He also drove the absolute shit out of every shelby he got his hands on to make sure it was up to par.. donuts and drifts and burnouts then climbs out all slow lol
One thing the film got right, which a lot of racing films don't, was the beauty of cars, that true petrolheads know. When you push a car to it's maximum, it comes alive, and, I don't know how they did it, but they showed that in this film. Truly breathtaking.
@@Galf506 like another comment I saw lower down about him downshifting on a straight to go faster lmao, like you said people who don't know about the subject. Even if the film is watched over by someone who does know they still won't catch every dumbass thing Hollywood does.
Crazy thing is... if you actually listen to interviews with Ken Miles, and watch him in those interviews, they couldn't have picked a better actor to portray him. Christian Bale was the exact representation
I agree, and I think a lot of it is down to Christian Bale putting in the extra effort to research Ken's voice and mannerisms, (Although when he says: "That one's not batting on a full wicket!" It makes me wonder if Bale or the scriptwriters know how to play Cricket) and Peter Miles opening up a lot about his parents to him and Caitriona Balfe. (Molly in the film)
@@Da_one_tl And that shows up how? And don't say the cowboy hat and inkling of Texas drawl either. Hell, I can do that. Shelby had an outgoing edge to him that Matt missed completely.
I was impressed by the Brummie accent, until I watched an interview with the real Miles and realised he had a fairly middle class non-regional English accent. Shame. But then, he did come from Sutton Coldfield, which used to be too posh to consider itself part of Birmingham!
Darth mong Ken apparently gave some radio interviews which Christian Bale found during research, and James Mangold used these in the script during the scene where Ken educates his son Peter about endurance racing. (The “perfect lap” scene)
@@GeriatricFan1963 Be good to hear those in full if anyone could find them, I'll rummage around the web tonight. Doesn't sound as Brummie as I'd expected though!
Another interesting fact is that McLaren/Amon had horrendous tyre problems at the start of the race,having to pit every few laps due to the tyres "chunking" and basically falling apart.If not for Shelby offering Goodyear tyres ,the No2 car was doomed. Much of what you read or hear about Shelby hints that he favoured Miles over other drivers but this act alone suggests to me that he really just wanted to win and the more irons in the fire,so to speak. Chris Amon was always my hero so I'm happy he won, but engineered finishes leave a very bad aftertaste. I would rather the race be run in it's true spirit ; THE BEST WINS! , but as usual, the suits will have their way. Pity. Anyway, just wanted to add my 2c worth! Excellent video,one of the best informed that I have seen. Great work! STAY SAFE!!!!!
Sad way to win it and I too liked Chris Amon, but he had nothing to do with the finish other than help get the car there. He and Jackie Ickx were the only Ferrari drivers I didn't mind seeing win(although Amon never would in F-1). All because of both of them winning LeMans driving a Ford GT40.
@@Miatacrosser hi there ,Jackie is also a favorite of mine , I'll always remember him walking to his car instead of running at the start of one race , don't remember which year but the memory sticks.... The great Ferrari Engineer Mauro Foghieri said that his one regret was that he never gave Chris Amon the car his talent deserved, and that is some endorsement of his ability in a race car. I will show my age here but we all got to get old huh?! I was 8 years old when my neighbours dad took his son (Roger) and me to Pukekohe Park Raceway in 1968. Truth be told the memories are a little faded but the one memory that remains constant was that the beautiful red car beat all the rest! That 8 year old's instant love of this red vision has never left me ,and my respect for the little bloke driving it grew over time. Just one more thought,this whole Le Mans controvesy doesn't detract from motorsport,it adds another layer to the pantheon that is motorsport history / contrversy for people like us to debate and disagree on! STAY SAFE!! Cheers.
Nice to see you bring this up. In Motorsport magazine article, "Lunch with Chris Amon". Chis talks about this moment they switched tires from the "chunking" Firestone tires to the Goodyear tires, and as soon as they did, this was the moment Bruce Shouted to Chris "We've got nothing to lose". "Just go like Hell". As mentioned in the video. By Sunday morning they had got into lead and then something weird happened: at the next pitstop, When they weren't due a tyre change, the Goodyear guy, without even looking at the tires, ordered the mechanics to change one of the fronts, which delayed them even more, putting Ken back into the lead. They guess that the Goodyear guys didn't want Firestone-contracted drivers winning. This only aggravated Bruce and with some rain out and unbelievably slippery conditions Bruce got past Ken again. ill leave a link to the article as it is a very good read. www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-2008/62/lunch-chris-amon
@@swanny8869 Hi . I hope you're keeping safe. You are of course correct sir! I have read the article and forgotten all about it ! Blame it on old age. What truly irk's me is the emphisas placed on the last few hours of the race , ignores the real , balls to the wall driving that took place in the first 12 - 16 hours of competition . the drive put in by both cars should have ,by 1966 standards , finished off one or both of them. It's a tribute to all that they were able to keep both going . To the result. I , as a proud kiwi would have been happy regardless of which car won ,their were kiwi's in both. But let's face it , the finish was an engineered balls up , sitting squarely on Ford's shoulders. The French did nothing wrong , just enforced the previously published rules. To end my speil , I wish more mention of the great job done by Denny Hulme was , in my opinion as noteworthy as any of the other 3 . Even as world champion he never garnered the praise he deserved. A real pity. And just to finish Denis Jenkinson said in Motorsport that month , that had the race result , after the dead heat , been calculated (by the French) to 4pm ,the advertised finish time , Miles would have won , as he was still leading at that point. If's , but's and maybe's........ Kia Kaha Stay strong.
@@tonyrata4796 I have to say, he doesn't get many lines but I felt Ben Collins (famous for being the Stig on Top Gear) did a good job of portraying Denny "Big bear" Hulme, especially considering he is first and foremost a driver and not so much an actor.
2:07 In the movie Shelby knew about his heart condition beforehand, in the scene with the doctor he mentions that he “takes the pills” referring to the nitroglycerin pills he was prescribed for his conditions. I think that scene with the doctor was meant to show that Shelby was ignoring his heart problems to race which is what he did in real life.
@@harshithsadhana7475 no, not at all insulting, no lies. Just art and entertainment. In fact every actual documentary includes lies per you impossible ideal world. Man, time to expand your universe from your tiny bubble of self created reality based on untruths.
it's often stated that Ford orchestrated the tie finish, but in a recent interview with Shelby, he admitted that it was HIS idea for a tie finish, not Ford's, and Ford then went along with it, an idea that Shelby regretted for the rest of his life. Shelby also stated that ever since Ken died, he thought of Ken every day.
Wow, that's very cool. The Daytona Shelby's success was probably the thing that got Shelby the gig with Ford, more than his win at Le Mans as a driver in 1959 I'd argue. I think the problem from a script POV is that they clearly wanted Shelby to be more of an outsider, so if they show him basically already getting 4th place finishes and GT class wins at Le Mans with a car using a Ford engine then it makes Shelby far less of an underdog. The only car they focus on Shelby and Miles racing other than the GT40 is the Corbra, which is probably Shelby's best known car; so it's unfortunate that the Daytona gets kind of shuffled into the background as a result. A.J. Baime's book "Go Like Hell" does talk about the Daytona's development and success in a fair bit of detail as part of the overall story, so I would read that if you've not done so already.
Thanks for the information, My father didn't brag or talk too much about what he was working on, I had to figure it out later. I made the connection while watching the Motor Trend TV series "Auto Biography". In the show they were showing photo stills from the development while interviewing Peter Brock. Then I saw a photo of my Dad at California Metal Shaping where my father worked fro almost 60 years. If you can find that series it too is very interesting. I believe the episode was "Cursed Cars".@@GeriatricFan1963
Brilliant video Edward, you have done well to highlight the changes made for the movie, particularly Leo Bebes "vilification". As a diehard Ford and GT40 fan I've read many books on the car and it's history and I agree Go Like Hell is a brilliant read and reference. Well done
I think it wouldn't be immersion-breaking if AFTER the film is done and you've already experienced all of the emotion and drama of the film, that they put a caption saying that many of the events were changed for dramatic reasons and to point out that Beebe was not the villain he was portrayed to be in the film. I think that would have been the good thing to do...
Ken45 I agree, at the very least mention some of Beebe’s work for the Jewish community post-WW2. It’s true that he wasn’t a guy that was big into motor racing, and he didn’t get on with Miles, but that alone doesn’t make him a bad person.
@@GeriatricFan1963 People in general should simply be better aware that real-life events have to be "re-engineered" to make a compelling film. Life never plays out as neatly as shown in movies
They do exactly that, watch the credits for long enough and "The events in this film were altered for dramatic effect" or some version of it, will pop up. additionally it's supported by statements such as "Based on..." or "Inspired by..." at the beginning of the film.
It is nice to know the true stories behind the movie but changing things up to move the story along is just what happens. Lets be honest as gear heads there are few movies made about racing and very few that come equal to this film. Ford vs Ferrari introduced a new audience to racing, Shelby, Le Man and Ken Miles. Most die hard racing fans may not have known who Miles was but do now. Also a lot that wasn't covered would have made the film 5 or more hours so....
Completely agree; this film was definitely something which made a lot of new motorsports fans. I think Steve McQueen's Le Mans film from the 70's has had a similar effect over the years.
@Shon De Vet - Sorry, but I have to disagree with you when you say most die hard racing fans may not have known who Miles was.......if they were, indeed, die hard racing fans (at least road racing fans), they certainly were familiar with the name Ken Miles!
@@GeriatricFan1963 Le Mans is an incredible film. Agreed. And so is Grand Prix with James Garner. Some of the cinematography in both films is incredible.
I was absolutely blown away by the movie and as a history nut myself I shared a lot of the concerns you brought up. It's Hollywood and they can't just appeal to the racing fans entirely, but that they made this movie and brought it to Rush level details is astonishing.
Thank you very much for this documentary. I am a race car driver and professional racing instructor and this movie, as well as your video, gives me goosebumps everytime. Brilliant stuff!
Just watched the film, last night, for the first time. (I know, what kind of a supposed car guy am I) Anyway, having professional motorsports background and having raced at Lemans(2004 GT Championship Team) I found it very entertaining. Wished I had seen it on the big screen, when it came out. Someone went to allot of trouble to make most of the scenes period correct. Awesome cast of characters. Actors did a fantastic job. JT: Orlando, Fl
jakespeed63 I agree completely about the drive for authenticity; a neat little touch is that they had the sons of many of the real life drivers playing their fathers. At the Le Mans start in ‘66 Derek Hill, son of 1961 F1 champion Phill Hill, ended up doubling for British F1 champion Graham Hill, and Derek insisted upon having Graham Hill’s pencil-thin moustache drawn on him! It’s such a small detail since it has zero impact on the plot, (And Graham Hill isn’t really a character in the film) but when you see him standing behind Ken Miles in that scene, as a racing fan you instantly know that it’s meant to be Graham, and that to me shows that they went the extra mile.
@jakespeed63, in a movie that does not pretend to be a documentary authenticity is contingent on whether it contributes to ticket sales, and even if it does not, it can be diddled with. Take Iacocca's visit to Ferrari, for instance. That took place in 1963. We see him in the factory (starting at 4:58 in this excellent review). We also see three Ferrari 330 P3sor 4s in the foreground and three Ferrari F256s in the background. All of them look authentic enough. Trouble is that none of them would have been on the floor during Iacocca's visit. The latter were last raced two years earlier and the former were not even on the drawing board at that time. But yes, all of them are legendary Ferraris and therefore got into the picture.
@@EternalFringeDweller The reason they are there though is because those were the cars that the production had access to...(And often it's simply the case that those were the cars that survived the 55+ years between 1963 and 2019) They are still absolutely gorgeous even if they are there a few years earlier than they should have been.
