What a great movie. You wouldn’t think a racing could make you emotional. And I’m not just talking about the ending. There are many times in the movie where it just draws you in.
Not to rain on your parade, but most "sports movies" are not actually about the sport. Like, yes, the sport is the plot, but it's about the emotions, the story behind the sport, the ups, the downs, the struggle. Is it formulaic ? Yes, but it's one hell of a formula, that keeps on working.
Enjoyed your reaction to this movie very much. Another great racing movie is "Rush" (2013) with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl. It also depicts real events, but in Formula 1 between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 70s. I really recommend to watch and react to it at some point in the future.
I saw an interview with Carroll Shelby a few years before he passed away. You could tell that decision to have Ken back off and not win outright was still eating at him. The Shelby name is legendary in the part of Texas where I grew up and several members of my family went to work for Ford because of him and Ken. That blue oval was all over my grandparents house.
Just about the best racing movie out there, it's just fantastic. Everyone in it did a wonderful job portraying the real events. Another racing movie about real events that I really liked in recent years was Rush (2013), featuring two actors you might know from the MCU - Chris Hemsworth fresh off his success in the Avengers and Daniel Bruhl a few years before he was the main villain in Civil War.
Hi MravacKid, for your information the real, actual events of this Ford era are posted on RUclips. Minus the grocery shopping fight scene and giving credence to the actual mechanic that hammered the corner luggage dimples into the trunk of the F.I.M. Cobra race car. The hammering was done without drama and in as control effort as possible. " Hey! "
In this movie Dan Gurney was played by his son Alex. Dan Gurney was one of the three Shelby American drivers. He didn't finish the 1966 race his radiator went at hour 18. He won the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans.
You're the second woman reactor I,ve seen watch this film who had no interest in cars or racing, and were skeptical at the beginning, but quickly got into it, and loved it.
I tried to get my girlfriend to watch this movie with me, but as it was about racing, after 10 minutes she just asked if she could go do something else as she wasn't interested (and not willing to give the movie a chance based on the subject). It was a bit sad and annoying tbh 😅
Le Mans was a freaking beast of a race, with driving teams having to race the car for 24 hours. A delay like the fire that nearly killed Shelby at the beginning of the movie could easily be made up as the race continued.
When I saw the title card for this video, I was hyped knowing that Mary will probably think that she wouldn't like this movie (and I was right). Moreover, by the end of the film, she would end up loving it tremendously (and I'm right again). She's the 2nd reactor who felt the exact same way. It's a spectacular movie that touches lots of emotions and shows the greatness of people when they put their mind to something. Loved your reaction Mary. Try touching on films of different genres to get a feel for different types of films. In the meantime, how about a film for the Easter season? Perhaps "The Robe"?
For an even better film about racing that's also a retelling of real events, watch 2013's Rush. Daniel Bruhl should really have been nominated for an Oscar for that. It's a passion project made by Ron Howard, who also made for instance Apollo 13. It's also more accurate to the real events than this one (not that this is a bad movie!), partly because to allow their name and cars' likeness to be used in this one Ford demanded rewrites to the script. Famously all references to Henry Ford's nazism had to be taken out and replaced with a speech about how patriotic Ford was.
@@bizjetfixr8352 Did you see the movie? There's a whole speech about how Henry Ford supposedly helped fight the Nazis. Ford Motor Company demanded that be crowbarred in or they wouldn't allow their name and cars to be used in the movie
This movie is just so good. And it's old fashioned in a lot of ways. But also extremely modern in its execution. And an amazing story. What an incredible movie to come out in the midst of this franchise era.
Hi Mary! Great reaction, wasn't expecting this one. Since you liked this film, you might actually enjoy Grand Prix (1966) by John Frankenheimer. The characters are pretty good, and the racing scenes are incredibly well-shot for 1966. It takes place in the same year as Ford vs Ferrari, but it's about Formula One.
IMO, Grand Prix has better racing scenes mainly because they were all practically done using real cars and real tracks. It's still one of my favorite racing films.
Oh my goodness, I love this movie. I got the exact same emotions as you did in the same moments. As a kid I watched many Le Mans races because I loved cool race cars other than nascar. I didn’t know this was a true story until I saw it, it was a little before my time. Glad you liked it!
It's interesting how the movie presents Ford as the little underdog. In a way it was in racing at the time because they hadn't been doing it & Ferrari was quite good at it, but Ford was a massively larger company than Ferrari with far more money and resources. It's a David vs Goliath story where Goliath wins but he thinks he's David.
Ferrari had been racing sports cars since before WWII. Ford hadn't raced a car in a single sports car race before 1964 (the Cobras don't count......all Ford did was supply engines). How many companies since 1945 could start from absolute zero, and win the biggest race in endurance racing in three years, no matter how deep their pockets were? Especially against an established winner like Ferrari? Ford proved their point with the Mark IV. So fast, it was basically outlawed by a rule change. One wonders how far they could have gone with the Mk IV, had they stayed in the game, and developed a 5 liter engine for the Mark IV, in parallel with the Ford-Cosworth.
My grandfather was a truck driver and he used to listen to the races while on the road, he told me this story when I was a kid, about a crazy Texan and his wild British friend.
