequences to be quite underwhelming.
Usual cliches, unlimited gear changes to go faster ( ), side by side looking through the windows, some quite bad CGI crashes.
Everything about the on-track race in Le Mans felt like a videogame, at least to me.
In that regard. Grand Prix is still unbeatable. (but also the Steve McQueen's Le Mans)
Still, a film to watch for every racing fan!
OMG, like side my side down mulsanne at 200mph THEN he puts his foot to the floor.... of which theres a 6 inch throttle travel..... and yes, nothing says must try harder more than a change up of gear...
That to me is the only blemish, and I choose to ignore it because the movie was so good, but if they want to use movement in the cockpit to demonstrate speed or determination, show some great quality heel/toeing or a bit of opposite lock or something.....
If they removed the Fast & Furious type unlimited shifts, the looking (and sometimes talking) at each other at 200 MPH's and the infinite shots of the RPM gauge, I would have given it a 9/10.
I see they have cast Australian actor Ben Rigby as Bruce McLaren. I guess because Australia is the same place as New Zealand if you are from Hollywood.
Both accents mess up the sound of vowels in the most horrible manner.
Regarding Australians playing New-Zealanders, Americans playing Brits or Italians (in other movies), I understand how annoying it is (I thought Hemsworth as Hunt SUCKED in Rush, as he sucks in all roles I have seen), casting is a lot about getting funding for films and litlte with artistic choice.
Films (especially those outside the Netflix-realm) are financed in bunches and with loans from special banks. Production-companies lend, say, 150 million dollar for one blockbuster and three smaller films. The blockbuster has to every actors for almost every role who's face says to the exec's: oh yeah... I saw that guy in that movie about Capitain Cook (or something).
Take Christian Bale, who I find one of the best actors of our time. He is like the quintessential actor if you want to have a 'tormented' or difficult character. So if you cast him, and he is into the role, you know the casting makes the advance of the cash easier.
In short: casting is the hidden marketing of movie making.
Saw it yesterday with my wife, who is quite a lot less into motorsports than me. She was completely enthralled by the story and the indeed excellent sound of the movie.
I would give it an 7 or 8/10, my wife, not hindered by the factual shortcomings and sometimes overly Hollywoodish dramatization, would probably rate it higher.
All in all I think the movie is a very good achievement and it is an easy recommendation for a broad audience.
I didn't mind seeing Hemsworth as Hunt, I thought he did OK. As for Christian Bale, he is good, but he is nowhere as good as some people think. Regarding casting americans as people from other countries, that's just Hollywood. I heard that Bale got offered the role of Enzo Ferrari in an upcoming film, but instead they will go with Hugh Jackman...
Saw this last night with a woman from a racing family, she can trace her relatives back to Fernand Charron....
Good film, entertaining and the chance to shine a light over the story of a character who's often overlooked (Ken Miles).
The negatives are the aforementioned drivers somehow having time to scowl at each other on the Mulsanne straight and the seemingly endless gearboxes with 6 inches of loud pedal travel at 190+mph. I also found it odd that Maison Blanche is always referred to as "white house". And where was Denny Hulme? One brief mention and they pronounced his name wrong.
Otherwise it isn't meant to exactly recreate true events, it's not a straight documentary....and as a "docu-drama" it does the job well. I would think that the story and pacing of it on screen are enough to keep non petrol heads watching.
One question, I've never heard Ken Miles speak in an audio or film recording. I understand his son spent time with Christian Bale sharing memories, photos and audio recordings of Ken....so maybe his thick Brummie accent is accurate....but he'd already been living stateside for over a decade, wouldn't he have acquired more of a mid-atlantic accent? I did after living there just under two years, and still do after 20 years back in Blighty but living with an American wife and hanging out with people from various American states.
7/10. I still rate Steve McQueen's film higher for purists but it is probably a good deal less exciting for the general cinema-goer.
Saw this last night with a woman from a racing family, she can trace her relatives back to Fernand Charron....
Wow, that's sensational name-dropping, absinthedude. Kudos! Easily beats the fact that my mother-in-law used to live next door to Charlie Watts's auntie.
And there's a film that should be made: Charron versus Girardot and De Knyff.
Regarding Australians playing New-Zealanders, Americans playing Brits or Italians (in other movies), I understand how annoying it is (I thought Hemsworth as Hunt SUCKED in Rush, as he sucks in all roles I have seen), casting is a lot about getting funding for films and litlte with artistic choice.
Films (especially those outside the Netflix-realm) are financed in bunches and with loans from special banks. Production-companies lend, say, 150 million dollar for one blockbuster and three smaller films. The blockbuster has to every actors for almost every role who's face says to the exec's: oh yeah... I saw that guy in that movie about Capitain Cook (or something).