@@GeriatricFan1963, the reason those cars are there is that they looked good, never mind accuracy. And there is no way any of the F256s or P3s are originals. The P3s are the lookalikes the movie makers used in the 1966 race. I have no idea why they decided to put three F256s into the picture. Ferrari stopped using them, or any front-engined cars for formula 1 races at the end of 1960s. The movie makers could have just as easily hired or made their own stage props that resemble the 1963 version of the F156 Aeros. I can assure you that none of the F256s or the P3s are originals. Less than a handful were made of each. Not a single P3 even exists today. The ones that were not destroyed in accidents were converted to 412P or P4 specs. They are valued at between 35 and 45 million dollars each. The movie makers would find it cheaper to build their own lookalikes than to foot the insurance bill involved in hiring an original.
I really loved this film, in much the same way as Rush, it takes liberties with certain moments but still tells the basic story correctly and gives a feeling of authenticity and gives you a proper feeling of the sights sounds and smells of a real racing car.
They also cut out the team politic over at Ferrari, where they replace the # 1 Ferrari driver British John Surtees with Italian driver at at last moment. Surtees quit the team and went home.
BigFire True, it’s a shame that the late John Surtees isn’t in the film other than a brief mention on a radio; to be fair though Surtees deserves his own biopic rather than being a footnote in this story. I think it was Ludovico Scarfiotti who replaced Surtees at Le Mans ‘66 though, not Bandini. (Scarfiotti was related to Gianni Agnelli, boss of Fiat, and that was what motivated the decision)
@@GeriatricFan1963 I just check, Gianni Angelli (not Enzo Ferrari, who famously does not attend any races outside of Italy) attended Le Mans 1966 and for that reason, they replace Surtees with Scarfiotti (Angelli's nephew) as the lead hare driver.
Yes, they were still trying to get Fiat to buy shares in Ferrari; the film shows Fiat buying them in 1963 immediately after talks with Ford fall through. So obviously if Surtees was in the film they would need to make up a different motivation to replace him.
Miatacrosser Well, as good a book as it is, I could imagine this film being very unfocused had they kept the Surtees plot in. The only moment where Surtees’ story intersects with Miles/Shelby is right after Ferrari sacked him, when Shelby phoned up Surtees’ hotel room and offered him a seat in his team at the last minute. It’s a shame in a way that John turned him down; could you imagine a lineup of Ken Miles and John Surtees? No way would Beebe have even thought about a dead heat with an F1 world champion in the car. Denny Hulme of course didn’t become a champion until the year after.
The final insult was the text at the end when they credit Shelby and Miles for the wins in 68 & 69. They had absolutely nothing to do with them. The Gulf cars were developed by the John Wyer team from Mark 1 cars using the Gurney Weslake headed small block engines. Incidentally the first racing cars to employ Carbon Fibre.
It was Shelby's suggestion to go for the dead heat, not Beebe's. Shelby himself said this in a 1998 interview (which is available on RUclips now - and this video actually shows a clip of it!). He also said that it was one of his biggest regrets, presumably for that reason.
Ngl it became an unexpected favorite movie of mine. You don't even have to like cars to get enjoyment of seeing two guys doing what they want to do despite corporate odds
This video was circling around my feed for a while now. I have always been in love racecars and me and my father both fell in love with this movie. So I was worried this video would be the typical 30 minute rant about how terrible the movie was and blah blah blah. But I was incredibly astonished at how positive and wholehearted you took the approach to both the movie, and the real life story. Thank you for this astounding video my friend :) Keep up the good work! I look forward to more Motorsport videos from you in the future ❤️
Thanks! I'm really glad that you liked my approach. I'm working on a follow up video that talks about all the deleted scenes from the shooting script and why they were left on the cutting room floor. I was also thinking of doing a similar video to this one looking back at Ron Howard's 2013 film Rush; not just another motorsport film that I love, but in my opinion one of Howard's best ever films; only Apollo 13 tops it in my view. What's also really impressive is that Rush had only 1/6th of the budget of Le Mans '66, but in my opinion it looks just as good; the money that they had well and truly went on screen.
@@GeriatricFan1963 heck yeah! I can't wait to learn about Ford v Ferrari deleted scenes and how you compare them to actual history! And I am now extremely eager to check out the movie Rush. Thanks for the recommendation! Im looking forward to more of your content :) It's so refreshing finding such positivity on RUclips these days. I'm so happy to have discovered your content.
this is VERY WELL DONE, and some very rare clips and info to be found here for avid miles and shelby fans. very rarely you hear voice clips of ken miles. i re-winded this several times trying to embrace the wealth of info this video has.
Thanks, I feel like Amon and McLaren's side of the story is all too often overlooked. There are some things were the gaps between cars weren't really kept track of too well, so accounts vary, but I tried to give the most detailed account that I could.
Le Mans 1965 would had been an interesting race to add in. Not just it was Ferrari’s last win, the factory teams of both sides lost their cars thus it was won by a customer Ferrari who had very little chance of winning.
Regarding Walt Hansgen, he was scheduled to drive the "American Red Ball Special" at the Indy 500 in 1966. Graham Hill was selected to replace the deceased Hansgen and went on to win the race that year.
Thanks, that's very kind of you! I have another documentary in the works for my second channel which is all about a 40 year old British TV series called "The Professionals" which I hope to get finished by the end of the year. But I'll see if I can't make another video about motorsport/film on this channel also.
No worries; it was tough because I released this just before the film officially came out, so all I had to work with were trailers and preview clips from chat shows, etc. I have since actually bought and ripped the Blu-ray with the intention of doing a video on all the deleted scenes from the shooting script.
Edward Hunter that would be a great video. And to put this together with such little to pull from is pretty impressive! I’ll subscribe so I don’t miss out on the new stuff 👍
I told my family the drama between Leo and Shelby was not real after we saw it for the first time, not to mention the cars in the background for both Ford and Ferrari included cars that did not yet exist. My summation of the movie: "It's the best result for a Hollywood movie."
No, thank you for watching it. I actually made this in about a month after seeing the film early just once at the London film Festival, so I'm very proud that it still stands up as well as it does.
I feel like the main thing Rush did was that it didn't make Niki Lauda or James Hunt the villain, and that really worked in the film's favour. Rush didn't have as big a budget as Le Mans '66, but Peter Morgan's script was very strong and that I think is why Rush is seen as more authentic by racing fans; it made some changes of it's own but the story of Lauda's fiery crash and comeback 40 days later didn't require much artistic license to turn it into a Hollywood film; the main thing that got changed was some timeline condensing, which I think is understandable.
There is an actual documentary about "Rush". The director got help from Nikki Lauda himself at most points even in Details. As far as I remember, there was one detail about starting an F1-Car. The Script said " he get in, buckle up his belt and turned the key"... when Lauda read that, he asked the director "did you know anything about car racing?! If you can Show me only one F1-car, that is started with a key, you'll be the first one in this universe..." . So, when Ford v Ferrari, or LeMans '66 , depending on where you life, was made, all of the original Drivers, Engineers oder Commitees wheren't there anymore. Btw... what I really didn't know are most of the deads around 66. Hansgen between Daytona an LeMans, Bandini afterwards... daaaamn...
Good movie, I watched with a mindset knowing everything is a fabrication and shouldn't take it too serious. Just a life of petrolheads doing what they do best to achieve their life goals. And that was all enough for this movie to be good.
What gets' me about the shifting in the movie is the enormous throw distance of the shifter to make a gear change. It's obvious the shifter used for the shots was NOT connected to anything.
Chris Amon, widely regarded as one of the best F1 drivers never to win a championship Grand Prix. It's hard to believe (and is widely unknown within the general New Zealand population) that at one point, we had basically the top 3 F1 champions all from our little pacific Island(s) and all those 3 were in the 2 top cars in this race... Amon, Mclaren, and Denny Hulme who was .. you know... the one who was the OTHER driver with Ken Miles.... The one that drove half the race...) Just like the lack of recognition you see for Ivan Mauger, considered to be the best speedway rider ever. Fairly much, if it isn't Rugby/cricket, it isn't worth airtime... I remember back in the 90's I tuned into the last minutes of the National TV news to hear "And in other news, Aaron Slight won the latest round of the world superbike championship, now for the weather..." We are a little country (5m) and generally like to be a little understated... but we still like our heroes and to see 2 greats like Amon and Mclaren get such a little part when they played quite a big part of Ford's GT race scene does grate a little...
Chris Amon was a great racer, but he had horrible luck trough his career. I think Mario Andretti said about him,that if Amon would have been an undertaker, people would stop dying. Anyway, you New Zealenders can be proud of your great racers and racing history.
@@kadasrichard Funny thing is so many of our great stars are barely known by most NZ'ers Speedway was once one of the greatest sports on the planet... Ivan Mauger was 6 times World Champion... Probably no one under 40 in NZ would have a clue who he was.... (and if theu read the name they wouldn't realize its sorta pronounced "Major" so would have even less. Oh and I turned to the sport news years ago just to se the end... "blah blah blah... And in other news, Arron Slight won the latest round of the world superbike championships.. now the weather".. Like it was as important as a street light out on east nowhere street...
@@TheButlerNZ Ivan Maguer used to come to a few races in my hometown Speedway, he was certainly one of the best Speedway riders. It always fascinated me, that with such small population, New Zealend gave and continues to give great athletes to the sporting world, the likes of Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Jonah Lomu way back, Scott Dixon and Scott McLoughlin now. Some great boxers like David Tua and Joseph Parker.
@@kadasrichard Maybe because we have parks and rivers and the sea and hills and more all at most of our fingertips... life isn't bad, generally everyone is friendly, tou can do almost anything... so you can get a chance to find something your good at. Then there's people like Burt Munro (Worlds fastest Indian)... the movie was like a small chapter of the book. Dad used to tell me of a guy making pistons in baked bean cans for his bike... Unfortunately the world is writing a million rules that stop what we term "#8" mentality... (you can make anything given some duct tape and a length of #8 fence wire... Funny thing... I got a friends bike back 200k after a throttle cable broke.. by wiring the return cable to the pull... with a half heart necklace, some duct tape... and literally a rusty bit of #8 fence wire from a ditch in the middle of the Nth Island...
Don't forget Bob Mclain kiwi driver who moved to Canada's west coast. He ran a gas station in Vancouver and did lots of racing at westwood race track. Died in67 i think at sebring in a GT40 for Comstock racing
22:30 Although chis amone and bruce mclaren had a bad start too the tyres they were using werent very good and were different from the others because they were sponsered by them(not sure which brand). And they were regularly having the to pit stop because the tyre were wearing very quickly, and they fell to the back of the pack. They then ask if they could change tyre to what the other fords had used, they did and battled their way to the lead. With two laps ahead of miles.
Like I said in the video, there are conflicting accounts, (Mainly from the mechanics on the no. 1's side of the garage) but given that Chris was there and actually driving the car for about half the race, I feel like his side of the story carries with it a fair bit of weight. Chris doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would smear Miles; even if this was the biggest win of his career, he admitted himself that he'd rather have raced for it without any team orders, even if it did put the no. 2 back where he felt it should have been in the first place.
pretzel door Another fun thing I noticed; in the film the no. 2 car starts Le Mans 1966 on Goodyear tyres like the other Ford’s. In real life they started on Firestone’s before switching early in the race, like you said, because they kept falling apart. So the film basically doesn’t include that, and to be fair you can kind of see why; its not hugely crucial to Miles’ race.
One of my grievances with the film were the cockpit scenes. For example the camera highlights Ken downshifting then shows the tachometer which should gain RPM but shows it dropping before climbing. The other is while on the Mulsanne straight where he "punches" the throttle pedal from a throttle position that is absolutely wrong for the place he was on the track and the situation during the race. I get that it is dramatically effective for non-enthusiasts but the real enthusiasts were most likely a major portion of ticket sales.
I don't care about the movie...although it's what brought me here...thank you for making an accurate and true version of it to help me understand the history behind this historic moment
No wonder Miles wife was happy after hearing he would get $200 a day plus expenses, that is a lot of money back then & would be over $1,500 a day in todays money!