I love this movie. But there’s a few changes they made to the story. In real life it took the Ford team 3 years to finally beat Ferrari. 1966 was their first victory at LeMans, and it was the last time Ferrari ever raced LeMans. Also Ford never had any problem with Ken Miles, the writers threw that in to make the story better. Enzo Ferrari was known for challenging people by insulting them, not just Henry Ford II but also Ferruccio Lamborghini, who complained to Enzo about the clutch on his Ferrari car and Enzo basically said “you don’t tell me how to make my cars better, you make tractors”. And that’s when Lamborghini decided to start manufacturing sports cars to compete with Ferrari.
Another inspiring true story with great actors and actresses is the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian staring Anthony Hopkins. It has a Rotten Tomato score of 85.
One of the few movies you've reacted to that I had not seen. This one has been on my radar for a long time, so it looks like I will be watching it this weekend so I can then enjoy your reaction. Thanks for all you do Mari.
There is so much more to this story than was in the movie. The scene with Henry Ford in the GT-40 talking about his father. Edsel Ford was a car guy, that was back stabbed by his own father, Henry the first. Died early. The GT 40 was the kind of car that Ford would have been building much earlier, had he lived, and had control of the company. The movie doesn't really mention it, but the sports car types were kind of terrified of running the Daytona high banks at 200 miles an hour. Lloyd Ruby was an Indy driver, who had no history of driving sports cars. He was teamed with Ken Miles. Many drivers teamed together had arguments about setting up the cars. Ruby OTOH, basically told Miles "Set up the car the way you want it, and I'll drive it however you set it up". Then proceeds to get in it, and started running 200 mph on the high banks.
This movie touches people who are not even interested in racing because it is not all about racing. The overall tension in the movie comes from the corporate/business side trying to subdue and control the someone who is very passionate about something. That is a universal struggle that everyone understands. We all have experienced or know someone who's experienced having to balance or compromise between doing what they love and serving some business or larger entity. Fantastic movie.
Carroll was an interesting guy. I met him at the original grand opening of the Shelby American museum. There was nothing but suits, like Leo Bebe and the like, and when a 12 year old kid in jeans and a tee shirt (me) walked up to him to shake his hand, he lit up like a Christmas tree. I will never forget that moment.
Leo Beebe wasn't the villain in real life that they made him out to be in the movie. He got along with people, he wasn't nearly as stubborn and stupid, and he didn't deliberately screw Ken over. But it's a Hollywood movie, and they needed an antagonist. It would have been hard to make Ferrari the bad guy because he was on the other side of an ocean most of the time. It's a great movie nevertheless. In 1952 Pierre Levegh tried to drive the whole 24 hours of Le Mans by himself. He had a four-lap lead going into the last hour, but a bolt in the engine came loose, and the car quit on him. Current rules don't allow anyone to drive the whole race the way Levegh tried to do.
The biggest insult to the mind of Henry Ford the second was that Ferrari had said he isn't Henry Ford, he is Henry Ford the second. In other words he was saying he is not the man or legacy his father was, that I am sure pissed him off as a man who revered his father Henry Ford and considers himself the maintainer of the Family name and legacy in automobiles.
Henry Ford II was Henry Ford's grandson. Edsel Ford was Henry Ford II's father. Edsel Ford was the one who liked race cars and luxury cars, cars which his father (Henry Ford) was reluctant to produce. That's why Henry II cries in a later scene because his dad Edsel would have loved the Ford GT40.
2019 was low key a GREAT year for movies. Love love looooooove this movie. Not super doable but if you ever get a chance to see this on a big screen, do it. I could almost smell the gasoline.
It's been so long ago now, I can't remember much about it, but there used to be an "unlimited" racing class having few rules governing what sort of car you could put at the starting line. For awhile, those races were insanely exciting, with wins proving who was the best team of manufacturers, engineers, and drivers in the world. Putting every innovation in a car each season was insanely expensive, and allowing for such innovations eventually produced a supercar that easily won everything to the point where everybody else gave up hope of ever besting it, or ran out of money, or got tired of losing, and dropped out. You can't race if only one car shows up at the starting line, and the series died out. So, we have a lot of sorts of racing classes and types, each having complex sets of rules setting limits on cars. This produces competitive racing, which fans seem to enjoy better than total beat-downs. It also helps prevent driver deaths. A big plus is people can bet on the races if the outcome is not predetermined. Formula 1 is the purest form of racing left to fans these days, but the need to engineer the F1 cars to excel within the rules tends to produce some very strange innovations that do little to further the overall value of the normal cars we drive, because they are aimed to produce more horsepower, less drag, better braking, or better steering response within the rules of F1, and they are useful only for that purpose. That's probably an overstatement, but will you ever really need a system for your car that transfers tire friction to the brake rotors and pads to warm them up faster so that the driver can immediately brake at a higher efficiency level going into the first turn? Mary, if you enjoyed this movie, be aware that there is a TV series, "Drive to Survive" that has been running (racing?) on Netflix since 2019. It is excellent, not really focusing on the races, but, instead, giving the viewer a glimpse of the exotic locales all over the world, bios on the studly young drivers, all of whom have massive confidence of the sort that seems to attract the ladies, and the production and racing teams' struggles to put a winning car on the track.
Ken Miles was 47 years old when he first raced at LeMans. And essentially won. He slogged around for a long time racing underfunded equipment. In the process, he learned car development. The Cobra is what it is today, thanks in part by Ken Miles. He's a hero to us guys who have had to compete with people who have more money, and more resources.
