top of page
Search

FORD VS FERRARI: THE UNTOLD STORY.....

Ford vs Ferrari, probably one of the best movies we have ever seen regarding motorsports. It’s the 2nd best movie I have watched in regards to motorsports, number 1 is still “Rush” the movie about which I have probably talked 100 times and I just can’t get enough of it.


Also, I loved the fact that there is an awesome movie like Rush which covers one of the most inspiring stories of all time, the 1976 crash of Niki Lauda at the Nurburgring. But being a big fan of Le-Mans, the world’s toughest endurance race, I always desired to watch a movie on Le-Mans, not a documentary cause there are plenty of them, but a proper movie with a great story and some awesome actors.


And with Ford Vs Ferrari releasing in 2019 that desire was fulfilled as well. But as is the case with most of the movies that are based on true events, the whole movie wasn’t 100 percent true. Even if we take the example of Rush which is one of the most truthful movies ever made, it was 80 percent right and the rest of the events shown in the movie were made up, and those events are necessary because they help in making the movie more entertaining.


The same is the case with Ford vs Ferrari, there are some interesting unknown facts and behind the scenes of the movie that are going to fascinate you.


Starting with the development of the movie, it wasn’t easy to make, it took a lot of efforts for obvious reasons as it was very challenging to portray what 1966 looked like, also when they were deciding the star cast for the movie, they thought of taking tom cruise and Brad Pitt in the lead role and naming the movie “Go like Hell” but the idea was scrapped, thus paving the path forward for the masterpiece we have received.


Also before this movie was being made, the director James Mangold admits that he wasn’t a car enthusiast in himself, he took up the movie because of its underdog story and how ford emerged victorious despite the challenges they faced, but during the making of the movie, he related to the story, he thought of winning the race as something similar to making a movie.

Christian bale who is the main star of the movie acting as ken miles had to undergo a drastic weight reduction process because he had to look similar to how Ken miles looked, tall and skinny, it was a tough process but if eventually did it and he said it’s going to be the last time he will be going under such weight transformations.


Also, being the phenomenal actor bale is, he has a habit of going as deep into the character as possible to bring out his best, so aside from the physical transformation, he decided to study the art of car racing and thus enrolled in a training program to practice.


The funny thing is that the founder of that training program was bob Bondurant, a former colleague of Ken miles, and he has also been given a mention in the film, so bale not only got to learn the art of car racing he also got to hear the story of ken miles from that era.

Another interesting story is that once there was a documentary being made regarding Enzo Ferrari, the Italian designer, Christian bale was offered the role but he couldn’t make weight for the character and thus Hugh jackman replaced him.


Now there is an after story to this film as well, in response to the insult Ferrari got at the 1966 Le-Mans they decided to participate in a race where the ford was the champion for a long time, 24 hours of Daytona, Ferrari ended up winning all the top 3 places in the race and none of the ford cars even finished, to add to the insult, they lined up all the car towards the finishing line just like ford did at the 1966 Le-Mans.


Ken miles son Peter miles proved to be an invaluable asset towards making the film, Christian spent time with him and got to know about Ken Miles from his son’s perspective.

Even though ford won the race and they are the star company in this movie, they distanced themselves when the film was released because of the depiction of some of their key members of the company.


For example, Leo Beebe has been depicted sort of as a villain who always comes in between Carroll Shelby and ken miles in winning the race.


So, everyone that will be all for this time, I trust you liked this one, if you did then do share it with your friends and do consider subscribing to Motordrift for more such content in the future.


Till then


Ciao



7 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page