A perfect lap
Okay, one of my guilty pleasures is that I like racing films and series, and no I don’t include Fast and the Furious in that category. I’m talking more in terms of Rush, Days of Thunder, Netflix’s Formula 1 series and even Cars! It’s the thrill and rush that the filmmakers try to emulate, that feeling of putting your foot down and going at top speed and the rush of emotions when the drivers succeed that get me. Le Mans ’66 (or Ford v Ferrari) is one of those films and the mixture of the loud motors roaring on-screen and heart-pumping soundtrack creates a thrill ride of a film.
Le Mans ’66 is based on the true story of the Ford Motor Company in the ’60s who were falling behind as a business. Ferrari was out in Europe winning races and becoming who they are well regarded for now. Ford hired Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) to help them compete and beat Ferrari in Le Mans, a 24-hour race in France. Shelby sets out to make the perfect car with the help of his friend and fearless British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale). Together they have to compete against Ferrari and also against Ford themselves who are just thinking about their image.
Racing films have to do one simple thing for me and that is keeping me on the edge of my seat. I want my heart to be racing, I want to feel nervous, I want to think that I could never do what is happening on screen in front of me. The best racing films create a different type of suspense and build up, a type that can is only found under these circumstances. It’s these films where one wrong move and everything goes wrong for the driver, it leaves you nervous. Le Mans ’66 did this perfectly.
I went into the film not knowing a lot about the true story the film is based upon, meaning the film is more exciting for me than a viewer who knows. You can call it perfectly planned ignorance so films are more exciting for myself, or just tell me to study some history but director James Mangold perfectly portrays a story that I imagine a lot of people outside the world of racing won’t know about. The viewer expects the hero character to win and be successful and the film does a great job of making you think that in fact, that might not be the case this time around.
This is done brilliantly through great acting by both Bale and Damon. It is also done by the cinematography. Each shot while racing is filled with the atmosphere around the drivers, that can be the smoke and mist on the track or the tight claustrophobic feeling of being stuck in what is essentially a metal cage travelling at over 200 miles per hour. It can make you feel almost sick as the driver takes every turn. Le Mans does the great job of actually putting a regular civilian in the car, one of the film’s highlight moments, and you can’t help but laugh nervously because you know if that were you than you wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Where Le Mans ’66 succeeds is its score, soundtrack and brilliant sound design. The score isn’t in your face and the soundtrack isn’t the key to the film and its sound design is there because you’re watching a racing film with some older cars than make a really roaring sound. These three audio sections mixed together is the icing on the cake for Le Mans, the score and soundtrack is heart-pumping rock and uplifting to fit in with the feeling of success and trying to win. The sound design of the cars added in makes your blood flow faster as your heart begins to beat along to the beats of the film.
Matt Damon’s character Shelby stops racing because he has a heart condition, this is mentioned at the start of the film. For the rest of the film Mangold tries to make every member of the audience understand why he has that heart condition, it is literal heart racing material and Mangold succeeds, or I have a really bad heart but I think mine is fine so he succeeds! Damon’s character’s relationship with Bale’s ensures that even in the film’s quieter moments the entertainment continues through both actor’s brilliant acting.
Before the events of the film, Ford made engines of fighter planes in World War 2. Those planes ventured to Europe to fight a war and now Ford are trying to fulfil the American dream of an American car company being the best car company in the world. It is a story enriched in American ideas and rough spirit that you don’t see as much anymore, the film acting as an example of an America that had more ambition and can-do attitude than it does right now, an America whose car industry was at high.
As I said, racing films set me off and make me want to drive around, its a shame I live in London and don’t own a car. I’m glad though that Le Mans ’66 is a film that I can feel thrills from because it’s an element sometimes, unfortunately, missing in cinema. Le Mans ’66 is a roaringly entertaining film filled with great moments. Its the type of film that is simply entertaining and what enjoying cinema is about. Yes, there is meaning behind it and ideas but sometimes just watching a film that gets your heart racing is what you really need. Le Mans ’66 is thrilling, heart pumping and straight-up pedal to the metal entertainment.