17:32 They used to start LeMans like that.. untill Jackie Ickx protested in 1969 by walking to his car, because he knew that some drivers wouldn't even put on their safety belt... and he was proven right.... a couple of accidents occurred with deaths as a result.
I knew you were gonna love it. Because it's just excellent. And so entertaining! If you watch the documentary about them, it was pretty close to the truth.
I have never been a car guy, but damn I went to see it because I needed to kill 4 hours and I loved it so much I couldn't believe it. Next day I took my stepfather, a car lover and mechanic, to see it. Watch him love this movie so much (near to tars) was a gift from the universe.
Le Mans is still going on. Also, the character of Leo Beebe, the a-hole Ford exec is pretty fictional. What what they say, he was actually a good guy, but they needed to create some zest for the movie.
@@hempchimp Maybe true, but they stated they didn't realize the issue with the timing until the last lap and they couldn't communicate with the drivers to change it. Mistake like that happen, however to turn him into this bad guy that tries to sabotage the team throughout is BS.
@@hempchimp Or bothers you? The truth is that this guy wasn't actively trying to stop the team, that he wasn't the villain in real life portrayed in the movie. Plenty of people have said his portrayal wasn't accurate. There was a mistake in 1966 that caused the wrong guy to win, that is probably the only thing correct about him in this movie.
@@hempchimp Please, you clearly didn't prove your point and erasing due to that. I stated a simple fact you tried to railroad into some beyond what it was, and in the end, was wrong. His portrayal was mostly fictional, and somehow you got it in your mind to prove that wrong, and only supported my view. Why? Because you can't argue with the truth.
15:55 I feel like that cat is staring into my soul. I was in the same position as you; I did not expect to like this movie, but I did. It's a little bittersweet for me though, because I had a friend who passed in 2018 who was a huge fan of Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, the AC Cobra and the Ford GT. She would have loved this movie. Miss you girl.
True story kens son worked for Shelby America for years I don’t believe his mother would let him drive though.... also Ken miles started his racing career late in life and was one of the first professional drivers to workout and do physical training to help with endurance... he was one of the all time grates even though his driving career was tragically short
Thanks for watching as someone whose know this story for 30 years they did an exceptional job. I was expecting the Hollywood treatment but they were close enough to the real history I was happy. Then the acting & cinematography made it a great movie
I love this movie... I used to read articles in the car magazines by Carroll Shelby... All that time I never knew the backstory about how he became famous.
There's a lot in this movie that is still done today. Them closing miles door with a sledgehammer is very realistic even today. Gtworld released a short recently with a car thar came into the pits with a door that wouldn't close. A mechanic drop kicked the door shut. It's not uncommon to see people fixing cars mid race with hammers saws and copious amounts of duct tape even today. Also the brake change the did is similar to how many teams do it today. Instead of changing the components brakes on many endurance cars are designed to come off as a single unit with a quick connect / disconnect so they rip the entire brake system off for a corner of the car and slap on a new one so it can be replaced as fast as possible. The Formation finishe that lost miles the race are also very common at le mans even today.
As a guy who spent 13 years driving around the world in his Dodge Viper RT/10 (possibly the most badass sports car in American history - partially designed by Caroll Shelby) there was so much of this movie that resonated with me. The feeling is incomparable and I understood why the Ford president burst out into tears after experiencing it perhaps for the first time.
Again, excellent choice because you stepped out of your box and gave really good movie a chance! Even more, you have very good observations great remarks.
Carroll Shelby was born not far from where i live in Paris, Texas. I grew up being a big fan of his cars. I own a Shelby Cobra GT350 and a Shelby Cobra GT500. I still bump into some of his relatives around here when i drive my cars. They like to point out they are part of his family.
Endurance racing is still a thing, but drivers don’t do the entire race themselves. The biggest endurance races are the Daytona 24hr, Nurburgring 24hr, Spa 24hr, Sebring 12hr, Bathurst 12hr, Petite Le Mans (10hrs), and then the crown jewel of them all, the Le Mans 24hr. Professional drivers usually race in teams of three, sharing the same car. They change drivers during the pit stops, just like the tires. Drivers sometimes stay in the car for over 3 hours at a time, but there are rules regarding the maximum amount of time a driver can be in the car without taking a break. Since you enjoyed this movie so much, you should check out Rush. It’s the true story of the rivalry between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda, and the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship. It’s similar to Ford vs Ferrari in the way it’s a great story with compelling characters, that just happens to be set in the world of car racing.
RIP Ken Miles (November 1, 1918 - August 17, 1966), aged 47 And RIP Carroll Shelby (January 11, 1923 - May 10, 2012), aged 89 You both will always be remembered as legends.