FIA sports car of that period (including the GT40's and later the 917's) had to carry a spare tire and a mandated size suitcase/tool kit. The five FIA Cobras Shelby built in an attempt to win the 1964 World Championship solved this problem by having triangular divots whacked into the trunk/boot lid. I know this because way back in the day I had the chance to drive one of the remaining four cars. I assumed the film's writers 'borrowed' this idea for the Willow Springs scene.
@@GeriatricFan1963 ya they couldn't even film it where it happened today even if they wanted to. What a waste of an historic place. Shoulda' been kept as a monument to the God of Speed.
The problem that I have with most historical drama, is that they change history to “dramatise” the events. History is dramatic enough, you don’t have to change it.
@@its_kumar_babyyy - Why were you "let down"? Did you expect something else? Not sure what confused you either. I'm guessing you are not a devotee of motor racing or you wouldn't have said that. Ford vs Ferrari, or as it is titled in Europe, Le Mans '66, was the story of the greatest rivalry in the history of motor racing, and it wasn't between two drivers, but two manufacturers, worlds apart in the types of cars they made and why they made them.
Enjoyed this very much. Also really enjoyed the movie. Admittedly the omissions of key people made in the film initially irked me. But now I look at it as "The Ken Miles Story" and not so much Ford V Ferrari.
A great video just finished watching this film I know.... a bit late considering this came out end of last year at the time I wasn't convinced it was going to be true to the story as Hollywood tends to change true stories just to make it Hollywood like, so I wasn't going to be interested in going to see it at the cinema. But I watched a documentary a few years ago and the whole documentary was portraying that Ford was the hero and Ferrari were the bad guys which kind of annoyed me being a Ferrari man myself. But in reality, Ford not only did they try to buy out Ferrari but also tried to fool the great man by giving him less sum of money to invest in the racing department which Enzo stated he only wanted to control the racing side. when the negotiations didn't go there way Ford still spent so much money into the Le Man program I couldn't believe how much they did spend to try and beat a team that didn't have much money but had the pedigree in success which Ford struggled to capture. The frustration I had with this film was the lack of effort put in the characters for Ferrari and the driver(s), I felt that Lorenzo Bandini looked like a mafia assassin rather than a racing driver and every time they capture him on the screen it just felt like he looked a bit sinister. But I know this film was dedicated to Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby but I wished the film did show more respect between the drivers at the Le Man race because in real life they all did and some were close friends off the track as they all knew how deadly this sport is and how brave they all were. But if someone who doesn't follow Motorsports I guess as a film was really good to watch but shouldn't films portray the true beauty of such stories like this one I guess depends on the person's opinion.
As only half the stuff was made up and some of that was re-attributed, it was pretty accurate for a US film. ps The corporate suit vs the driver was going on at Ferrari. Which is why John Surtees didn't drive the race.
I agree completely. Surtees unfortunately didn't show up in the film besides being mentioned on the radio at one point. (Just before Ford go off for the '65 Le Mans, they hear a report of him dominating at the Nurburgring for Ferrari) I think Il Grande John deserves his own biopic someday, fascinating character and I think his story would attract fans of both motorcycle racing and automobile racing.
@@kevinshort3943 I did but only after somebody else posted it. It was decent and the footage of May in the Bucknam/Hutcherson GT40 that placed 3rd is great, but for me the more interesting documentaries show the other side, I.E. McLaren and Amon's perspectives of Miles. Whereas May very much just says: "Ken was robbed", which I find annoying and reductive. (Although admittedly you could also accuse the film of the same thing, but it's a Hollywood biopic, not a documentary)
I read on another YT comments section, so this might be wrong, but there was an IBM computer doing the timing for the race. When it rained, water got into the system and shorted it all out. When they went to the race officials they consulted with the Italian officials who were also timing the race with stopwatches and used their data to reset the computers. According to the Italians the Ferraris were a lap ahead of where IBM had thought they were, but being an American company, IBM kept the timesheets as they thought they should be.
Racing in the 60s was my time. I used to call Laguna Seca my home away from home. Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, I remember that at Le Mans 1966 that Dan Gurney had the fastest lap in practice and the fastest lap during the race. I believe that Dan's GT40 blew a head gasket which caused him to fail to finish. Dan was so tall that Shelby had to put a bubble in the car door so that Dan's helmet would fit. My recollection of Leo Beebe is that he had the reputation of being a slimy toad. What we heard at the time was the Beebe thought Ken was too old and too ugly to represent Ford. Ken was 48 in 1966, and if you look at a photograph of Ken, he had a very prominent nose and a very protruding chin. The Ferrari P2 and P3 were great cars for shorter races, but they never finished a 24 hour race. The greatly improved P4 was able to finish second at the 1967 Le Mans race, behind a Ford Mk. 4. At Le Mans in 1965, 1966, and 1967, a Ferrari 275GTB came in first in the GT class.
JAG312 That’s true; Miles had impressive pace early in the race when fighting back from his door issue, but it was Gurney who took the fastest lap in the race; Miles I think recorded the highest speed in Le Mans history to that point down the straight, but he didn’t match Gurney’s best lap. (The film does not really make a clear distinction between the two) I also agree with you that Beebe may have disliked Miles for reasons other than his on-track performance; in the film they make it clear that although Miles is a naturalised U.S. citizen, Beebe is very patriotic and does not see Miles as “All American” like he does Gurney, Richie Ginther and Phil Hill, who were all born and raised in the States; I think Beebe would have preferred that Gurney/Grant had won, but between Miles/Hulme and McLaren/Amon, I suspect he had a tough time choosing, which is one of the many reasons why he floated the Dead Heat. And yes, the P3 was an awesome car; had Ferrari’s team manager not fallen out with John Surtees then I think we’d have seen him instead of Bandini taking on Miles in this film, since Surtees was an F1 champion and the most well-known Ferrari driver of the era. (Other than maybe Phil Hill) I would love to someday see a Ferrari biopic cover their POV of the Ford rivalry; Enzo is a compelling and enigmatic figure and for what little he is in this film, he is used very effectively.
@@GeriatricFan1963 I watched the movie twice. I watched it alone for the first time. I knew how it would end, and that made me sad. I took my grandson with me the second time. He liked it. When we got home, I showed him some photographs of a real GT40. "Who is that guy in the pictures?" That guy in a blue driving suit would be your grandfather. My grandson borrowed the pictures to show to his friends. I think I am now the coolest grandfather.
In 1966, my late father and his secretary were finishing dinner at home in Paris when he suggested "Why not go to Le Mans for the race?" whilst my mother served coffee. And they did. Left the dishes in the sink. They arrived a couple of hours into the night (Le Mans is only 200km west from Paris) and Henry Ford II was there, in the pits, a giant man my father recalled giving orders here and there. Quite a sight. They arrived during an accident in the night, not sure which one. Maybe you know?
If so that is IMO disrespectful to Mr McLaren. The man should not have his death commercialised in such a shit house way in a shit house movie. Respect to you Mark Gerrard.
Gabriel Johannson Yeah no, barley anybody outside of the racing world knew about Ken Miles before this movie game out. This movie gives him a legacy the public will remember.
@@gabrieljohannson6777 No Edward Hunter used a shot of the crash to illustrate his point in the youtube video as there was no photograph of the actual crash to use. Read his comment. The film itself did not use anything related to Bruce's crash.
Ya his ALL BRITISH treatment of this accomplishment. Don't ever let a Brit tell the story. According to them America had nothing to do with the GT40 story.
@@Miatacrosser and no Kiwis either mate! Three of the first four drivers over the line from NZ, and May couldn't find a sentence to mention that. One of them the youngest GP driver ever (up to that date, Amon), one of them a future F1 Champion, and in Bruce MacLaren one of the finest engineer/drivers the sport has ever seen (and GP winner also). None of them British though so didn't fit May's jingoistic narrative
@@mikehendry34 well that may be but they were just the chauffeurs. This was all about cars back in that era. Anyone of nearly 50 drivers at that time could've won LeMans. The fact that 3 Kiwi FORMULA ONE DRIVERS would be there is not a big surprise. The fact Ken Miles, who NEVER raced f-1 was the fastest of them all told me who the truly GREAT talent was there. Also remember, if it wasn't for Carroll Shelby switching the #2 car to Goodyear tires during the race, as their Firestones were disintegrating, we would't even be having this conversation. Also, if you go back to the finish I think you'll be surprised to see that it's split 3 Kiwis, 2 Yanks, and an ex-patriot brit whom I've always considered American cause when he was 14 he tried running away to here, so he was always an American. He was just born in the wrong place.
MexicanBagpiper96 I searched around and found some old news clips from I think NBC sports and a few others. Some of them were washed out and had this red filter. As soon as I saw the “What’s next for you?” “Le Mans.” bit, I knew I had to fit it into the video somewhere, because the way he says that is so cool and matter of fact, and it really shows why they chose to immortalise Ken Miles in this movie. I also really liked the clip from Sebring of Shelby banging his pit board with a hammer, begging Miles to back off.
@@GeriatricFan1963 I have watched the film a bunch of times ... but I have watched the race start scene more times than I can count. The moment when the 25 car passes Steve MacQueen down Mulsanne ... and again coming across start finish ... that noise sends a shiver down my spine every single time. It also means that that music plays in my head when I am driving on track.
And the race was won by a couple of KIWI BOYS!!!!!! But seriously, Miles co-driver was Denny Hulme, Of the four top drivers across that finish line, they were 75% from New Zealand, 25% English. 0% american. Just what Ford would have wanted. Race must have been fixed.
Arthur cheers Arthur, like I said it’s more rewarding to go in blind. I knew a fair bit of the story going in (I read the book Go like Hell a few years ago which details the story from both Ford and Ferrari’s POV’s) and when I saw the film for the first time, there were one or two moments where I expected them to cover something and then they almost completely glossed over it, which I’m not sure if it’s a failing of the movie or if I had the wrong expectations.
@@GeriatricFan1963 interesting, thankfully I dont have much knowledge about the story (or maybe I do and don't remember, my memory isn't good enough to know) so I think itll be an interesting view!
@@GeriatricFan1963 ya cause if you know the REAL STORY cause you were a 14 year old FORD racing fan in 1966. You are not gonna like what hollyweird did to the greatest American acheivement in motorsports. So ya, go in blind and learn more faux-history from the silver screen.
@@GeriatricFan1963 kind of appropriate as there is something about these 2 fatal crashes that echoes and not just the tragedy aspect of losing these 2 motorsport legends.
I'm lucky and live about a half mile from the Shelby American Collection. They have 8 64 to 67 GT40's on display. Including the official 2nd(#1) and 3rd(#5) place cars from 66 LeMans. While talking to a volunteer there he indicated their records show #1 car was up by 2 laps and the #5 car was up by one lap. I failed to ask what records they had reviewed to get those results. The collection includes original AC Bristols, Cobras, Shelby Mustangs, Ford GT's and even a "Works" Sunbeam Tiger.
Depends which lap they're talking about. The #5 car of Bucknam and Hutchison was 12 laps down by the finish, so I find it extremely unlikely that they lost 9 laps on the lead through the team order shenanigans. Sources vary so much on the gap between the #1 and #2 though; anything from 2 laps to 2 minutes. And again, we don't know if that's before or after the team orders were called, if we go by Chris Amon's version of events.
After watching the movie I thought it was incorrectly named it should have been Ford vs Carroll Shelby it seemed to me that Ford hired Shelby then tried to hold him back but that probably just the movie
Yes, it was just the movie! It was Mile's personality and demeanor that scared Ford a bit - too much of a rebel in their eyes, the type that very well could get out of control and threaten the team's success. Some of those feelings were justified, but Ford didn't completely understand Mile's driven determination to win.
Leo Mathlein it’s certainly one of the best racing/car films, but I would argue that Rush (2013) tops it in my opinion, if only for Daniel Brühl’s tour de force performance as Niki Lauda. Christian Bale is great in Le Mans ‘66, but Brühl is brilliant from start to finish; his performance is so good that Niki’s friends and family thought that it was actually him doing the opening voiceover narration, not an actor!
