Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:18 pm
Well, what did you all think of the movie? While I watch many at home on the big screen these days I made it a point to find a theater with a large screen and good sound system to see it at its best.
For me, the problem with being a racer watching a racing movie is that like pilots at a flying picture, it's hard not to notice what isn't quite right. By concentrating on the experience of the movie I did my best to put those little things away and just enjoy the ride. The non-racers I have talked to loved the story, thought the in-car driving scenes were exciting and enjoyed learning something about Ford and Ferrari that either they had never heard about or were only vaguely aware of. That may be why it is up for a Best Picture Oscar.
That being said, heading down the Mulsanne Straight at 200 mph in the GT-40, (we could tell the speed from the car's speedometer!), while turning his head and looking eye-to-eye with the Ferrari driver - complete with hand gestures, well...all I can say is personally I've never found the time for that.... And the repeated mention of all the significantly good and bad things that happen at 7000 rpm, even if that was the usable redline back then, just kept reminding me of a really hokey racing movie from "way-back-when" called "Redline 7000".
Oh, and didn't you love the scene with the SCCA Tech Inspector? Somebody with inside knowledge of SCCA club/pro racing must have chuckled to him/herself when writing that scene. Maybe there was a little payback in it?
Then again, I didn't really care about any of that stuff. Ford Verses Ferrari was worth the price of admission and monstrously over-priced popcorn, and I'll watch it again when I get the chance. THEN I'll get a copy and it will go on my mid-winter pile of off-season racing-withdrawal flicks along with Grand Prix, Le Mans, Super Speedway, Lap of The Gods and about 20 years of my own in-car videos.
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