LeMans used to start that way with the drivers running to the cars it hasn't been that way for many many years for safety reasons drivers wouldn't put thier belts on till the back straight to save time. In kart racing I have done both a modified LeMans start where you start on the wall at an angle, but the driver in the kart. I find it easier to pick up positions if you get a good jump. I have done a standard where you run to the kart for a 4 hour kart race with 3 drivers one kart. It was wild
A few interesting factoids, as a Belgian it's fun to know that Jacky Ickx was in that race in a ford but he crashed out, he did win in 1969. And as you see at Le Mans they had to run to their cars to start the race, this lead to countless of deaths because the drivers didn't get their seatbelts on. So at the start (search on youtube for 1969 le mans start) Jacky Ickx was protesting, so he walked to his car in defiance of that rule, belted him in properly and then started the race, still ending up winning. Sadly one of the guys that did run to their car died in a lap 1 crash because he didn't put on his seatbelts, the Le Mans running start was banned so from then on they start safely in their car. Jacky Ickx went on to win Le Mans 5 more times becoming mister Le Mans and one of the best racecar drivers ever to race without winning a Formula 1 world title. 24 hour races are still done today with Le Mans, Daytona and Spa-Francorchamps being the major ones. Every year drivers are ranked based on their experience and results and put into classes, so you have Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. For a 24 hour race, depending on the the car type you're required to have 3 drivers with at least one silver and one bronze driver, so you have one world class driver leading the team of three. (Just for Mary, Tom Boonen, is these days a bronze driver for example, so is Michael Fassbender, and they get paired with professional drivers) So you can't have one of the big teams having the three best drivers in the world, the drivers are spread out.
I saw this in the theater when it came out. Originally was going to see The Irishman but after seeing the length of it and hearing it wasn't that great I switched to see this and am 100% happy I did. I'm not a car person but I loved the movie.
Because of Ken slowing down at Le Mans he was denied the triple crown of 24 hour races....he won the other 2 that year and Le Mans would have been the final win...no other driver has ever done it
Nice touch having Ken Miles son wearing an Aston Villa top. Miles was from Sutton Coldfield, in Birmingham, and Villa are the local team. Bale didn't nail the accent but it's an ok attempt...
Leo Beebe was the true villain of the film I feel. He was the Ford executive who hated Ken Miles and ordered that he slow down, so that the Ford cars would cross the finish line at the same time. I don't think the drivers at Le Mans still run to their cars as depicted in this film (they did back then though). They stopped doing that for safety reasons. This film won numerous awards, and was one of the last films released by 20th Century-Fox before Disney bought the studio.
Great reaction as always Mary and well out of your comfort zone so really happy you enjoyed this great movie. I would suggest Rush as a follow up, another brilliant racing drama from recent years with brilliant performances and true events just like Ford vs ferrari.
Funny thing about the "go like hell" statement. In the mid 1980's Chrysler under the helm of Lee Iacocca made a custom version of the Dodge Omni and called it the Omni GLH. The GLH stood for "goes like hell." Shelby's personal car, the GLHS (goes like hell some more) could out accellerate the Ford Shelby GT350 from 0-60mph. It's assuming to see a hatchback economy car beat a sports car.
Enzo's insult actually cut deeper than you might realise. Ferrari was quoted as saying "in racing, only winning matters, and no one remembers who was second". Ford didn't care about being called fat, pig-headed - those were just names. But when Enzo said that he wasn't Henry Ford, but Henry Ford II, he implied that his father was the great one, and he was just insignificant.
Since you liked this movie, I recommend Rush, starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl! (Thor and Baron Zemo). It’s a great movie too!
I also recommend this
im signing this petition! we want rush!
Me too
this movie is really good, Hemsworth and Bruhl gave a great performance in it.
Agreed!
What a great movie. You wouldn’t think a racing could make you emotional. And I’m not just talking about the ending. There are many times in the movie where it just draws you in.
Not to rain on your parade, but most "sports movies" are not actually about the sport. Like, yes, the sport is the plot, but it's about the emotions, the story behind the sport, the ups, the downs, the struggle. Is it formulaic ? Yes, but it's one hell of a formula, that keeps on working.
15:48 kitty is like “I can see you”
Enjoyed your reaction to this movie very much.
Another great racing movie is "Rush" (2013) with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl.
It also depicts real events, but in Formula 1 between James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 70s.
I really recommend to watch and react to it at some point in the future.
Daniel Brühl did one of the best performances I have seen on that movie. He became Niki Lauda
Yes would be must afther seeing this reaction. :)
The cinematography, editing, and sound design are some of the best I've seen in any major studio film over the past 10 years.
I saw an interview with Carroll Shelby a few years before he passed away. You could tell that decision to have Ken back off and not win outright was still eating at him. The Shelby name is legendary in the part of Texas where I grew up and several members of my family went to work for Ford because of him and Ken. That blue oval was all over my grandparents house.
8:55 Corporate espionage is a very real thing. A lot of coporate employees sign NDAs when they are onboarded.
You might also like Rush, which is based on the rivalry between James Hunt & Niki Lauda and the 1976 Formula One season.
An epic true story about an epic friendship that no one knew about.
Just about the best racing movie out there, it's just fantastic. Everyone in it did a wonderful job portraying the real events.
Another racing movie about real events that I really liked in recent years was Rush (2013), featuring two actors you might know from the MCU - Chris Hemsworth fresh off his success in the Avengers and Daniel Bruhl a few years before he was the main villain in Civil War.
Hi MravacKid, for your information the real, actual events of this Ford era are posted on RUclips. Minus the grocery shopping fight scene and giving credence to the actual mechanic that hammered the corner luggage dimples into the trunk of the F.I.M. Cobra race car. The hammering was done without drama and in as control effort as possible. " Hey! "
I mean... it's no "Days of Thunder"
Definitely need to watch Rush now too Mari about the Duel between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda.
Now you gotta watch another car movie called "Rush" with Chris Hemsworth. It's another movie based on a true story and it's amazing.
In this movie Dan Gurney was played by his son Alex.