@@GeriatricFan1963 I do like both and can't really pick a winner (dead heat lol) but I do get annoyed by the "dead heat" as portaryed in LeMans 66 when everyone knows how it actually looked. Google Lemans 66 and the first page of images shows it directly: www.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/flexslider_full/public/slideshow_image/15-ford-gt-1966-le-mans_0.jpg?itok=iIDD98Ad If you watch Niki Lauda's crash in Rush, and then find footage on youtube of the actual crash, it's really hard to see the difference. The film makers worked really hard on getting that right.
@Joe Cool you don't know. They were told to slow long before the controversy came up. If they had let them race, I think maybe Bruce and Chris could've held on but of the four drivers, Miles was the fastest so who knows if either would've finished and we'd be celebrating an All-American victory one year earlier than we did.
Tony Rata I think Taika could easily do an amazing dramatic/comedic biopic just about Chris Amon’s entire career and how it was plagued by bad luck. The move to Ferrari for 1967 should have been his big break, but instead it turned into a disaster. He even created his own team Amon and the jinx still followed him around!
@@GeriatricFan1963 If you haven't seen this check it out, and gives an insight into the beginning of the shape of the front of the GT40: ruclips.net/video/w3dkwXGaETE/видео.html
Excellent, The film is finished in Cinemas here, waiting for it on Cable TV. I don’t disagree with anything in this film . My parents gave my a copy of Automobile Year in 1967, & there is a photo of the finish in that book. It’s in a box of books stored . Have to pull it out. I crawled all over one of the Wyer Cars that was in Melbourne in 1975 I think. Loved the shape of the GT40.
I think the film just came out on digital release, with a physical release following in early February. I definitely think it's a film that greatly benefits from the theatrical experience, especially due to the sound design. I saw the '68 Le Mans winning GT40 running at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year, and it was everything that I had hoped it would be.
In isolation, it's a great movie and a wonderful depiction of endurance racing and engineering. It doesn't bother me that they edit certain events for dramatic purposes. The unkind depictions of several rel people is somewhat upsetting however. The depiction of Leo Beebe is frankly insulting and I'm sure any surviving family of his will have been horrified by the film since this will be how the younger generation remembers him. In addition, the depictions of the other drivers was rather unfair. Hansgen and Bandini are shown as being aggressive and/or unpleasant while personal accounts suggest otherwise. On top of this, the film makes it seem like Miles is the only driver who is capable of developing the car and driving it without destroying it. In reality, his teammate at Le Mans was Denny Hulme, an F1 world champion. McLaren in particular is made to seem like a corporate yes man who is significantly inferior to Miles in all aspects. In reality he was one of the most important men in the history of motor racing, both as a driver (he held the record as youngest GP winner for more than 50 years) and as an engineer (the team he founded is among the most successful F1 teams in history and is widely viewed as Ferrari's biggest rival in all motorsport).
I agree with you on most points, with the exception of Bandini and Bruce McLaren, who is barely in the film and shares one line with Ken at the end after winning. Bandini is shown to be a match for Miles in wheel-to-wheel battles; yes, they do cut to him making some villainous smirks at Ken's misfortune, but he never does anything all that dirty. Walt Hansgen on the other hand is done kind of dirty by the film and I feel like the biggest disrespect is not even mentioning Hansgen's fatal crash in the build up to Le Mans. I can understand why having basically made him the antagonist, the film can't suddenly ask us to care about his death, but for me they could have used it to at least show Ken's empathy for his fellow drivers, as well as foreshadowing his own fatal crash at the end of the film.
@@GeriatricFan1963 Thanks for the reply. I am probably being a little overly critical and I realise that they couldn't have given huge amounts of screen time to the other drivers without ruining the pacing. I am probably inferring too much regarding the character of the drivers from very little information. I think my biggest issue was how the team falls apart without Miles present. That implies that the other drivers were below his level when Hulme, Amon and McLaren were all elite drivers and McLaren at least was an exceptional mechanic. I only watched it recently so it's all very fresh my mind and I felt like venting a little. Apologies for the hassle, I really do appreciate getting such an eloquent reply.
My 2 questions about the film are 1) did ford achieve its goal? The GT40 is a marketing campaign to our sell chevy’s. I can’t locate any info if this was ultimately successful 2) the film tries to make Ken’s loss a ‘technicality’. Wouldn’t they know the rule considering they had run the race the previous year? It tough for me to feel bad for Miles when they should have known the rules of the race. Otherwise a solid film.
Good question; I'm not sure if it helped sales in America, but in Europe it really helped Henry Ford II to set up Ford of Europe, the first ever pan-European automobile company which turned a huge profit. As for the rules, when it comes to technical stuff such as the regulations for the car design and construction, they would have known that. But would they have known the rules in the event of a dead heat, something that had never ever happened at Le Mans before? Absolutely not. The previous two years all the Fords retired long before the end, so they'd never even got to the chequered flag, let alone with two cars on the lead lap.
Edward Hunter disagree. If they won, then have the win taken away because they fail inspection is no different. I’m not saying Ken should have known, but someone should have.
It sure makes more sense that Bruce Mclaren would say the words "go like hell" in handing out to Chris Amon. Both Mclaren and Amon were New Zealanders and this is more a New Zealand related attitude. In banter and advice. That the Americans would never necessarily use in their same line of vocabulary unless it contained more 'colourful' expletives
I liked how they implemented it into the story by having Shelby put it on a pit board; short, concise, gets the point across; fuck the RPM limit, let's go for the win. (Because in the film Shelby knows if Ken doesn't win he won't be going to Le Mans) Everyone knows you don't swear on a pit board; it's a waste of a word when the driver only has a split second to take information in at 200 MPH...
@@GeriatricFan1963 This New Zealand way of expressing one's self at the time. Is a similar reminder as to how Sir Edmund Hillary said of conquering Mount Everest. How he "knocked the bastard off". Where as it also that the presence of Bruce Mclaren as a driver (and test driver) for Ford. At the time was also due to Mclaren utilizing the Ford venture to subsidize the running costs of the Mclaren Racing team. The trio on Top being New Zealanders Mclaren, Amon and Denny Hulme. Who at the time were at the forefront of world motorsport
Kenny Miles drove a tank through Normandy? ‘Co’mon Kenny....you can do better than that...giddy up....giddy up...co’mon girl” To me, some of the changes are unnecessary and I would rather they stuck to the facts. I loved Bale as Kenny but not Damon as Shelby....not the same type guy...and shortchanging BeeBee was not fare at all. This video was excellent. Very well done. Glad I watched it after, not before watching the movie.I. must admit I wished they tried more to be factual.
@free market joe - Are you implying that Ken did not command a tank at the Normandy landing? You would do well to read more on Miles and his life. It helps clarify his whole outlook on life and therefore gives you a much more realistic sense of who he was and what drove him. You want more factual info about Ken, read A.J. Baime's great book "Go Like Hell."
I prefer a good documentary over a fantasized film that's based on true events. Naturally, the truth is far more dramatic and fascinating in the whole grand scheme of things.
I found this film about 2 wks ago a great movie(as a sim racer). Its now 1205 am just about to cook a curry and was gonna spend half hr as usual deciding what movie to watch whilst eating,now im gonna watch this again.
Fun Fact: Carroll Shelby was the world's oldest living heart transplant survivor at the time of his death.
cool
That's a nice fact dude, thanks!
Is that a de tomaso pantera car use by ken?
Matt Damon looks like me... but neither of us looks anything like Carroll Shelby...
He also drove the absolute shit out of every shelby he got his hands on to make sure it was up to par.. donuts and drifts and burnouts then climbs out all slow lol
One thing the film got right, which a lot of racing films don't, was the beauty of cars, that true petrolheads know. When you push a car to it's maximum, it comes alive, and, I don't know how they did it, but they showed that in this film. Truly breathtaking.
@Jordan Gadd it's easy to mess up. Often movies are not made by people that know the subject at hand.
@@Galf506 like another comment I saw lower down about him downshifting on a straight to go faster lmao, like you said people who don't know about the subject. Even if the film is watched over by someone who does know they still won't catch every dumbass thing Hollywood does.
Ah yes I see your a man of culture as well
Yeah 1 thing I loved and noticed and I'm not even into cars!
Carbs
Can't get that sound with out one.
Crazy thing is... if you actually listen to interviews with Ken Miles, and watch him in those interviews, they couldn't have picked a better actor to portray him. Christian Bale was the exact representation
I agree, and I think a lot of it is down to Christian Bale putting in the extra effort to research Ken's voice and mannerisms, (Although when he says: "That one's not batting on a full wicket!" It makes me wonder if Bale or the scriptwriters know how to play Cricket) and Peter Miles opening up a lot about his parents to him and Caitriona Balfe. (Molly in the film)
@@GeriatricFan1963 Why is no one mentioning how brilliantly Matt Damon came off like the real Matt Damon.
@@bill2953 hush child. Damon is a Bostonian. He put in real work to be like the real Caroll Shelby
@@Da_one_tl And that shows up how? And don't say the cowboy hat and inkling of Texas drawl either. Hell, I can do that. Shelby had an outgoing edge to him that Matt missed completely.
I was impressed by the Brummie accent, until I watched an interview with the real Miles and realised he had a fairly middle class non-regional English accent. Shame. But then, he did come from Sutton Coldfield, which used to be too posh to consider itself part of Birmingham!
Nothing like sitting down to write out 15,000 words for a script to find this banger. No point in making it now haha smashed it mate well done
Thanks Crankee Yankee! Me and my friends are a big fan of your work.
My senior year of high school I needed to write an essay, I wrote it on Ken.
This is the only time i've heard Ken Miles' actual voice, been searching for some audio for ages!
Darth mong Ken apparently gave some radio interviews which Christian Bale found during research, and James Mangold used these in the script during the scene where Ken educates his son Peter about endurance racing. (The “perfect lap” scene)
@@GeriatricFan1963 Be good to hear those in full if anyone could find them, I'll rummage around the web tonight.
Doesn't sound as Brummie as I'd expected though!
@Bercilak de hautdesert Yeah, guilty as charged 😅
@Bercilak de hautdesert lol, I sound like Hugh Grant on the telephone.
WHAT TIME MARK
Another interesting fact is that McLaren/Amon had horrendous tyre problems at the start of the race,having to pit every few laps due to the tyres "chunking" and basically falling apart.If not for Shelby offering Goodyear tyres ,the No2 car was doomed.
Much of what you read or hear about Shelby hints that he favoured Miles over other drivers but this act alone suggests to me that he really just wanted to win and the more irons in the fire,so to speak.
Chris Amon was always my hero so I'm happy he won, but engineered finishes leave a very bad aftertaste. I would rather the race be run in it's true spirit ; THE BEST WINS! , but as usual, the suits will have their way. Pity.
Anyway, just wanted to add my 2c worth!
Excellent video,one of the best informed that I have seen. Great work!
STAY SAFE!!!!!
Sad way to win it and I too liked Chris Amon, but he had nothing to do with the finish other than help get the car there. He and Jackie Ickx were the only Ferrari drivers I didn't mind seeing win(although Amon never would in F-1). All because of both of them winning LeMans driving a Ford GT40.
@@Miatacrosser hi there ,Jackie is also a favorite of mine , I'll always remember him walking to his car instead of running at the start of one race , don't remember which year but the memory sticks....
The great Ferrari Engineer Mauro Foghieri said that his one regret was that he never gave Chris Amon the car his talent deserved, and that is some endorsement of his ability in a race car.
I will show my age here but we all got to get old huh?!
I was 8 years old when my neighbours dad took his son (Roger) and me to Pukekohe Park Raceway in 1968.
Truth be told the memories are a little faded but the one memory that remains constant was that the beautiful red car beat all the rest!
That 8 year old's instant love of this red vision has never left me ,and my respect for the little bloke driving it grew over time.