Take Christian Bale, who I find one of the best actors of our time. He is like the quintessential actor if you want to have a 'tormented' or difficult character. So if you cast him, and he is into the role, you know the casting makes the advance of the cash easier.
In short: casting is the hidden marketing of movie making.
So did you see the movie?
I did and really enjoyed it. It did what I expect a good movie to do, interrupt the day to day details of every day life and suspend reality for a while. It also shone the light on Ken Miles perhaps one of the lesser know characters of 1960's sports car racing.
Saw this last night with a woman from a racing family, she can trace her relatives back to Fernand Charron....
Good film, entertaining and the chance to shine a light over the story of a character who's often overlooked (Ken Miles).
The negatives are the aforementioned drivers somehow having time to scowl at each other on the Mulsanne straight and the seemingly endless gearboxes with 6 inches of loud pedal travel at 190+mph. I also found it odd that Maison Blanche is always referred to as "white house". And where was Denny Hulme? One brief mention and they pronounced his name wrong.
Otherwise it isn't meant to exactly recreate true events, it's not a straight documentary....and as a "docu-drama" it does the job well. I would think that the story and pacing of it on screen are enough to keep non petrol heads watching.
One question, I've never heard Ken Miles speak in an audio or film recording. I understand his son spent time with Christian Bale sharing memories, photos and audio recordings of Ken....so maybe his thick Brummie accent is accurate....but he'd already been living stateside for over a decade, wouldn't he have acquired more of a mid-atlantic accent? I did after living there just under two years, and still do after 20 years back in Blighty but living with an American wife and hanging out with people from various American states.
7/10. I still rate Steve McQueen's film higher for purists but it is probably a good deal less exciting for the general cinema-goer.
He had a British wife. I'd think that might make a significant difference, but who knows?
Finally got to see it a couple nights ago. Random thoughts:
They stuck mostly with true events, but yeah, they definitely 'went Hollywood' in several areas as well. I liked the show overall, but yeah, throughout the film I also found myself thinking about watching Le Mans as soon as I got home. Le Mans, for all its faults, still sets the bar for me in terms of how racing scenes should be shot. Nothing's come close to it since it was filmed imho.
Damon came off more like a Missouri or Kansas midwestern guy than a West Texas guy, & that frog's fur line just came off forced and stupid. Thanks Hollywood. You rarely fail to fail when it comes to Texans (ok ... No Country for Old Men, Dazed & Confused, Fandango, & Lonesome Dove, notwithstanding). I really like what I've read about Miles & I loved the way Bale portrayed him. He obviously put a lot into the role imho, like he always does. He may be an asshole in real life (by some accounts), but the guy takes his work seriously & I respect that. I also thought the guy who played Phil Remington was outstanding. I read that the scene where they ripped out Ford's computer from the GT40 didn't happen. Seems they left the computer there and added the string to the outside for visual aero observation, like a rolling wind tunnel.
Re: the tension with the Ford execs, it was real, but a bit exaggerated for the movie, from what I've read ... 'cuz Hollywood. Apparently Beebe was a bit of a prick and didn't like the way they pushed the car at Daytona & Sebring, but Shelby never locked him in the office. Iacocca wasn't the guy doing all the legwork in Italy, taking tours at Maranello, etc. It was an engineer who worked for him. Enzo loved the guy for his awesome engineering knowledge, and called him Dr. Engineer. I've read that Enzo really did say all that s*** in the Ford buyout meeting though, but that Ford II didn't react by calling him a f***ing wop & actually just said something like "Well then, we'll just go beat his ass at Le Mans".
At Le Mans, though Beebe did order the slowdown, there was apparently no big confrontation with Shelby over Miles slowing down to finish 'in formation'. Shelby & Miles went right along with it, but Shelby said later that he regretted doing it because it ended up taking Miles's win away and he took it very hard. Then a few months later Miles was dead after being ejected in the crash in the J Car.
I still don't understand the reasoning behind awarding the win to Amon & McLaren because they started a little bit farther back. Nowadays your race distance doesn't start til you reach the start line, right? They gave McLaren/Amon the win because they traveled 8 more meters? Is that rule still the same at Le Mans? If that was how they were going to apply it, then it made qualifying pretty much irrelevant.
Congrats if you made it this far ... here's your reward: A good recap of the truth vs fiction in the film.
Bahh that would annoy me so much. I also thought Rush was a bit average and cringe. Don't think I'll be going out of my way to be honest.
Yeah Rush was very average and cringy imho. As off as the racing scenes in F v F were, they were still much better than Rush's sequences imho.