Dan Gurney was one of the three Shelby American drivers. He didn't finish the 1966 race his radiator went at hour 18.
He won the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Its a love story, the love of a supportive family, the love of a great friendship & working at a job that you absolutely love.
So glad you enjoyed this one! It’s a phenomenal story. I loved how they adapted it and really liked Christian Bale and Matt Damon’s acting here ✨
You're the second woman reactor I,ve seen watch this film who had no interest in cars or racing, and were skeptical at the beginning, but quickly got into it, and loved it.
It was more about the people than the hardware. Usually in car movies the cars are the real stars.
I tried to get my girlfriend to watch this movie with me, but as it was about racing, after 10 minutes she just asked if she could go do something else as she wasn't interested (and not willing to give the movie a chance based on the subject). It was a bit sad and annoying tbh 😅
Le Mans was a freaking beast of a race, with driving teams having to race the car for 24 hours. A delay like the fire that nearly killed Shelby at the beginning of the movie could easily be made up as the race continued.
When I saw the title card for this video, I was hyped knowing that Mary will probably think that she wouldn't like this movie (and I was right). Moreover, by the end of the film, she would end up loving it tremendously (and I'm right again). She's the 2nd reactor who felt the exact same way. It's a spectacular movie that touches lots of emotions and shows the greatness of people when they put their mind to something. Loved your reaction Mary. Try touching on films of different genres to get a feel for different types of films. In the meantime, how about a film for the Easter season? Perhaps "The Robe"?
For an even better film about racing that's also a retelling of real events, watch 2013's Rush. Daniel Bruhl should really have been nominated for an Oscar for that. It's a passion project made by Ron Howard, who also made for instance Apollo 13.
It's also more accurate to the real events than this one (not that this is a bad movie!), partly because to allow their name and cars' likeness to be used in this one Ford demanded rewrites to the script. Famously all references to Henry Ford's nazism had to be taken out and replaced with a speech about how patriotic Ford was.
What did old man Ford's politics have to do with anything in this movie? Or in the book the movie was based on?
@@bizjetfixr8352 Did you see the movie? There's a whole speech about how Henry Ford supposedly helped fight the Nazis. Ford Motor Company demanded that be crowbarred in or they wouldn't allow their name and cars to be used in the movie
This movie is just so good. And it's old fashioned in a lot of ways. But also extremely modern in its execution. And an amazing story. What an incredible movie to come out in the midst of this franchise era.
Oh this is one of my favorite movies! I'm so happy you are watching this! I'm just starting the review but I know you'll love it!
Hi Mary! Great reaction, wasn't expecting this one.
Since you liked this film, you might actually enjoy Grand Prix (1966) by John Frankenheimer.
The characters are pretty good, and the racing scenes are incredibly well-shot for 1966.
It takes place in the same year as Ford vs Ferrari, but it's about Formula One.
IMO, Grand Prix has better racing scenes mainly because they were all practically done using real cars and real tracks. It's still one of my favorite racing films.
Oh my goodness, I love this movie. I got the exact same emotions as you did in the same moments. As a kid I watched many Le Mans races because I loved cool race cars other than nascar. I didn’t know this was a true story until I saw it, it was a little before my time. Glad you liked it!
Your cat was staring into my soul at 15:55 😆😂😂
That was an absolutely lovely reaction.
It's interesting how the movie presents Ford as the little underdog. In a way it was in racing at the time because they hadn't been doing it & Ferrari was quite good at it, but Ford was a massively larger company than Ferrari with far more money and resources. It's a David vs Goliath story where Goliath wins but he thinks he's David.
Great job on this viewpoint! Hadn’t really thought of it this way.
Ferrari had been racing sports cars since before WWII.
Ford hadn't raced a car in a single sports car race before 1964 (the Cobras don't count......all Ford did was supply engines).
How many companies since 1945 could start from absolute zero, and win the biggest race in endurance racing in three years, no matter how deep their pockets were? Especially against an established winner like Ferrari?
Ford proved their point with the Mark IV. So fast, it was basically outlawed by a rule change. One wonders how far they could have gone with the Mk IV, had they stayed in the game, and developed a 5 liter engine for the Mark IV, in parallel with the Ford-Cosworth.
If you liked this, you have to watch Moneyball. It’s another movie you’d think you wouldn’t like but it’s amazing.
Great Reaction Mary. I knew you would be skeptical about watching this, but I knew you would love it. Great as always. You're the best!!
My grandfather was a truck driver and he used to listen to the races while on the road, he told me this story when I was a kid, about a crazy Texan and his wild British friend.
I love this movie. But there’s a few changes they made to the story. In real life it took the Ford team 3 years to finally beat Ferrari. 1966 was their first victory at LeMans, and it was the last time Ferrari ever raced LeMans.
Also Ford never had any problem with Ken Miles, the writers threw that in to make the story better.
Enzo Ferrari was known for challenging people by insulting them, not just Henry Ford II but also Ferruccio Lamborghini, who complained to Enzo about the clutch on his Ferrari car and Enzo basically said “you don’t tell me how to make my cars better, you make tractors”. And that’s when Lamborghini decided to start manufacturing sports cars to compete with Ferrari.
Rush is also a very good and emotional Racing Movie
Rush 2013, your next racing film. Grand Prix 1966 is a classic but it's 3 hours long and full of subplots that slow it down.