Just one more thought,this whole Le Mans controvesy doesn't detract from motorsport,it adds another layer to the pantheon that is motorsport history / contrversy for people like us to debate and disagree on!
STAY SAFE!!
Cheers.
Nice to see you bring this up.
In Motorsport magazine article, "Lunch with Chris Amon".
Chis talks about this moment they switched tires from the "chunking" Firestone tires to the Goodyear tires, and as soon as they did, this was the moment Bruce Shouted to Chris "We've got nothing to lose". "Just go like Hell". As mentioned in the video. By Sunday morning they had got into lead and then something weird happened: at the next pitstop, When they weren't due a tyre change, the Goodyear guy, without even looking at the tires, ordered the mechanics to change one of the fronts, which delayed them even more, putting Ken back into the lead. They guess that the Goodyear guys didn't want Firestone-contracted drivers winning. This only aggravated Bruce and with some rain out and unbelievably slippery conditions Bruce got past Ken again.
ill leave a link to the article as it is a very good read.
www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-2008/62/lunch-chris-amon
@@swanny8869 Hi . I hope you're keeping safe.
You are of course correct sir! I have read the article and forgotten all about it ! Blame it on old age.
What truly irk's me is the emphisas placed on the last few hours of the race , ignores the real , balls to the wall driving that took place in the first 12 - 16 hours of competition . the drive put in by both cars should have ,by 1966 standards , finished off one or both of them. It's a tribute to all that they were able to keep both going .
To the result.
I , as a proud kiwi would have been happy regardless of which car won ,their were kiwi's in both.
But let's face it , the finish was an engineered balls up , sitting squarely on Ford's shoulders. The French did nothing wrong , just enforced the previously published rules.
To end my speil , I wish more mention of the great job done by Denny Hulme was , in my opinion as noteworthy as any of the other 3 .
Even as world champion he never garnered the praise he deserved. A real pity.
And just to finish Denis Jenkinson said in Motorsport that month , that had the race result , after the dead heat , been calculated (by the French) to 4pm ,the advertised finish time , Miles would have won , as he was still leading at that point.
If's , but's and maybe's........
Kia Kaha Stay strong.
@@tonyrata4796 I have to say, he doesn't get many lines but I felt Ben Collins (famous for being the Stig on Top Gear) did a good job of portraying Denny "Big bear" Hulme, especially considering he is first and foremost a driver and not so much an actor.
2:07 In the movie Shelby knew about his heart condition beforehand, in the scene with the doctor he mentions that he “takes the pills” referring to the nitroglycerin pills he was prescribed for his conditions. I think that scene with the doctor was meant to show that Shelby was ignoring his heart problems to race which is what he did in real life.
agree
So, does not matter, it's not a documentary, made for good art and entertainment. Win win for all.
@@airgliderz I agree its a movie but they made many real good people look bad. They lied to us that is insulting.
@@harshithsadhana7475 no, not at all insulting, no lies. Just art and entertainment. In fact every actual documentary includes lies per you impossible ideal world. Man, time to expand your universe from your tiny bubble of self created reality based on untruths.
@@harshithsadhana7475 no lies other than yours. Art and entertainment. Stop lying to yourself.
it's often stated that Ford orchestrated the tie finish, but in a recent interview with Shelby, he admitted that it was HIS idea for a tie finish, not Ford's, and Ford then went along with it, an idea that Shelby regretted for the rest of his life. Shelby also stated that ever since Ken died, he thought of Ken every day.
Link or it didn't happen
@@RavensEagle search for the interview on youtube i saw it recently
We need more movies like this. Maybe 1980s group B next? XD
y e s
What would be the best story to tell
1. 037 constructors title
2. Michelle Moutons journey as a female driver
3. Henri's career and death
Yes
Quattro
Group C 🙏
Very much appreciate the Steven McQueen's Le Mans music at 10:08
Cheers, hard to believe that Steve McQueen's Le Mans is 50 years old this year.
In a selfish way I wish they had been able to also explore the development if the Daytona Shelby, my father helped build it.
Wow, that's very cool. The Daytona Shelby's success was probably the thing that got Shelby the gig with Ford, more than his win at Le Mans as a driver in 1959 I'd argue. I think the problem from a script POV is that they clearly wanted Shelby to be more of an outsider, so if they show him basically already getting 4th place finishes and GT class wins at Le Mans with a car using a Ford engine then it makes Shelby far less of an underdog. The only car they focus on Shelby and Miles racing other than the GT40 is the Corbra, which is probably Shelby's best known car; so it's unfortunate that the Daytona gets kind of shuffled into the background as a result. A.J. Baime's book "Go Like Hell" does talk about the Daytona's development and success in a fair bit of detail as part of the overall story, so I would read that if you've not done so already.
Thanks for the information, My father didn't brag or talk too much about what he was working on, I had to figure it out later. I made the connection while watching the Motor Trend TV series "Auto Biography". In the show they were showing photo stills from the development while interviewing Peter Brock. Then I saw a photo of my Dad at California Metal Shaping where my father worked fro almost 60 years. If you can find that series it too is very interesting. I believe the episode was "Cursed Cars".@@GeriatricFan1963
Brilliant video Edward, you have done well to highlight the changes made for the movie, particularly Leo Bebes "vilification". As a diehard Ford and GT40 fan I've read many books on the car and it's history and I agree Go Like Hell is a brilliant read and reference. Well done
@@marksimpson2689 Thanks Mark, it’s great to still get comments on this years later
I think it wouldn't be immersion-breaking if AFTER the film is done and you've already experienced all of the emotion and drama of the film, that they put a caption saying that many of the events were changed for dramatic reasons and to point out that Beebe was not the villain he was portrayed to be in the film. I think that would have been the good thing to do...
Ken45 I agree, at the very least mention some of Beebe’s work for the Jewish community post-WW2. It’s true that he wasn’t a guy that was big into motor racing, and he didn’t get on with Miles, but that alone doesn’t make him a bad person.
@@GeriatricFan1963 People in general should simply be better aware that real-life events have to be "re-engineered" to make a compelling film.
Life never plays out as neatly as shown in movies
They tell you that at the beginning, usually, with "inspired from true events". No movie is ever a 1 to 1 representation of true life.
They do exactly that, watch the credits for long enough and "The events in this film were altered for dramatic effect" or some version of it, will pop up. additionally it's supported by statements such as "Based on..." or "Inspired by..." at the beginning of the film.
@@ZirotronXL Yes, we all know that, lol. My point was saying to actually point out about Beebe since the film unfairly portrays him as a villain...
Bruce McLaren was a proud New Zealander , as was Chris Amon and Denny Hulme
Right on! And, as a proud New Zealander myself, I can confirm "go like hell" is correct Kiwi phraseology for the situation Bruce McLaren referred to.
It is nice to know the true stories behind the movie but changing things up to move the story along is just what happens. Lets be honest as gear heads there are few movies made about racing and very few that come equal to this film. Ford vs Ferrari introduced a new audience to racing, Shelby, Le Man and Ken Miles. Most die hard racing fans may not have known who Miles was but do now. Also a lot that wasn't covered would have made the film 5 or more hours so....
Completely agree; this film was definitely something which made a lot of new motorsports fans. I think Steve McQueen's Le Mans film from the 70's has had a similar effect over the years.
@Shon De Vet - Sorry, but I have to disagree with you when you say most die hard racing fans may not have known who Miles was.......if they were, indeed, die hard racing fans (at least road racing fans), they certainly were familiar with the name Ken Miles!
This was a great film. I think Ron Howard’s Rush did the same thing for James Hunt.
@@GeriatricFan1963 Le Mans is an incredible film. Agreed. And so is Grand Prix with James Garner. Some of the cinematography in both films is incredible.
Great video/ I had the blessing of being at Sebring in '65 as a Boy Scout and meeting the entire team except for Ken Miles.
I was absolutely blown away by the movie and as a history nut myself I shared a lot of the concerns you brought up. It's Hollywood and they can't just appeal to the racing fans entirely, but that they made this movie and brought it to Rush level details is astonishing.
Thank you very much for this documentary. I am a race car driver and professional racing instructor and this movie, as well as your video, gives me goosebumps everytime. Brilliant stuff!
Thanks. I focused more on being informative than being thrilling, but it is a pretty engrossing story so I'm glad you were able to get into it!
Just watched the film, last night, for the first time. (I know, what kind of a supposed car guy am I)
Anyway, having professional motorsports background and having raced at Lemans(2004 GT Championship Team) I found it very entertaining. Wished I had seen it on the big screen, when it came out. Someone went to allot of trouble to make most of the scenes period correct. Awesome cast of characters. Actors did a fantastic job.
JT: Orlando, Fl
jakespeed63 I agree completely about the drive for authenticity; a neat little touch is that they had the sons of many of the real life drivers playing their fathers. At the Le Mans start in ‘66 Derek Hill, son of 1961 F1 champion Phill Hill, ended up doubling for British F1 champion Graham Hill, and Derek insisted upon having Graham Hill’s pencil-thin moustache drawn on him! It’s such a small detail since it has zero impact on the plot, (And Graham Hill isn’t really a character in the film) but when you see him standing behind Ken Miles in that scene, as a racing fan you instantly know that it’s meant to be Graham, and that to me shows that they went the extra mile.
@jakespeed63, in a movie that does not pretend to be a documentary authenticity is contingent on whether it contributes to ticket sales, and even if it does not, it can be diddled with. Take Iacocca's visit to Ferrari, for instance. That took place in 1963. We see him in the factory (starting at 4:58 in this excellent review). We also see three Ferrari 330 P3sor 4s in the foreground and three Ferrari F256s in the background. All of them look authentic enough. Trouble is that none of them would have been on the floor during Iacocca's visit. The latter were last raced two years earlier and the former were not even on the drawing board at that time. But yes, all of them are legendary Ferraris and therefore got into the picture.
@@EternalFringeDweller The reason they are there though is because those were the cars that the production had access to...(And often it's simply the case that those were the cars that survived the 55+ years between 1963 and 2019) They are still absolutely gorgeous even if they are there a few years earlier than they should have been.
@@GeriatricFan1963, the reason those cars are there is that they looked good, never mind accuracy. And there is no way any of the F256s or P3s are originals. The P3s are the lookalikes the movie makers used in the 1966 race. I have no idea why they decided to put three F256s into the picture. Ferrari stopped using them, or any front-engined cars for formula 1 races at the end of 1960s. The movie makers could have just as easily hired or made their own stage props that resemble the 1963 version of the F156 Aeros.
I can assure you that none of the F256s or the P3s are originals. Less than a handful were made of each. Not a single P3 even exists today. The ones that were not destroyed in accidents were converted to 412P or P4 specs. They are valued at between 35 and 45 million dollars each. The movie makers would find it cheaper to build their own lookalikes than to foot the insurance bill involved in hiring an original.
I really loved this film, in much the same way as Rush, it takes liberties with certain moments but still tells the basic story correctly and gives a feeling of authenticity and gives you a proper feeling of the sights sounds and smells of a real racing car.
They also cut out the team politic over at Ferrari, where they replace the # 1 Ferrari driver British John Surtees with Italian driver at at last moment. Surtees quit the team and went home.
BigFire True, it’s a shame that the late John Surtees isn’t in the film other than a brief mention on a radio; to be fair though Surtees deserves his own biopic rather than being a footnote in this story. I think it was Ludovico Scarfiotti who replaced Surtees at Le Mans ‘66 though, not Bandini. (Scarfiotti was related to Gianni Agnelli, boss of Fiat, and that was what motivated the decision)
@@GeriatricFan1963 I just check, Gianni Angelli (not Enzo Ferrari, who famously does not attend any races outside of Italy) attended Le Mans 1966 and for that reason, they replace Surtees with Scarfiotti (Angelli's nephew) as the lead hare driver.
Yes, they were still trying to get Fiat to buy shares in Ferrari; the film shows Fiat buying them in 1963 immediately after talks with Ford fall through. So obviously if Surtees was in the film they would need to make up a different motivation to replace him.
