Movie Review: Ford v Ferrari

It's been a long time coming, but finally the Ford v Ferrari movie is here.

The story of Henry Ford II's obsession with crushing long-dominant Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, after the boutique Italian sports car marque spurned a takeover by the American giant in the 1960s, began screening in Australian cinemas last night.

It's a big-budget Hollywood film and very much the story of the development of the Ford GT40 by Carroll Shelby (played by Matt Damon, looking a lot like Supercar and TCR Australia driver James Moffat, son of Australian Ford favourite Allan) and maverick driver Ken Miles (played by Christian Bale).

Ford found American-based British war veteran Miles a particularly difficult character unsuited to its corporate culture and continually tried to get Texan performance guru Shelby to sideline him.

Shelby too had his troubles with Miles, the pair even coming to blows, but he knew Miles was the man to have in the cockpit to develop the GT40 for the 'war' Ford had declared on Ferrari.

The storyline has been pretty much known only to hard-core motor racing enthusiasts at least 60 years of age.

The telling of it on the big screen now takes too long. Two and a half hours is at least 30 minutes beyond a fair thing.

It has its memorable moments, but it's hard to envisage it's going to capture many more fans than those left with an inkling of the folklore.

It is enlightening on just how central Miles was to the project, but it's only late that the unknowing learn of the involvement of two of our great 'brothers' from across the Tasman, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, in the twist that brought about their ultimate success in the three-way formation finish at Le Mans in 1966.

It's a film for the mature, as in aged, motorsport fanatic but, despite the efforts that have gone into making it (evidenced by the credits that take about five minutes to roll), it's not a patch on Senna, Rush, the story of the James Hunt-Niki Lauda rivalry, or McLaren.

Nor Steve McQueen's Le Mans, or the 2015 follow-up on the making of that epic, or the much older Grand Prix.

Better than Days of Thunder but not, in light of the comparative budgets, of the new Australian-made Brabham movie that is starting to appear in Sydney and Melbourne after its rather curious low-key launch at the Brisbane International Film Festival six weeks ago.