This movie is a modern masterpiece that deserves more attention... great choice!
Yes! I'm so happy to see other people reacting to this amazing film. Thank you for watching it. :)
Another inspiring true story with great actors and actresses is the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian staring Anthony Hopkins. It has a Rotten Tomato score of 85.
That's a fantastic movie.
Great movies makes you feel, no matter what the subject is. This movie does that very well.
One of the few movies you've reacted to that I had not seen. This one has been on my radar for a long time, so it looks like I will be watching it this weekend so I can then enjoy your reaction. Thanks for all you do Mari.
You cats making biscuits and cuddling in the background was a very enjoyable part of this reaction.
There is so much more to this story than was in the movie.
The scene with Henry Ford in the GT-40 talking about his father. Edsel Ford was a car guy, that was back stabbed by his own father, Henry the first. Died early. The GT 40 was the kind of car that Ford would have been building much earlier, had he lived, and had control of the company.
The movie doesn't really mention it, but the sports car types were kind of terrified of running the Daytona high banks at 200 miles an hour. Lloyd Ruby was an Indy driver, who had no history of driving sports cars. He was teamed with Ken Miles. Many drivers teamed together had arguments about setting up the cars. Ruby OTOH, basically told Miles "Set up the car the way you want it, and I'll drive it however you set it up". Then proceeds to get in it, and started running 200 mph on the high banks.
This movie touches people who are not even interested in racing because it is not all about racing. The overall tension in the movie comes from the corporate/business side trying to subdue and control the someone who is very passionate about something. That is a universal struggle that everyone understands. We all have experienced or know someone who's experienced having to balance or compromise between doing what they love and serving some business or larger entity. Fantastic movie.
This is such a sleeper movie. Everyone is like "race car movie? Meh" then if they watch it they love it.
Carroll was an interesting guy.
I met him at the original grand opening of the Shelby American museum. There was nothing but suits, like Leo Bebe and the like, and when a 12 year old kid in jeans and a tee shirt (me) walked up to him to shake his hand, he lit up like a Christmas tree. I will never forget that moment.
I am not into car stuff, but i too did really like this movie. 👌
Happy to see you get into stuff you think you won't like. 😊
Leo Beebe wasn't the villain in real life that they made him out to be in the movie. He got along with people, he wasn't nearly as stubborn and stupid, and he didn't deliberately screw Ken over. But it's a Hollywood movie, and they needed an antagonist. It would have been hard to make Ferrari the bad guy because he was on the other side of an ocean most of the time. It's a great movie nevertheless.
In 1952 Pierre Levegh tried to drive the whole 24 hours of Le Mans by himself. He had a four-lap lead going into the last hour, but a bolt in the engine came loose, and the car quit on him. Current rules don't allow anyone to drive the whole race the way Levegh tried to do.
His reaction to the 1965 Lemans fiasco was awesome. LOL
"I don't know much about racing. But it looks to me that you don't either.. ."
The biggest insult to the mind of Henry Ford the second was that Ferrari had said he isn't Henry Ford, he is Henry Ford the second. In other words he was saying he is not the man or legacy his father was, that I am sure pissed him off as a man who revered his father Henry Ford and considers himself the maintainer of the Family name and legacy in automobiles.
Henry Ford II was Henry Ford's grandson. Edsel Ford was Henry Ford II's father.
Edsel Ford was the one who liked race cars and luxury cars, cars which his father (Henry Ford) was reluctant to produce. That's why Henry II cries in a later scene because his dad Edsel would have loved the Ford GT40.
2019 was low key a GREAT year for movies. Love love looooooove this movie. Not super doable but if you ever get a chance to see this on a big screen, do it. I could almost smell the gasoline.
It's been so long ago now, I can't remember much about it, but there used to be an "unlimited" racing class having few rules governing what sort of car you could put at the starting line. For awhile, those races were insanely exciting, with wins proving who was the best team of manufacturers, engineers, and drivers in the world. Putting every innovation in a car each season was insanely expensive, and allowing for such innovations eventually produced a supercar that easily won everything to the point where everybody else gave up hope of ever besting it, or ran out of money, or got tired of losing, and dropped out. You can't race if only one car shows up at the starting line, and the series died out.
So, we have a lot of sorts of racing classes and types, each having complex sets of rules setting limits on cars. This produces competitive racing, which fans seem to enjoy better than total beat-downs. It also helps prevent driver deaths. A big plus is people can bet on the races if the outcome is not predetermined. Formula 1 is the purest form of racing left to fans these days, but the need to engineer the F1 cars to excel within the rules tends to produce some very strange innovations that do little to further the overall value of the normal cars we drive, because they are aimed to produce more horsepower, less drag, better braking, or better steering response within the rules of F1, and they are useful only for that purpose. That's probably an overstatement, but will you ever really need a system for your car that transfers tire friction to the brake rotors and pads to warm them up faster so that the driver can immediately brake at a higher efficiency level going into the first turn?
Mary, if you enjoyed this movie, be aware that there is a TV series, "Drive to Survive" that has been running (racing?) on Netflix since 2019. It is excellent, not really focusing on the races, but, instead, giving the viewer a glimpse of the exotic locales all over the world, bios on the studly young drivers, all of whom have massive confidence of the sort that seems to attract the ladies, and the production and racing teams' struggles to put a winning car on the track.