They cut everything out from the book. A book they OBVIOUSLY NEVER READ.
Miatacrosser Well, as good a book as it is, I could imagine this film being very unfocused had they kept the Surtees plot in. The only moment where Surtees’ story intersects with Miles/Shelby is right after Ferrari sacked him, when Shelby phoned up Surtees’ hotel room and offered him a seat in his team at the last minute. It’s a shame in a way that John turned him down; could you imagine a lineup of Ken Miles and John Surtees? No way would Beebe have even thought about a dead heat with an F1 world champion in the car. Denny Hulme of course didn’t become a champion until the year after.
The final insult was the text at the end when they credit Shelby and Miles for the wins in 68 & 69. They had absolutely nothing to do with them. The Gulf cars were developed by the John Wyer team from Mark 1 cars using the Gurney Weslake headed small block engines. Incidentally the first racing cars to employ Carbon Fibre.
Amazing video! I loved how you got into the nitty gritty and even hit on a few lesser known facts that I actually knew.
It was Shelby's suggestion to go for the dead heat, not Beebe's. Shelby himself said this in a 1998 interview (which is available on RUclips now - and this video actually shows a clip of it!).
He also said that it was one of his biggest regrets, presumably for that reason.
Suddenly had this and a whole bunch of clips from the film promoted to me on RUclips, well worth the time! Great video
Yeah, it is weird how one video can get favoured by the RUclips algorithm simply because I released it at the right time. Glad you enjoyed it though!
Ngl it became an unexpected favorite movie of mine.
You don't even have to like cars to get enjoyment of seeing two guys doing what they want to do despite corporate odds
Thank you. Great historic video about 1966 Le Mans race.
Love the real Le Mans movie soundtrack in the background.
This video was circling around my feed for a while now. I have always been in love racecars and me and my father both fell in love with this movie. So I was worried this video would be the typical 30 minute rant about how terrible the movie was and blah blah blah. But I was incredibly astonished at how positive and wholehearted you took the approach to both the movie, and the real life story. Thank you for this astounding video my friend :)
Keep up the good work! I look forward to more Motorsport videos from you in the future ❤️
Thanks! I'm really glad that you liked my approach. I'm working on a follow up video that talks about all the deleted scenes from the shooting script and why they were left on the cutting room floor. I was also thinking of doing a similar video to this one looking back at Ron Howard's 2013 film Rush; not just another motorsport film that I love, but in my opinion one of Howard's best ever films; only Apollo 13 tops it in my view. What's also really impressive is that Rush had only 1/6th of the budget of Le Mans '66, but in my opinion it looks just as good; the money that they had well and truly went on screen.
@@GeriatricFan1963 heck yeah! I can't wait to learn about Ford v Ferrari deleted scenes and how you compare them to actual history!
And I am now extremely eager to check out the movie Rush. Thanks for the recommendation!
Im looking forward to more of your content :)
It's so refreshing finding such positivity on RUclips these days. I'm so happy to have discovered your content.
this is VERY WELL DONE, and some very rare clips and info to be found here for avid miles and shelby fans. very rarely you hear voice clips of ken miles. i re-winded this several times trying to embrace the wealth of info this video has.
This video is easily the best and most accurate summary of facts, particularly the part about Amon leading
Thanks, I feel like Amon and McLaren's side of the story is all too often overlooked. There are some things were the gaps between cars weren't really kept track of too well, so accounts vary, but I tried to give the most detailed account that I could.
@@GeriatricFan1963 excellent stuff. The only really accurate sauce of information, I found, was Motorsport Magazine
Le Mans 1965 would had been an interesting race to add in. Not just it was Ferrari’s last win, the factory teams of both sides lost their cars thus it was won by a customer Ferrari who had very little chance of winning.
Regarding Walt Hansgen, he was scheduled to drive the "American Red Ball Special" at the Indy 500 in 1966. Graham Hill was selected to replace the deceased Hansgen and went on to win the race that year.
Incredibly interesting and well made video, props, keep it up
Thanks, that's very kind of you! I have another documentary in the works for my second channel which is all about a 40 year old British TV series called "The Professionals" which I hope to get finished by the end of the year. But I'll see if I can't make another video about motorsport/film on this channel also.
O
Great job producing this video Edward, Thank you
"Nothing but the facts mam" - nicely put together - keep up the good work
Man great video - thanks for taking the time to put this together!
No worries; it was tough because I released this just before the film officially came out, so all I had to work with were trailers and preview clips from chat shows, etc. I have since actually bought and ripped the Blu-ray with the intention of doing a video on all the deleted scenes from the shooting script.
Edward Hunter that would be a great video. And to put this together with such little to pull from is pretty impressive! I’ll subscribe so I don’t miss out on the new stuff 👍
I told my family the drama between Leo and Shelby was not real after we saw it for the first time, not to mention the cars in the background for both Ford and Ferrari included cars that did not yet exist. My summation of the movie: "It's the best result for a Hollywood movie."
You put a LOT of work into making this amazing video. Thank you!
No, thank you for watching it. I actually made this in about a month after seeing the film early just once at the London film Festival, so I'm very proud that it still stands up as well as it does.
As a novice race fan, I really appreciate your video. Thanks!
No worries, I'm glad I could make something informative as well as entertaining.
Definitely the best video on the subject, thanks for sharing.
No worries, glad you enjoyed it.
Hearing Ken Miles voice for the first time. Today is a good day
Great insight behind the real events... thank you for sharing!
You appreciate how close "Rush" was to the true story.
I feel like the main thing Rush did was that it didn't make Niki Lauda or James Hunt the villain, and that really worked in the film's favour. Rush didn't have as big a budget as Le Mans '66, but Peter Morgan's script was very strong and that I think is why Rush is seen as more authentic by racing fans; it made some changes of it's own but the story of Lauda's fiery crash and comeback 40 days later didn't require much artistic license to turn it into a Hollywood film; the main thing that got changed was some timeline condensing, which I think is understandable.
There is an actual documentary about "Rush". The director got help from Nikki Lauda himself at most points even in Details. As far as I remember, there was one detail about starting an F1-Car. The Script said " he get in, buckle up his belt and turned the key"... when Lauda read that, he asked the director "did you know anything about car racing?! If you can Show me only one F1-car, that is started with a key, you'll be the first one in this universe..." .
So, when Ford v Ferrari, or LeMans '66 , depending on where you life, was made, all of the original Drivers, Engineers oder Commitees wheren't there anymore.
Btw... what I really didn't know are most of the deads around 66. Hansgen between Daytona an LeMans, Bandini afterwards... daaaamn...
Bonus points for the music from the Le Mans movie in the background
Good movie, I watched with a mindset knowing everything is a fabrication and shouldn't take it too serious. Just a life of petrolheads doing what they do best to achieve their life goals. And that was all enough for this movie to be good.
My favorite part of the film is that the ford had 1 million gears
No wonder the gearboxes kept failing on the GT40...
@Furaha Ruhiu Wym? Downshifts right before corners get me going like nothing else!
What gets' me about the shifting in the movie is the enormous throw distance of the shifter to make a gear change. It's obvious the shifter used for the shots was NOT connected to anything.
Yeah when he puts the GT into its 18th gear and pushes the accelerator down so far it scrapes the pavement, thats good ol Hollywood
@@ElPINGAS9000 not to mention the scene where he hit the sacred 20th gear
I went to the movie to hear engines scream and see beautiful cars.
Then find a copy of Steve McQueen's "Le Mans". Very little plot and very little story and a LOT of car camera video.
@@chrisbaker2903 - Good advice!
That was a fine and balanced commentary.I doth doff my hat in your general direction sirrah or madame?
Pax vobis.
Chris Amon, widely regarded as one of the best F1 drivers never to win a championship Grand Prix.
It's hard to believe (and is widely unknown within the general New Zealand population) that at one point, we had basically the top 3 F1 champions all from our little pacific Island(s)
and all those 3 were in the 2 top cars in this race... Amon, Mclaren, and Denny Hulme who was .. you know... the one who was the OTHER driver with Ken Miles.... The one that drove half the race...)
Just like the lack of recognition you see for Ivan Mauger, considered to be the best speedway rider ever.
Fairly much, if it isn't Rugby/cricket, it isn't worth airtime...
I remember back in the 90's I tuned into the last minutes of the National TV news to hear "And in other news, Aaron Slight won the latest round of the world superbike championship, now for the weather..."
We are a little country (5m) and generally like to be a little understated... but we still like our heroes and to see 2 greats like Amon and Mclaren get such a little part when they played quite a big part of Ford's GT race scene does grate a little...
Chris Amon was a great racer, but he had horrible luck trough his career. I think Mario Andretti said about him,that if Amon would have been an undertaker, people would stop dying. Anyway, you New Zealenders can be proud of your great racers and racing history.
@@kadasrichard Funny thing is so many of our great stars are barely known by most NZ'ers
Speedway was once one of the greatest sports on the planet... Ivan Mauger was 6 times World Champion... Probably no one under 40 in NZ would have a clue who he was....
(and if theu read the name they wouldn't realize its sorta pronounced "Major" so would have even less.
Oh and I turned to the sport news years ago just to se the end...
"blah blah blah...
And in other news, Arron Slight won the latest round of the world superbike championships..
now the weather"..
Like it was as important as a street light out on east nowhere street...
@@TheButlerNZ Ivan Maguer used to come to a few races in my hometown Speedway, he was certainly one of the best Speedway riders. It always fascinated me, that with such small population, New Zealend gave and continues to give great athletes to the sporting world, the likes of Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Jonah Lomu way back, Scott Dixon and Scott McLoughlin now. Some great boxers like David Tua and Joseph Parker.
@@kadasrichard Maybe because we have parks and rivers and the sea and hills and more all at most of our fingertips... life isn't bad, generally everyone is friendly, tou can do almost anything... so you can get a chance to find something your good at.
Then there's people like Burt Munro (Worlds fastest Indian)... the movie was like a small chapter of the book. Dad used to tell me of a guy making pistons in baked bean cans for his bike...
Unfortunately the world is writing a million rules that stop what we term "#8" mentality... (you can make anything given some duct tape and a length of #8 fence wire...
Funny thing... I got a friends bike back 200k after a throttle cable broke.. by wiring the return cable to the pull... with a half heart necklace, some duct tape... and literally a rusty bit of #8 fence wire from a ditch in the middle of the Nth Island...
Don't forget Bob Mclain kiwi driver who moved to Canada's west coast. He ran a gas station in Vancouver and did lots of racing at westwood race track. Died in67 i think at sebring in a GT40 for Comstock racing
22:30
Although chis amone and bruce mclaren had a bad start too the tyres they were using werent very good and were different from the others because they were sponsered by them(not sure which brand). And they were regularly having the to pit stop because the tyre were wearing very quickly, and they fell to the back of the pack. They then ask if they could change tyre to what the other fords had used, they did and battled their way to the lead. With two laps ahead of miles.
Like I said in the video, there are conflicting accounts, (Mainly from the mechanics on the no. 1's side of the garage) but given that Chris was there and actually driving the car for about half the race, I feel like his side of the story carries with it a fair bit of weight. Chris doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would smear Miles; even if this was the biggest win of his career, he admitted himself that he'd rather have raced for it without any team orders, even if it did put the no. 2 back where he felt it should have been in the first place.
pretzel door Another fun thing I noticed; in the film the no. 2 car starts Le Mans 1966 on Goodyear tyres like the other Ford’s. In real life they started on Firestone’s before switching early in the race, like you said, because they kept falling apart. So the film basically doesn’t include that, and to be fair you can kind of see why; its not hugely crucial to Miles’ race.
One of my grievances with the film were the cockpit scenes. For example the camera highlights Ken downshifting then shows the tachometer which should gain RPM but shows it dropping before climbing. The other is while on the Mulsanne straight where he "punches" the throttle pedal from a throttle position that is absolutely wrong for the place he was on the track and the situation during the race. I get that it is dramatically effective for non-enthusiasts but the real enthusiasts were most likely a major portion of ticket sales.
