"Ford v Ferrari"

Having published yesterday’s story, which I said was better, first.  A clear case of “Organizational Dysfunction.”

You feel good seeing a movie that reminds you of the kind of movies they used to make, even though you did not see those kinds of movies when they originally made them. 

That’s how much you miss them.  Feeling nostalgia for movies you never saw in the first place.

Despite my muted enthusiasm for “car race” movies, I found Ford v Ferrari charmingly infectious.  From its opening moments, I could sense everyone involved in this blatant “throwback” entertainment going,

“Isn’t this fun?”

Shortly into the screening,

I was hooked.

One Sentence Summary of Ford v Ferrari:

1966.  (Saying the year does not count as a sentence.)

“An American producer of mainstream automobiles takes on an Italian competitor that wins all the big races.”

The prevailing sentiment being:

“Let’s kick their asses!”

The competitive impulse felt good, in an “It’s just a car race, we’re not trying to beat them in war” kind of a way.  That’s what sports is essentially about.  It’s combat, but with commercials.

I shall not mine the “specifics.”  Not so I won’t spoil things.  I’m just too lazy to do so.

Assessing the “big picture”…

First-rate casting top to bottom, clear and simple storytelling, heart-pounding music underscoring the excitement – hold onto your popcorn and enjoy the ride!  (I’d add, “Fasten your seat belts” but I don’t think they used seatbelts.)

Yes, it’s “A Film Based on Actual Events”, which makes me grumpily uneasy, wondering which depicted events are the “Actuals” and which events are the “Based ons.”

For example, when the two protagonists get into a fistfight and a combatant’s wife comes out, surveys the action, and then plops herself down on a lawn chair and  opens a magazine – I am pretty sure that was made up.

The thing is – teaching me a much-needed lesson – that filmic fabrication was sparklingly better than “real life.” 

In fact, the only clouds on the proceedings are when “real life” insists, “This has to be in there”, and both times…  you know.  If you lose, you lose and if you die, you die.

It’s like two flies on a fictional birthday cake.

My last point… no, one point before that.

The film’s “Designated Villain” experiences neither comeuppance nor conversion.  Maybe he also didn’t in “real life.”  But if you are throwing stuff in, how ‘bout some retributive payback?

Last point.

Even though a central figure in the movie is English – who likely moved here because his “back home” hostile rebelliousness stuck out – Ford v Ferrari reflects the best in the fiercely determined American persona.

They don’t quit.  They find answers.  They buck authority.

And they ultimately prevail.

Oh, yeah. 

And they do it together.

Today…

(Uh-oh.  Here comes the “preachy.”)

“Fiercely determined”?  Sure, if you are going for yourself. 

But what happened to “together”?

Borrowing from Hondo, when someone says of the vanquished Apaches, “It’s the end of a way of life” the John Wayne character replies, “Too bad.  It was a good way.”

I like to remember our “Good way.”

That’s why I liked Ford v Ferrari.

So do they.