The stunning true story, Ford v. Ferrari has unveiled its first trailer. The film, starring Oscar winners Christian Bale and Matt Damon, chronicles the Ford Motor Company and its effort to build a car that would beat the gold standard in professional racing, Ferrari.
The story finds American car designer Carroll Shelby (portrayed by Damon) who is a man on a mission. He seeks to create an explosive automobile to compete at 1966’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The French race would pit Henry Ford’s company against the Italian automotive company. Building the fast car is one thing, finding someone who believes in the effort to sit behind the wheel is another story. But as really happened, an esteemed UK-based winning driver, Ken Miles (Bale), bought into the challenge and seemed to find great joy in the idea of unseating the world’s fastest car company with something made, engineered and delivered by the old colony!
With the full support of Henry Ford II and company leader Lee Iacocca (themselves two legends of the automotive world), Miles and Shelby would fan the flames of patriotism in America at a time when things weren’t so rosy for the country—what with race riots, Vietnam embroiling America’s military in a fight against the spread of communism and a citizenry still reeling from the death of their beloved president, JFK.
The flick was initially going to be released this summer, but as soon as Fox (who is now owned by Disney) saw what they had, they smartly moved the release date to November 15—firmly in Oscar season.
Ford v. Ferrari comes from James Mangold, who last wowed us with the stunning Logan. It also stars one of my favorite actors in Jon Bernthal (Fury), Josh Lucas, Tracy Letts and Noah Jupe.