Nice use of music from the Le Mans movie to set the mood for the first few laps
Cheers, I love that score. Plus I made this video before the official score for this film was released.
That senna prost clip always makes me smile!
I don't care about the movie...although it's what brought me here...thank you for making an accurate and true version of it to help me understand the history behind this historic moment
Why lol? The movies great😂
No wonder Miles wife was happy after hearing he would get $200 a day plus expenses, that is a lot of money back then & would be over $1,500 a day in todays money!
Man this was such an amazing video.
A great book that tells the story in it's entirety is "Go Like Hell". Recommend the read if anyone wants to get the complete picture.
@Wilson Riley - You are 100% correct on that one!
FIA sports car of that period (including the GT40's and later the 917's) had to carry a spare tire and a mandated size suitcase/tool kit. The five FIA Cobras Shelby built in an attempt to win the 1964 World Championship solved this problem by having triangular divots whacked into the trunk/boot lid. I know this because way back in the day I had the chance to drive one of the remaining four cars. I assumed the film's writers 'borrowed' this idea for the Willow Springs scene.
Great video, this is very informational!
Cheers, glad to hear that you enjoyed it!
Loved the last clip, sealed the whole story.
25:03 That picture is of Bruce McLaren's crash and death.
There isn't really any footage from Ken Miles' fatal accident scene, so I put in McLaren's from Goodwood.
@@GeriatricFan1963 Fair enough, good video though.
@@GeriatricFan1963 that's just as bad as what Hollywood does ... pity
@@GeriatricFan1963 ya they couldn't even film it where it happened today even if they wanted to. What a waste of an historic place. Shoulda' been kept as a monument to the God of Speed.
Excellent work, thanks for the education
I was disappointed that the movie ignored the Cobra Daytona Coupes which convinced Ford that Shelby could manage a team to victor at Le Mans.
Yeah, that's a major part of the book
@@GeriatricFan1963 I AGREE BECAUSE THE DAYTONA COUPE WON LE MANS IN ITS CLASS IN 64
@@denniswashburn9662 - And it won the World Manufacturers Championship in '65 - the only American built car to do so to this date! 🤠🏆🏁🏅
Great video. Thanks!
The problem that I have with most historical drama, is that they change history to “dramatise” the events. History is dramatic enough, you don’t have to change it.
@L C - Then I would suggest you just stick to documentaries, and forget the historical drama aspect of movies!
@@Loulovesspeed sure but I was also kind of let down and confused as to why make this film at all.
@@its_kumar_babyyy - Why were you "let down"? Did you expect something else? Not sure what confused you either. I'm guessing you are not a devotee of motor racing or you wouldn't have said that. Ford vs Ferrari, or as it is titled in Europe, Le Mans '66, was the story of the greatest rivalry in the history of motor racing, and it wasn't between two drivers, but two manufacturers, worlds apart in the types of cars they made and why they made them.
It’s more about cutting the events down to be told in a 2 hour story then just changing to change
Enjoyed this very much. Also really enjoyed the movie. Admittedly the omissions of key people made in the film initially irked me. But now I look at it as "The Ken Miles Story" and not so much Ford V Ferrari.
A great video just finished watching this film I know.... a bit late considering this came out end of last year at the time I wasn't convinced it was going to be true to the story as Hollywood tends to change true stories just to make it Hollywood like, so I wasn't going to be interested in going to see it at the cinema. But I watched a documentary a few years ago and the whole documentary was portraying that Ford was the hero and Ferrari were the bad guys which kind of annoyed me being a Ferrari man myself. But in reality, Ford not only did they try to buy out Ferrari but also tried to fool the great man by giving him less sum of money to invest in the racing department which Enzo stated he only wanted to control the racing side. when the negotiations didn't go there way Ford still spent so much money into the Le Man program I couldn't believe how much they did spend to try and beat a team that didn't have much money but had the pedigree in success which Ford struggled to capture. The frustration I had with this film was the lack of effort put in the characters for Ferrari and the driver(s), I felt that Lorenzo Bandini looked like a mafia assassin rather than a racing driver and every time they capture him on the screen it just felt like he looked a bit sinister. But I know this film was dedicated to Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby but I wished the film did show more respect between the drivers at the Le Man race because in real life they all did and some were close friends off the track as they all knew how deadly this sport is and how brave they all were. But if someone who doesn't follow Motorsports I guess as a film was really good to watch but shouldn't films portray the true beauty of such stories like this one I guess depends on the person's opinion.
Hearing the name James Dean made my ears perk up
As only half the stuff was made up and some of that was re-attributed, it was pretty accurate for a US film.
ps
The corporate suit vs the driver was going on at Ferrari. Which is why John Surtees didn't drive the race.
I agree completely. Surtees unfortunately didn't show up in the film besides being mentioned on the radio at one point. (Just before Ford go off for the '65 Le Mans, they hear a report of him dominating at the Nurburgring for Ferrari) I think Il Grande John deserves his own biopic someday, fascinating character and I think his story would attract fans of both motorcycle racing and automobile racing.
@@GeriatricFan1963
I assume you have seen the James May Grand Tour GT40 thing ?
@@kevinshort3943 I did but only after somebody else posted it. It was decent and the footage of May in the Bucknam/Hutcherson GT40 that placed 3rd is great, but for me the more interesting documentaries show the other side, I.E. McLaren and Amon's perspectives of Miles. Whereas May very much just says: "Ken was robbed", which I find annoying and reductive. (Although admittedly you could also accuse the film of the same thing, but it's a Hollywood biopic, not a documentary)
Kevin Short FU
"For a US film" biggest line of crap written about world wide hugely successful film industry recognized world wide as the best of the best.
I read on another YT comments section, so this might be wrong, but there was an IBM computer doing the timing for the race. When it rained, water got into the system and shorted it all out. When they went to the race officials they consulted with the Italian officials who were also timing the race with stopwatches and used their data to reset the computers. According to the Italians the Ferraris were a lap ahead of where IBM had thought they were, but being an American company, IBM kept the timesheets as they thought they should be.
Racing in the 60s was my time. I used to call Laguna Seca my home away from home. Unless my memory is playing tricks on me, I remember that at Le Mans 1966 that Dan Gurney had the fastest lap in practice and the fastest lap during the race. I believe that Dan's GT40 blew a head gasket which caused him to fail to finish. Dan was so tall that Shelby had to put a bubble in the car door so that Dan's helmet would fit. My recollection of Leo Beebe is that he had the reputation of being a slimy toad. What we heard at the time was the Beebe thought Ken was too old and too ugly to represent Ford. Ken was 48 in 1966, and if you look at a photograph of Ken, he had a very prominent nose and a very protruding chin.
The Ferrari P2 and P3 were great cars for shorter races, but they never finished a 24 hour race. The greatly improved P4 was able to finish second at the 1967 Le Mans race, behind a Ford Mk. 4. At Le Mans in 1965, 1966, and 1967, a Ferrari 275GTB came in first in the GT class.
JAG312 That’s true; Miles had impressive pace early in the race when fighting back from his door issue, but it was Gurney who took the fastest lap in the race; Miles I think recorded the highest speed in Le Mans history to that point down the straight, but he didn’t match Gurney’s best lap. (The film does not really make a clear distinction between the two) I also agree with you that Beebe may have disliked Miles for reasons other than his on-track performance; in the film they make it clear that although Miles is a naturalised U.S. citizen, Beebe is very patriotic and does not see Miles as “All American” like he does Gurney, Richie Ginther and Phil Hill, who were all born and raised in the States; I think Beebe would have preferred that Gurney/Grant had won, but between Miles/Hulme and McLaren/Amon, I suspect he had a tough time choosing, which is one of the many reasons why he floated the Dead Heat. And yes, the P3 was an awesome car; had Ferrari’s team manager not fallen out with John Surtees then I think we’d have seen him instead of Bandini taking on Miles in this film, since Surtees was an F1 champion and the most well-known Ferrari driver of the era. (Other than maybe Phil Hill) I would love to someday see a Ferrari biopic cover their POV of the Ford rivalry; Enzo is a compelling and enigmatic figure and for what little he is in this film, he is used very effectively.
You grew up in a hell of a time
@@bigfootjustkilledyou Damn right. I feel sorry for people who weren't there. Our lives were filled with fun.
@@GeriatricFan1963 I watched the movie twice. I watched it alone for the first time. I knew how it would end, and that made me sad. I took my grandson with me the second time. He liked it. When we got home, I showed him some photographs of a real GT40. "Who is that guy in the pictures?" That guy in a blue driving suit would be your grandfather. My grandson borrowed the pictures to show to his friends. I think I am now the coolest grandfather.
JAG312 Laguna Seca WAS my home! I was born in Monterey 1959! Used to go there all the time as a kid!👍
In 1966, my late father and his secretary were finishing dinner at home in Paris when he suggested "Why not go to Le Mans for the race?" whilst my mother served coffee. And they did. Left the dishes in the sink. They arrived a couple of hours into the night (Le Mans is only 200km west from Paris) and Henry Ford II was there, in the pits, a giant man my father recalled giving orders here and there. Quite a sight. They arrived during an accident in the night, not sure which one. Maybe you know?
Pretty sure the picture of Miles' crash when he died is actually Bruce McLaren's crash at Goodwood.
Yup, there wasn't any footage to really use for the Miles crash. TBH showing some tyre tracks was the best I could really come up with.
If so that is IMO disrespectful to Mr McLaren. The man should not have his death commercialised in such a shit house way in a shit house movie. Respect to you Mark Gerrard.
Gabriel Johannson Yeah no, barley anybody outside of the racing world knew about Ken Miles before this movie game out. This movie gives him a legacy the public will remember.
@@gabrieljohannson6777 No Edward Hunter used a shot of the crash to illustrate his point in the youtube video as there was no photograph of the actual crash to use. Read his comment. The film itself did not use anything related to Bruce's crash.
Fantastico video! veramente emozionante!! immagini e video d'epoca veramente spettacolari! onore per questi eroi
More than a few liberties with this film but it only goes to show that reality is far more entrancing.
James Mays' treatment of these events on The Grand Tour is worth a watch
Ya his ALL BRITISH treatment of this accomplishment. Don't ever let a Brit tell the story. According to them America had nothing to do with the GT40 story.
@@Miatacrosser and no Kiwis either mate! Three of the first four drivers over the line from NZ, and May couldn't find a sentence to mention that. One of them the youngest GP driver ever (up to that date, Amon), one of them a future F1 Champion, and in Bruce MacLaren one of the finest engineer/drivers the sport has ever seen (and GP winner also). None of them British though so didn't fit May's jingoistic narrative
@@mikehendry34 well that may be but they were just the chauffeurs. This was all about cars back in that era. Anyone of nearly 50 drivers at that time could've won LeMans. The fact that 3 Kiwi FORMULA ONE DRIVERS would be there is not a big surprise. The fact Ken Miles, who NEVER raced f-1 was the fastest of them all told me who the truly GREAT talent was there.
Also remember, if it wasn't for Carroll Shelby switching the #2 car to Goodyear tires during the race, as their Firestones were disintegrating, we would't even be having this conversation. Also, if you go back to the finish I think you'll be surprised to see that it's split 3 Kiwis, 2 Yanks, and an ex-patriot brit whom I've always considered American cause when he was 14 he tried running away to here, so he was always an American. He was just born in the wrong place.
@@Miatacrosser So what are you crying about......
Where did you find that footage of Miles at Sebring? This is only the second time I've heard his voice since watching the film.
MexicanBagpiper96 I searched around and found some old news clips from I think NBC sports and a few others. Some of them were washed out and had this red filter. As soon as I saw the “What’s next for you?” “Le Mans.” bit, I knew I had to fit it into the video somewhere, because the way he says that is so cool and matter of fact, and it really shows why they chose to immortalise Ken Miles in this movie. I also really liked the clip from Sebring of Shelby banging his pit board with a hammer, begging Miles to back off.