Regarding Australians playing New-Zealanders, Americans playing Brits or Italians (in other movies), I understand how annoying it is (I thought Hemsworth as Hunt SUCKED in Rush, as he sucks in all roles I have seen), casting is a lot about getting funding for films and litlte with artistic choice.
Films (especially those outside the Netflix-realm) are financed in bunches and with loans from special banks. Production-companies lend, say, 150 million dollar for one blockbuster and three smaller films. The blockbuster has to every actors for almost every role who's face says to the exec's: oh yeah... I saw that guy in that movie about Capitain Cook (or something).
Take Christian Bale, who I find one of the best actors of our time. He is like the quintessential actor if you want to have a 'tormented' or difficult character. So if you cast him, and he is into the role, you know the casting makes the advance of the cash easier.
In short: casting is the hidden marketing of movie making.
Could be worse. Could have a Swede playing yet another Russian.
During Ken Miles/Bale's scene where he talks about the 'perfect lap', the theater somehow got a little dusty ... made my eyes water. That and Ford II's reaction to the GT40 after Shelby took him for a ride in it was probably fabricated, but I'll be damned if it didn't hit home with me in terms of how cars can make a person feel. Fewer and fewer people get that these days ... feeling the sound of the car push through you as you drive it or as you watch them go by at a race. Feeling the way the car moves ... and can move you, etc. Some cars seem more animal than machine. Fewer and fewer these days though.
Just like WWII veterans, I find the racing characters of this era just incredibly fascinating. So ambitious, fearless, driven, creative, and ingenious. Once, at COTA, my son and I were lucky enough to meet an old associate of Shelby's - Jim Hall. He was a partner of Shelby's at his car dealership, and went on to build his well-known series of amazing Chaparrals. His innovations in aerodynamics, ground effects, materials, data acquisition, gearboxes, and more, dramatically changed the way people go racing, right to this day. We got to meet him with his Chaparral 2C during a WEC race. Nicest guy, and clearly a genius, but played it all down as a bunch of dumb country boys just playing with cars. He had amazing stories of that time, and we stayed and listened & asked questions for quite a while. I wished we could have stayed longer, and I know he'd have talked to us about it as long as we wanted. Looking back, it's a little sad how few people even seemed to realize who he was or the significance of his contributions to racing as we know it today.
And, of course, despite a good performance by the actor, Phil Remington wasn't an "aw, shucks" Southerner or Texan, but a Southern California native (Santa Monica) with a hot rodding background.
And, of course, despite a good performance by the actor, Phil Remington wasn't an "aw, shucks" Southerner or Texan, but a Southern California native (Santa Monica) with a hot rodding background.
Yeah I liked the performance, but I was wondering about his real background.
Both accents mess up the sound of vowels in the most horrible manner.
I'm west country born but lived for some of my teenage years in Birmingham prior to emigrating to Australia. I you think most Australians have funny vowels...
That scene reminded me of Bruce McLaren once taking an engineer (I can't remeber who) out for a ride and saying 'Can you hear it missing?'
The engineer's answer was, reportedly, 'Man, I can hear angels singing!', because he thought he was going to die as Bruce was grinning from ear to ear...
Just like WWII veterans, I find the racing characters of this era just incredibly fascinating. So ambitious, fearless, driven, creative, and ingenious. Once, at COTA, my son and I were lucky enough to meet an old associate of Shelby's - Jim Hall. He was a partner of Shelby's at his car dealership, and went on to build his well-known series of amazing Chaparrals. His innovations in aerodynamics, ground effects, materials, data acquisition, gearboxes, and more, dramatically changed the way people go racing, right to this day. We got to meet him with his Chaparral 2C during a WEC race. Nicest guy, and clearly a genius, but played it all down as a bunch of dumb country boys just playing with cars. He had amazing stories of that time, and we stayed and listened & asked questions for quite a while. I wished we could have stayed longer, and I know he'd have talked to us about it as long as we wanted. Looking back, it's a little sad how few people even seemed to realize who he was or the significance of his contributions to racing as we know it today.
I can't say I enjoyed it as much as I thought I would, thought Bale was over the top without bringing any actual depth to the depiction, plot was repetitive (we get it - Ford big wigs hate Ken Miles and want him fired again, and again and again), the 'perfect lap' sequence was a bit naff for me.
I liked the ending, when Shelby got upset after being asked to go and sell some cars was it's best dramatic moment I feel.
I think we need to just enjoy the movie and not be to critical, in a time of 99% superhero-movies and reboots/remakes, I am glad that there is something else that I could watch.
LeMans '66 and The Irishman are the two movies I look forward most seeing at the cinema now.