Super happy that u are doing all kinds of movies even if u think that are not for u because u can get real surprises like this one.. awesome reaction
Ken Miles was 47 years old when he first raced at LeMans. And essentially won. He slogged around for a long time racing underfunded equipment. In the process, he learned car development. The Cobra is what it is today, thanks in part by Ken Miles.
He's a hero to us guys who have had to compete with people who have more money, and more resources.
I love the scene on the airport where they talk and finish each other´s sentences about how the car thinks it is an airplane.
Such a feel good movie
17:32 They used to start LeMans like that.. untill Jackie Ickx protested in 1969 by walking to his car, because he knew that some drivers wouldn't even put on their safety belt... and he was proven right.... a couple of accidents occurred with deaths as a result.
I knew you were gonna love it. Because it's just excellent. And so entertaining! If you watch the documentary about them, it was pretty close to the truth.
I love when people thinks they wont like this movie and ends loving it. That's great cinema!
I have never been a car guy, but damn I went to see it because I needed to kill 4 hours and I loved it so much I couldn't believe it. Next day I took my stepfather, a car lover and mechanic, to see it. Watch him love this movie so much (near to tars) was a gift from the universe.
I LOVE how she roots . It's so awesome!
"what would you have them do, slow down?"
mary: "no, asshole"
That was cute.
Le Mans is still going on. Also, the character of Leo Beebe, the a-hole Ford exec is pretty fictional. What what they say, he was actually a good guy, but they needed to create some zest for the movie.
@@hempchimp Maybe true, but they stated they didn't realize the issue with the timing until the last lap and they couldn't communicate with the drivers to change it. Mistake like that happen, however to turn him into this bad guy that tries to sabotage the team throughout is BS.
@@hempchimp Or bothers you? The truth is that this guy wasn't actively trying to stop the team, that he wasn't the villain in real life portrayed in the movie. Plenty of people have said his portrayal wasn't accurate. There was a mistake in 1966 that caused the wrong guy to win, that is probably the only thing correct about him in this movie.
@@hempchimp I'm not, just pointing out a fact about this guy and the liberties the movie made of him. You shouldn't get so hyped up about it either.
@@hempchimp Please, you clearly didn't prove your point and erasing due to that. I stated a simple fact you tried to railroad into some beyond what it was, and in the end, was wrong. His portrayal was mostly fictional, and somehow you got it in your mind to prove that wrong, and only supported my view. Why? Because you can't argue with the truth.
15:55 I feel like that cat is staring into my soul.
I was in the same position as you; I did not expect to like this movie, but I did. It's a little bittersweet for me though, because I had a friend who passed in 2018 who was a huge fan of Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, the AC Cobra and the Ford GT. She would have loved this movie. Miss you girl.
Great reaction. This movie really connects with people somehow. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
True story kens son worked for Shelby America for years I don’t believe his mother would let him drive though.... also Ken miles started his racing career late in life and was one of the first professional drivers to workout and do physical training to help with endurance... he was one of the all time grates even though his driving career was tragically short
Carroll Shelby was a brash, hard driving, hard living guy. He had a little con man in him but he accomplished so much with so little
yes, the 24 hour le mons still exists, it has 3 drivers for it and they switch out during the race
Terrific film. Simply great old fashioned movie making by James Mangold - great characters, compelling story, excellent cast.
Thanks for watching as someone whose know this story for 30 years they did an exceptional job. I was expecting the Hollywood treatment but they were close enough to the real history I was happy. Then the acting & cinematography made it a great movie
Well done for giving something different a go, great reaction! 😊
i cry everytime there is a channel that made a summary of miles life, and i cry like a baby while hearing it
I love your "Snort", I do it all the time when I laugh.
I love this movie... I used to read articles in the car magazines by Carroll Shelby... All that time I never knew the backstory about how he became famous.
This one feels like a 90's movie to me maybe it's the cinematography, also your cat staring at the camera was pretty funny
Ultimately, the point of racing is to advertise the car brand. There's an old saying in the business: “win on Sunday - sell on Monday”.
There's a lot in this movie that is still done today. Them closing miles door with a sledgehammer is very realistic even today. Gtworld released a short recently with a car thar came into the pits with a door that wouldn't close. A mechanic drop kicked the door shut. It's not uncommon to see people fixing cars mid race with hammers saws and copious amounts of duct tape even today.
Also the brake change the did is similar to how many teams do it today. Instead of changing the components brakes on many endurance cars are designed to come off as a single unit with a quick connect / disconnect so they rip the entire brake system off for a corner of the car and slap on a new one so it can be replaced as fast as possible.
The Formation finishe that lost miles the race are also very common at le mans even today.
As a guy who spent 13 years driving around the world in his Dodge Viper RT/10 (possibly the most badass sports car in American history - partially designed by Caroll Shelby) there was so much of this movie that resonated with me. The feeling is incomparable and I understood why the Ford president burst out into tears after experiencing it perhaps for the first time.
Again, excellent choice because you stepped out of your box and gave really good movie a chance! Even more, you have very good observations great remarks.
One of my favorites! Worth watching again and again
I'm a guy and I was hesitant to watch a car racing movie. Boy was I wrong. Incredible!
27:20 have you ever seen Empire of the Sun? That was Christian Bale’s first movie as a kid. Directed by Steven Spielberg
Fun reactions to a fun movie that was actually fairly accurate. Great job Mary.
Carroll Shelby was an amazing man, his life story is just incredible.