Nice touch ... putting the music from Steve MacQueen’s LeMans in there.
Cheers, I was glad a few people noticed that. It's the 50th anniversary of that film this year.
@@GeriatricFan1963 I have watched the film a bunch of times ... but I have watched the race start scene more times than I can count. The moment when the 25 car passes Steve MacQueen down Mulsanne ... and again coming across start finish ... that noise sends a shiver down my spine every single time. It also means that that music plays in my head when I am driving on track.
And the race was won by a couple of KIWI BOYS!!!!!! But seriously, Miles co-driver was Denny Hulme, Of the four top drivers across that finish line, they were 75% from New Zealand, 25% English. 0% american. Just what Ford would have wanted. Race must have been fixed.
Thank you for warning about spoilers. I'll comeback to watch another time
Arthur cheers Arthur, like I said it’s more rewarding to go in blind. I knew a fair bit of the story going in (I read the book Go like Hell a few years ago which details the story from both Ford and Ferrari’s POV’s) and when I saw the film for the first time, there were one or two moments where I expected them to cover something and then they almost completely glossed over it, which I’m not sure if it’s a failing of the movie or if I had the wrong expectations.
@@GeriatricFan1963 interesting, thankfully I dont have much knowledge about the story (or maybe I do and don't remember, my memory isn't good enough to know) so I think itll be an interesting view!
@@Arthur_da_dog go rent it at a Redbox for $2 and watch it already. Spoiler alerts should not count this far after it's release
@@GeriatricFan1963 ya cause if you know the REAL STORY cause you were a 14 year old FORD racing fan in 1966. You are not gonna like what hollyweird did to the greatest American acheivement in motorsports. So ya, go in blind and learn more faux-history from the silver screen.
@@Miatacrosser haven't had the time. My schedule is pretty much jam packed.
25:01 - Isn’t that Mclaren’s fatal accident when he was testing his new Can-Am car at Goodwood?
It is... For me it was the closest footage I could find without resorting to stock footage, which is something I am very resistant to.
@@GeriatricFan1963 kind of appropriate as there is something about these 2 fatal crashes that echoes and not just the tragedy aspect of losing these 2 motorsport legends.
I'm lucky and live about a half mile from the Shelby American Collection. They have 8 64 to 67 GT40's on display. Including the official 2nd(#1) and 3rd(#5) place cars from 66 LeMans. While talking to a volunteer there he indicated their records show #1 car was up by 2 laps and the #5 car was up by one lap. I failed to ask what records they had reviewed to get those results. The collection includes original AC Bristols, Cobras, Shelby Mustangs, Ford GT's and even a "Works" Sunbeam Tiger.
Depends which lap they're talking about. The #5 car of Bucknam and Hutchison was 12 laps down by the finish, so I find it extremely unlikely that they lost 9 laps on the lead through the team order shenanigans. Sources vary so much on the gap between the #1 and #2 though; anything from 2 laps to 2 minutes. And again, we don't know if that's before or after the team orders were called, if we go by Chris Amon's version of events.
After watching the movie I thought it was incorrectly named it should have been Ford vs Carroll Shelby it seemed to me that Ford hired Shelby then tried to hold him back but that probably just the movie
Yes, it was just the movie! It was Mile's personality and demeanor that scared Ford a bit - too much of a rebel in their eyes, the type that very well could get out of control and threaten the team's success. Some of those feelings were justified, but Ford didn't completely understand Mile's driven determination to win.
I love the “Le Mans” film music at 16:30
one of the best movies of the 2010s, change my mind
Leo Mathlein it’s certainly one of the best racing/car films, but I would argue that Rush (2013) tops it in my opinion, if only for Daniel Brühl’s tour de force performance as Niki Lauda. Christian Bale is great in Le Mans ‘66, but Brühl is brilliant from start to finish; his performance is so good that Niki’s friends and family thought that it was actually him doing the opening voiceover narration, not an actor!
Sorry I can’t
@@GeriatricFan1963 I do like both and can't really pick a winner (dead heat lol) but I do get annoyed by the "dead heat" as portaryed in LeMans 66 when everyone knows how it actually looked. Google Lemans 66 and the first page of images shows it directly: www.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/styles/flexslider_full/public/slideshow_image/15-ford-gt-1966-le-mans_0.jpg?itok=iIDD98Ad If you watch Niki Lauda's crash in Rush, and then find footage on youtube of the actual crash, it's really hard to see the difference. The film makers worked really hard on getting that right.
Heat was a better movie imo, but ford vs ferrari was better eye candy
11 cars in the race @ Le Mans. Geez!
Several points throughout this video I kind of wished there were subtitles because it is really hard to hear
Ed great narrative and documentary on the movie. Why do you only have 979 subscribers? I just subscribed. Great work 👍
Probably because I don't upload very much. But thank you.
3 kiwis in the top cars at the front of the grid. That deserves it own movie
No
@Joe Cool you don't know. They were told to slow long before the controversy came up. If they had let them race, I think maybe Bruce and Chris could've held on but of the four drivers, Miles was the fastest so who knows if either would've finished and we'd be celebrating an All-American victory one year earlier than we did.
Maybe we can get Taika Waititi to direct,that would be cool!!!!
Tony Rata I think Taika could easily do an amazing dramatic/comedic biopic just about Chris Amon’s entire career and how it was plagued by bad luck. The move to Ferrari for 1967 should have been his big break, but instead it turned into a disaster. He even created his own team Amon and the jinx still followed him around!
@@GeriatricFan1963 If you haven't seen this check it out, and gives an insight into the beginning of the shape of the front of the GT40: ruclips.net/video/w3dkwXGaETE/видео.html
like the music from the le mans movie hidden behind the voice over by micheal legrand
Of course movies always have to dramatize things to keep the viewer interested. Nice to know the facts though. Thanks for sharing.
Excellent, The film is finished in Cinemas here, waiting for it on Cable TV. I don’t disagree with anything in this film . My parents gave my a copy of Automobile Year in 1967, & there is a photo of the finish in that book. It’s in a box of books stored . Have to pull it out. I crawled all over one of the Wyer Cars that was in Melbourne in 1975 I think. Loved the shape of the GT40.
I think the film just came out on digital release, with a physical release following in early February. I definitely think it's a film that greatly benefits from the theatrical experience, especially due to the sound design. I saw the '68 Le Mans winning GT40 running at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year, and it was everything that I had hoped it would be.
@@GeriatricFan1963 That very same car won in '69 too! 😃
In isolation, it's a great movie and a wonderful depiction of endurance racing and engineering. It doesn't bother me that they edit certain events for dramatic purposes. The unkind depictions of several rel people is somewhat upsetting however.
The depiction of Leo Beebe is frankly insulting and I'm sure any surviving family of his will have been horrified by the film since this will be how the younger generation remembers him. In addition, the depictions of the other drivers was rather unfair. Hansgen and Bandini are shown as being aggressive and/or unpleasant while personal accounts suggest otherwise. On top of this, the film makes it seem like Miles is the only driver who is capable of developing the car and driving it without destroying it. In reality, his teammate at Le Mans was Denny Hulme, an F1 world champion. McLaren in particular is made to seem like a corporate yes man who is significantly inferior to Miles in all aspects. In reality he was one of the most important men in the history of motor racing, both as a driver (he held the record as youngest GP winner for more than 50 years) and as an engineer (the team he founded is among the most successful F1 teams in history and is widely viewed as Ferrari's biggest rival in all motorsport).
I agree with you on most points, with the exception of Bandini and Bruce McLaren, who is barely in the film and shares one line with Ken at the end after winning. Bandini is shown to be a match for Miles in wheel-to-wheel battles; yes, they do cut to him making some villainous smirks at Ken's misfortune, but he never does anything all that dirty. Walt Hansgen on the other hand is done kind of dirty by the film and I feel like the biggest disrespect is not even mentioning Hansgen's fatal crash in the build up to Le Mans. I can understand why having basically made him the antagonist, the film can't suddenly ask us to care about his death, but for me they could have used it to at least show Ken's empathy for his fellow drivers, as well as foreshadowing his own fatal crash at the end of the film.
@@GeriatricFan1963 Thanks for the reply. I am probably being a little overly critical and I realise that they couldn't have given huge amounts of screen time to the other drivers without ruining the pacing. I am probably inferring too much regarding the character of the drivers from very little information.
I think my biggest issue was how the team falls apart without Miles present. That implies that the other drivers were below his level when Hulme, Amon and McLaren were all elite drivers and McLaren at least was an exceptional mechanic.
I only watched it recently so it's all very fresh my mind and I felt like venting a little. Apologies for the hassle, I really do appreciate getting such an eloquent reply.
My 2 questions about the film are 1) did ford achieve its goal? The GT40 is a marketing campaign to our sell chevy’s. I can’t locate any info if this was ultimately successful 2) the film tries to make Ken’s loss a ‘technicality’. Wouldn’t they know the rule considering they had run the race the previous year? It tough for me to feel bad for Miles when they should have known the rules of the race. Otherwise a solid film.
Good question; I'm not sure if it helped sales in America, but in Europe it really helped Henry Ford II to set up Ford of Europe, the first ever pan-European automobile company which turned a huge profit. As for the rules, when it comes to technical stuff such as the regulations for the car design and construction, they would have known that. But would they have known the rules in the event of a dead heat, something that had never ever happened at Le Mans before? Absolutely not. The previous two years all the Fords retired long before the end, so they'd never even got to the chequered flag, let alone with two cars on the lead lap.
Edward Hunter disagree. If they won, then have the win taken away because they fail inspection is no different. I’m not saying Ken should have known, but someone should have.
-Denny Hulme also backed up what Amon said.
It sure makes more sense that Bruce Mclaren would say the words "go like hell" in handing out to Chris Amon. Both Mclaren and Amon were New Zealanders and this is more a New Zealand related attitude. In banter and advice. That the Americans would never necessarily use in their same line of vocabulary unless it contained more 'colourful' expletives
I liked how they implemented it into the story by having Shelby put it on a pit board; short, concise, gets the point across; fuck the RPM limit, let's go for the win. (Because in the film Shelby knows if Ken doesn't win he won't be going to Le Mans) Everyone knows you don't swear on a pit board; it's a waste of a word when the driver only has a split second to take information in at 200 MPH...
@@GeriatricFan1963 This New Zealand way of expressing one's self at the time. Is a similar reminder as to how Sir Edmund Hillary said of conquering Mount Everest. How he "knocked the bastard off". Where as it also that the presence of Bruce Mclaren as a driver (and test driver) for Ford. At the time was also due to Mclaren utilizing the Ford venture to subsidize the running costs of the Mclaren Racing team. The trio on Top being New Zealanders Mclaren, Amon and Denny Hulme. Who at the time were at the forefront of world motorsport
Kenny Miles drove a tank through Normandy? ‘Co’mon Kenny....you can do better than that...giddy up....giddy up...co’mon girl” To me, some of the changes are unnecessary and I would rather they stuck to the facts. I loved Bale as Kenny but not Damon as Shelby....not the same type guy...and shortchanging BeeBee was not fare at all. This video was excellent. Very well done. Glad I watched it after, not before watching the movie.I. must admit I wished they tried more to be factual.
@free market joe - Are you implying that Ken did not command a tank at the Normandy landing? You would do well to read more on Miles and his life. It helps clarify his whole outlook on life and therefore gives you a much more realistic sense of who he was and what drove him. You want more factual info about Ken, read A.J. Baime's great book "Go Like Hell."
Learned a lot. Thank you
I prefer a good documentary over a fantasized film that's based on true events. Naturally, the truth is far more dramatic and fascinating in the whole grand scheme of things.
I found this film about 2 wks ago a great movie(as a sim racer). Its now 1205 am just about to cook a curry and was gonna spend half hr as usual deciding what movie to watch whilst eating,now im gonna watch this again.
Ah cool, I've done some sim-racing myself. These days I am more of a commentator (and highlights editor) than a driver though!