Wow, that's sensational name-dropping, absinthedude. Kudos! Easily beats the fact that my mother-in-law used to live next door to Charlie Watts's auntie.
And there's a film that should be made: Charron versus Girardot and De Knyff.
Now that's a film I'd see.
The racing arm of the Charron family that my partner in crime comes from are now based in Texas, have garages and race teams in the midget scene...still highly regarded in those spheres and can trace themselves back to Fernand. A point of interest on accents, after watching the film my Texan friend asked me where Shelby was from - me being generally more knowledgeable about 50s/60s racing history than she.....I guess Matt Damon wasn't convincing in that area though to me he did essentially capture Shelby's character.
As for my earlier post regarding Miles' Brummie accent, I've since read that his son Peter met with Christian Bale and spent a day sharing memories, photos and tape recordings of his dad...so the accent may well be an accurate reflection of how he spoke at the time.
Blessed if I know...... dragged up in south Bucks. Tried to keep a distance from Brummies. But it wasn’t always possible. From where I stand then, er, listen... Christian Bale did good.
Regarding the strange facial expressions, me unqualified to comment. The fuzzy images in the pages of Motor Sport at the time offered no insights in that respect.
Oh Bale's Brummy accent is fine, reminds me of the two years I spent there for sure. But I would have thought that with Ken having lived in the states for over a decade at the time the film is set, he'd have lost it and formed something more "mid Atlantic". As indeed I did when I lived there just two years, and others I know have done.
But having now read that Ken's son spent time with Bale including going over tapes of Ken talking....I guess he retained his full Brum-ness.
I definitely enjoyed the film, didn't expect it to have Steve McQueen levels of accuracy and thus I wasn't very disappointed in any of it. The recreation of the sights and atmosphere of mid 60s Le Mans was great, I thought....the makers have clearly spent time looking at footage from those days and talking with people who lived those times.
I've not seen the film, but I don't understand people's issues with accents being a bit off or people with the wrong nationality playing roles, while at the same time accepting a film taking massive liberties with historical truth. The Chernobyl mini series was a fantastic bit of drama because it more or less told an accurate account of what happened, and the lack of any effort with accents didn't take anything away from it at all.
I think it's like this......we know and accept that the film will take some liberties with history, that it is not a documentary. But things they can get absolutely spot on are accents and mannerisms of the real life people being portrayed. With Ken's Brummie accent, it is a good piece of acting by Bale....I just wondered if Ken really spoke like that in 1965/66 when he moved to California in 1951. But apparently Bale spent time with Peter Miles including listening to tape recordings of Ken...so it's likely he did retain the accent.
It's funny how millions can watch a show like Doctor Who and suspend disbelief of time/space travel, aliens, monsters etc....and be a bit miffed about inaccurate portrayal of the Aztecs or poor American accents. But it's true.
... A point of interest on accents, after watching the film my Texan friend asked me where Shelby was from - me being generally more knowledgeable about 50s/60s racing history than she.....I guess Matt Damon wasn't convincing in that area though to me he did essentially capture Shelby's character...
Yeah Damon's accent wasn't convincing to me. I mean, he wasn't terrible. It's a subtle thing. He just didn't sound like Shelby or like a Texan imho. He kinda just sounded like Matt Damon to me ... like he always sounds. But y'all can judge for yourselves here:
Carroll Shelby - The Lost Interview | Ford v Ferrari | Le Mans | GT40 | Complete Life History
Regarding Australians playing New-Zealanders, Americans playing Brits or Italians (in other movies), I understand how annoying it is (I thought Hemsworth as Hunt SUCKED in Rush, as he sucks in all roles I have seen), casting is a lot about getting funding for films and litlte with artistic choice.
Films (especially those outside the Netflix-realm) are financed in bunches and with loans from special banks. Production-companies lend, say, 150 million dollar for one blockbuster and three smaller films. The blockbuster has to every actors for almost every role who's face says to the exec's: oh yeah... I saw that guy in that movie about Capitain Cook (or something).
Take Christian Bale, who I find one of the best actors of our time. He is like the quintessential actor if you want to have a 'tormented' or difficult character. So if you cast him, and he is into the role, you know the casting makes the advance of the cash easier.
In short: casting is the hidden marketing of movie making.
Sucks in all roles????? Did you bother to watch the Vacation remake????
I'm west country born but lived for some of my teenage years in Birmingham prior to emigrating to Australia. I you think most Australians have funny vowels...
We speak perfectly well... its the entire rest of the world that sounds wrong.........
I enjoyed it. No need to dwell on the poetic licence used, that's probably necessary to tell a more compact story. I think I would have enjoyed a brief part on Ferrari's preparations and the John Surtees drama, but I guess it wouldn't have fit in with the rest of the film.