Motorsport fans will feel conflicted at the announcement of any film about racing.
Some will be excited to see their world on the big screen. Others will dread an overdramatic, inaccurate or downright ridiculous presentation of their sport. Many will fall somewhere in between.
With a renewed public interest in motor racing, films on the subject are coming thick and fast. I wanted to devote a regular series on the blog to reviewing the films (and documentaries) that visit our world, and separate the good from the bad.
*Spoilers ahead*
Ferrari is the product of a twenty-year mission by director Michael Mann to make a film about the most famous name in motor racing.
Informed by Brock Yates’ legendary (and controversial) biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine, Mann has not produced a lengthy biopic spanning Enzo’s nine decades, but instead dramatised a decisive three-month period in the car manufacturer’s history.
While racing consumed Enzo’s life, Ferrari is a drama about the man and the people closest to him first and foremost. Adam Driver rises to the challenge of portraying the mercurial racing magnate.
A powerful, selfish and remorseless leader – but caring and tender father – Driver’s Enzo Ferrari is very close to the figure that lives in the imaginations of so many of us today.
However the standout performance of the film is Penélope Cruz as his wife Laura, the force that the Ferrari brand could not have been built without.
She knows everything about her estranged husband, his financial problems and infidelity (apart, that is, from his second family).
Despite having every reason to undermine him, she remains the only person Enzo trusts to run the company with him.
They hate each other, but cooperate out of an unspoken loyalty to the institution that they have created. Their confrontations are the heart of the film, rather than the action on the circuit.
There is plenty for racing fans to enjoy though, including cameos from Ben Collins as Stirling Moss and Marino Franchitti as Eugenio Castellotti.
Known Hollywood car enthusiast Patrick Dempsey also makes a welcome appearance as Piero Taruffi.
The most prominent of the drivers in the film is Alfonso de Portago, played by Gabriel Leone in a fitting introduction for many viewers, before he tackles the role of Ayrton Senna in the upcoming Netflix series.
Despite the film’s emphasis on the human story of Ferrari, the racing scenes are captured beautifully. The third act takes the viewer through epic Italian landscapes on the 1957 Mille Miglia, a must-win for the company.
Purists will know this was not a race of constant wheel-to-wheel action as shown in the film, but will welcome the spectacle of Ferrari competing against Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and their local rivals Maserati on scenic mountain passes and through historic town squares.
The film struggles, however, to marry the fantastic practical photography of its racing with CGI. A lot of car movies fall short here, but Ferrari’s clunky crashes risk taking the viewer out of the experience.
Regardless, what surprised me most about the film was its ending – I’d say I know more about motor racing than the average cinema-goer, but I did not know the terrible real-life circumstances under which the race ended.
Therefore I was a shocked as the rest of the packed screening room when a damaged cat’s eye causes de Portago’s car to collide with a group of spectators at the roadside. The horrified gasps inside the cinema corroborated the impact of this moment.
While some could find the scene gratuitous, I think it shows a commendable honesty from Mann.
Perhaps a lesser Ferrari biopic would end with a triumphant victory. Here, Ferrari walks away a winner who has saved his company, but with blood on his hands.
Enzo quickly absolves himself of responsibility for the accident and the eleven lives it claimed, before mourning at the crypt of his late son, Dino, in the final scene – drawing attention to the dichotomy that was the most famous man in motor racing.
Far from being a heroic sports biopic or victorious racing flick, Ferrari is a dramatic character study that subverts the viewer’s expectations, and is a worthy entry in the canon of motorsport movies because of it.
Maclean's Machines 