'Ford v Ferrari'

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!

When I say that this is the Dad movie of the year, it really is. It has all the things about it that Dad’s love: cars, racing, historical story line and great actors. Based on a true story, Ford v Ferrari is more than just a movie about cars and racing, it is the story of the underdog which everyone can relate to.

Based on a true story of Ford, Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby the movie follows their attempt to beat Ferrari as the race car champion in the world. For this task, they hire Shelby American owner Carroll Shelby, a racing driver who won Le Mans in 1959, but was forced to retire due to his heart condition. In turn, Shelby enlists the help of Ken Miles, a hot-tempered British racer and struggling mechanic.

Shelby and Miles work on the prototype that Ford presents to them, working through all the design flaws until it is race ready. Miles, having raised tensions with the company's CEO earlier, is deemed not the best driver to deal with the public and is passed up to drive in the 1964 Le Mans. Both the other drivers do not even finish the race, and Shelby knows he needs to convince Henry II that Miles is the only option for next year. With Miles still as a question mark, Shelby wages his own company on the line to convince Henry II that if Miles wins the 24 Hours of Daytona, he will be allowed to race at Le Mans.

Shelby American enters Daytona, going up against a second Ford entered with NASCAR team Holman-Moody supporting it. Shelby has Miles push his car's limit to 7,000 RPM, in order to counter the fast pit stop resulting in him winning the race, and going against the team strategy.

At Le Mans, Miles is seen setting lap records while catching up with the Ferraris. While neck in neck with Ferrari, Miles brakes end up gonig and he has his brake system replaced during his pit stop. Ferrari protests the move, but Shelby convinces the race officials that the brake change is legal as breaks are classified as just a part.

With three Ford teams in the top-three positions, Beebe throws the stupid idea to have Miles slow down for the other two Fords to catch up and provide the press with a three-car photo finish. When Shelpby told Miles this, he said for Miles to do whatever he wanted. It seemed that Miles wasn't going to listen as he kept racing hard, setting more lap records in the final minutes of the race, but he then slows down allowing the other drivers to catch up and lets Ford have their photo. Another Ford driver is named winner on a technicality, but Miles told Shelby that he was promised the race and not the win.

Two months after Le Mans, while working on the next race car Miles is unfortunately killed in another brake failure accident. Six months later, Shelby pays Miles' family and gives Peter a wrench that Miles threw at him before winning an SCCA race at Willow Springs in 1963.

It is a beautiful story of Miles. Also, it shows you just how detail oriented one needed to be when constructing a race car, it needs to be light, safe, able to speed up on the straightaways and handle the corners with ease. In the movie you can see that sometimes having the right man who knows the car better than anyone else is better than any amount of technology to try to figure out what is wrong. It also makes you feel for Miles, he wanted to prove himself to everyone.

The quality of the movie was outstanding! The race scenes were breath taking and made to make you feel as though you are a part of it, sitting right there in the car next to Miles. You see the progression of friendship, the drive of the underdog. The acting was also great. Damon and Bale completely embody their characters which is not surprising from them, as when given a role they always give it their 100%. Even the looks, the slight mannerisms that they showed when simply in the frame, completed the transformation into those men.

It really is a great movie, one that coming out right before Christmas would be a perfect family movie, and even more so the perfect movie to watch with your dad.