James Mangold
Le Mans '66

LA RECENSIONE

I don't care much about engines, I'm not a Ferrari fan, I don't watch the Grand Prix. This film is average, nothing to get excited about, but not bad either. A decent filler like many in recent years, when Hollywood no longer knows where to find stories.

Sports films are delicate, it's not at all guaranteed to make them well. The recent Borg McEnroe should have taught us something. Imagine then the films about car racing. And not even Formula 1, the 24 Hours of Le Mans: the anti-cinema par excellence, some might say.

Instead, one must admit that no, even if the races aren't exactly adrenaline rushes (like Rush), they still work. The fact that they work for some fairly troublesome reasons is another story. The war of the original title, Ford v Ferrari, is there but it's secondary and somewhat trivialized by a caricatured portrayal of Enzo. The real battle is within Ford: a struggle between the sporting spirit of Shelby and Ken Miles, and the corporate approach of bosses and big shots.

After a while, it gets tiresome, no doubt. The first half feels like it lasts an eternity. But I wanted to say something else. A job like this would be immediately forgotten if it weren't for the giant that is Christian Bale. I rarely dwell on actors, but in this case, the actor makes the movie. A racing movie that never ends, a movie about adjustments to aerodynamics. A film about Ford wanting to relaunch itself. What do we care? We care because there's Bale, with his pained expressions, his sulkiness, and his hysterical laughter. His jerky movements, his nervous pace. His furrowed brow and wrinkled forehead. Total commitment to the character, even more: there's no Ken Miles and Bale portraying him. Bale becomes Miles and Miles becomes Bale. It's something new, equally authentic, but new. Like Bale's Dick Cheney: it's not "just" Cheney, it's something more.

We'd never get tired of watching him. Even at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Another point: Hollywood, history, and stories. If making films becomes an almost documentary-like repetition of historical facts, cinema dies. If there's no courage to invent stories and characters, cinema dies. If only sagas, sequels and prequels, cartoons, or films "based on a true story" are welcome, cinema dies. This is why Tarantino is so keen on sticking it to History. Because cinema is something else (as Scorsese says well).