Great reaction Mary, loved it, a great movie choice!
Like you, I'm not into car racing at all, but I love this movie. Another good one is Rush - another true story.
Carroll Shelby was born not far from where i live in Paris, Texas. I grew up being a big fan of his cars. I own a Shelby Cobra GT350 and a Shelby Cobra GT500. I still bump into some of his relatives around here when i drive my cars. They like to point out they are part of his family.
Endurance racing is still a thing, but drivers don’t do the entire race themselves. The biggest endurance races are the Daytona 24hr, Nurburgring 24hr, Spa 24hr, Sebring 12hr, Bathurst 12hr, Petite Le Mans (10hrs), and then the crown jewel of them all, the Le Mans 24hr. Professional drivers usually race in teams of three, sharing the same car. They change drivers during the pit stops, just like the tires. Drivers sometimes stay in the car for over 3 hours at a time, but there are rules regarding the maximum amount of time a driver can be in the car without taking a break.
Since you enjoyed this movie so much, you should check out Rush. It’s the true story of the rivalry between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda, and the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship. It’s similar to Ford vs Ferrari in the way it’s a great story with compelling characters, that just happens to be set in the world of car racing.
RIP Ken Miles (November 1, 1918 - August 17, 1966), aged 47
And
RIP Carroll Shelby (January 11, 1923 - May 10, 2012), aged 89
You both will always be remembered as legends.
LeMans used to start that way with the drivers running to the cars it hasn't been that way for many many years for safety reasons drivers wouldn't put thier belts on till the back straight to save time. In kart racing
I have done both a modified LeMans start where you start on the wall at an angle, but the driver in the kart. I find it easier to pick up positions if you get a good jump. I have done a standard where you run to the kart for a 4 hour kart race with 3 drivers one kart. It was wild
A few interesting factoids, as a Belgian it's fun to know that Jacky Ickx was in that race in a ford but he crashed out, he did win in 1969. And as you see at Le Mans they had to run to their cars to start the race, this lead to countless of deaths because the drivers didn't get their seatbelts on. So at the start (search on youtube for 1969 le mans start) Jacky Ickx was protesting, so he walked to his car in defiance of that rule, belted him in properly and then started the race, still ending up winning. Sadly one of the guys that did run to their car died in a lap 1 crash because he didn't put on his seatbelts, the Le Mans running start was banned so from then on they start safely in their car. Jacky Ickx went on to win Le Mans 5 more times becoming mister Le Mans and one of the best racecar drivers ever to race without winning a Formula 1 world title.
24 hour races are still done today with Le Mans, Daytona and Spa-Francorchamps being the major ones. Every year drivers are ranked based on their experience and results and put into classes, so you have Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. For a 24 hour race, depending on the the car type you're required to have 3 drivers with at least one silver and one bronze driver, so you have one world class driver leading the team of three. (Just for Mary, Tom Boonen, is these days a bronze driver for example, so is Michael Fassbender, and they get paired with professional drivers) So you can't have one of the big teams having the three best drivers in the world, the drivers are spread out.
I LOVE this movie! It was not what I expected!
I saw this in the theater when it came out. Originally was going to see The Irishman but after seeing the length of it and hearing it wasn't that great I switched to see this and am 100% happy I did. I'm not a car person but I loved the movie.
Great movies are great stories - doesn't matter what they are about. Keep up the great posts 💜
Because of Ken slowing down at Le Mans he was denied the triple crown of 24 hour races....he won the other 2 that year and Le Mans would have been the final win...no other driver has ever done it
Such a damn good movie . . . for anyone to enjoy!!! Thanks, Mary!!!
Nice touch having Ken Miles son wearing an Aston Villa top. Miles was from Sutton Coldfield, in Birmingham, and Villa are the local team. Bale didn't nail the accent but it's an ok attempt...
Leo Beebe was the true villain of the film I feel. He was the Ford executive who hated Ken Miles and ordered that he slow down, so that the Ford cars would cross the finish line at the same time. I don't think the drivers at Le Mans still run to their cars as depicted in this film (they did back then though). They stopped doing that for safety reasons. This film won numerous awards, and was one of the last films released by 20th Century-Fox before Disney bought the studio.
Great reaction as always Mary and well out of your comfort zone so really happy you enjoyed this great movie. I would suggest Rush as a follow up, another brilliant racing drama from recent years with brilliant performances and true events just like Ford vs ferrari.
It's one of those films that you don't want it to end.
Funny thing about the "go like hell" statement. In the mid 1980's Chrysler under the helm of Lee Iacocca made a custom version of the Dodge Omni and called it the Omni GLH. The GLH stood for "goes like hell." Shelby's personal car, the GLHS (goes like hell some more) could out accellerate the Ford Shelby GT350 from 0-60mph. It's assuming to see a hatchback economy car beat a sports car.
The 3 fords coming across the finish line was an Iconic photo though, Ford banked on that photo for years, maybe even til today
Didn't expect Mary to watch this. Great
Another car film based on real life is Tucker: The Man and His Dream. I recommend it.
Enzo's insult actually cut deeper than you might realise. Ferrari was quoted as saying "in racing, only winning matters, and no one remembers who was second". Ford didn't care about being called fat, pig-headed - those were just names. But when Enzo said that he wasn't Henry Ford, but Henry Ford II, he implied that his father was the great one, and he was just insignificant.