This movie is astoundingly bad, surely one of the worst ever nominated for Best Picture. As I watched it, I kept thinking, “These men are risking their lives for such silly little races in such silly little cars?” But then I realized that I had just showed my son
Ford vs. Ferrari, and I love that movie. Isn’t that also about men risking their lives for silly little races? Why did I have such a different reaction? SPOILERS for both movies.
- First things first: in Ford vs Ferrari, the cars were less silly-looking.
- More importantly, FvF was a true story, and a period piece, both of which help. It may be a silly way to risk your life, but these are real men who really did it, so they don’t have to convince us that such a thing could or should happen. It really did.
- I think it helps that Christian Bale does in fact die at the end of FvF, as opposed to both racers in F1, each of whom get injured in horrific crashes but return to happily finish out the season. In FvF, I felt like I was being forced to grapple with the “why should they do this?” question, whereas in F1, I felt like I was the only one asking it, which infuriated me.
- I’ve said before that, in the best sports movie, the hero either loses by winning (Downhill Racer) or wins by losing (Rocky). In the main climax of FvF, Bale wins by losing, agreeing to lose the race because he’s overcome his arrogance (then he dies in an epilogue) F1 is a very simplistic winning-by-winning story without a shred of artistry or literary value.
We’ll be discussing that distinction again with a movie that is on the list.
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