Zhong Jiang Film Review
Film introduction
In the 1960s, Ford had already conquered the american auto market, but in the eyes of Europeans who liked Ferrari and Porsche, they were nomen, and even felt that the cars they produced were garbage, and it was difficult to be elegant.
Henry Ford II, then the leader of Ford, decided to enter the European high-end car market!
So what to do? So Ford General Manager Lee Iacocca proposed that the car produced by Ford win the championship at Le Mans in France! At that time, the Italian Ferrari team had always dominated the circuit of Le Mans. The mention of "Ferrari" is a symbol of victory. Lee Iacocca said: "We can make Ford also represent some kind of symbolism."
The timing was also just right, because Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari invested everything in Le Mans, regardless of the cost, leaving the company on the verge of bankruptcy. Seeing the ferrari situation, Henry Ford II immediately decided that although we did not have a team, we could buy the strongest team to compete for Ford!
So Henry Ford II ordered Ferrari's founder Enzo Ferrari to talk about the merger. But because Ford overly interfered in racing matters, Enzo Ferrari rejected ford's acquisition at the last minute of the signing of the contract between the two sides, and verbally insulted Henry Ford II: for example, he was a "fat pig", "your men are all J girls out of scrapwood", "can never catch up with your father's achievements"...
Every word of Enzo Ferrari made Henry Ford II extremely embarrassed and unspeakable. So he decided to start his own "revenge plan": to build a Ford racing team at all costs--- to design the fastest car with the best designers, and to beat the Ferrari team that dominated the Le Mans circuit with the best drivers.
In the end, Ford made a desperate bet, found the "crazy" designer Carol Shelby and the "weird" racing driver Ken Myers to form an ace combination, and finally in a very short time, the dream sports car Ford GT40, which was led by the two of them, successfully defeated Ferrari in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, and won the championships in 1967, 1968 and 1969, creating a miracle in the history of racing...
King of speed is an action biopic directed by James Mangold and starring Christian Bell, Matt Damon, Joe Boenser, Katrina Balf, Noah Yuppe, and Josh Lucas, released in the United States on November 15, 2019. The film is based on the novel by A. Thompson. J. Bemi's documentary novel Hell Drive: Ford, Ferrari and Le Mans is set in ford's Le Mans vs Ferraris and focuses on the stories of race driver Ken Myers and car designer Carol Shelby. "Speed King" won the 91st National Critics Association Awards for The Best Ten Films of the Year, the 92nd Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, and Best Editing.
"Speed King" has a strong collision of classical and fast, passion and theory; the relaxed and natural acting skills of Christian Bell and Matt Damon; the extremely exciting drag racing scenes of 7,000 turns of life under the live-action camera, and the love-hate feud between ford and Ferrari bigwigs. "Speed King" can be called the king of word-of-mouth in the blockbuster movie released at the end of 2019:
ImDb reviewed more than 50,000 people, fixed at 8.3, Rotten Tomatoes, film critics audience ratings, double explosion;
Even harsh MTC, hit 81, and official stamp: must see.
In addition to the above three major scores, "Speed King" also got an A+ at Cinemascore.
What concept?
Audiences only need to know--- from 2000 to now, there are only 52 A+ movies...
The Extremely Simple and Straightforward Name for Speed King --- Ford V Ferrari ("Ford vs Ferrari"), also sheds light on a 50-year-old feud in the auto industry.
Ford and Ferrari, in the 1960s, when cars were not highly globalized, were simply two car companies that could not be beaten. One is the Hegemon of the United States, which has pushed automobile production into the modernization process, and the other is the Apennine Tyrant, who is immersed in auto racing.
The two are on different continents and are not competitors in the same field, and their situation is even more different. The year 1960-1970 was a golden decade of explosive growth for Ford and all U.S. car companies. In that decade, the annual production of individual models under Ford's main brand grew from 300,000 to nearly 800,000 units, and for Ford, which is aimed at a general audience, they have enough capital to do something out of the loop.
Ferrari in the 1960s was in dire straits, facing a situation where it could not open the pot at any time. Racing is a very expensive sport, a team behind the big boss to inject capital, the event department needs to rely on the car company to get funds. At that time, Ferrari was like a single-handed "iron man", no matter what time or year, sports cars were only owned by a minority. The closed loop of selling sports cars or cars to independent teams to feed the entire R&D team was narrowed by Ferrari until 1963, when Enzo Ferrari and Henry Ford II sat at the same negotiating table.
Enzo Ferrari at the negotiating table
Ford, for its part, their purpose is clear – to enter the European automotive market. At that time, Europe was an incremental market for American car companies, but there was a very embarrassing problem in front of them: even if the American car companies were strong, Europe was the birthplace of the car, at least in the automotive field, Americans did not have any sense of superiority in European land. The acquisition of Ferrari seemed like a good deal to kill two birds with one stone. Ford could use this to build on the sound base Ferrari had built up in Europe and move into racing.
Ford wants to acquire Ferrari, Ferrari also needs to find a "gold daddy" as a patron, this seems to be a deal that you and I want, it should be smooth sailing, but in the last second of the signing of the contract between the two sides, what affects the overall situation?
Franco Gozzi, Enzo Ferrari's personal secretary, wrote about Ford's acquisition of Ferrari in an Italian automotive magazine. He referred to the clause that made Enzo Ferrari the most angry and led him to leave the table outright – "For every team budget of more than 450 million lira (about $257,000 at the time), Enzo Ferrari had to submit an application to Henry Ford II to be approved". On the agreement, Enzo Farah used his purple ink pen circle to draw "submit" and "get" and write "unacceptable" next to it.
So the enraged Henry Ford II approached Carol Shelby and asked him to build a supercar belonging to Ford within 90 days, and Carol Shelby did, and although the first year of Le Mans was completely destroyed, it still left a spark for Ford's victory.
Speaking of which, it is necessary to mention the driver Ken Myers, the name that makes the nearly eighty-year-old Carol Shelby still cry, and the dark scene that the racing world has to mention.
Carol Shelby, who competed at Le Mans in 1959
Ken Miles was a former British tanker, a driver under Carol Shelby, and a meritorious test driver for the GT40. Ken Myers was instrumental in Carol Shelby's upgrade to the GT40 MKI, testing the new GT40 lap after lap, constantly feeding Carol Shelby back to the problems. Eventually, Carol Shelby upgraded the GT40 to the MKII version, switching to Ford's 7.0-litre V8 engine and a new four-speed transmission, with a chassis that was heavily modified on the MKI.
In the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in early 1966, miles were all on the high stages of the champions, and if he won the championship of Le Mans again, he would become the driver who won the three major races of Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans in one year, which would be an achievement that no one has ever done before.
After winning the Daytona championship, Ken Miles (left), Carol Shelby (right)
In the early hours of June 19, 1966, Ken Miles took over the vehicle from teammate Danny Hume, who ignored Shelby's advice to slow down at night to avoid an accident and chase the lead Ferrari 330P3. Before the sun rose, Ferrari's three P3s withdrew from the race due to a malfunction. At dawn, only the GT40s were left to compete with each other, and Ken Myers' car was in the first place.
Ken Miles
At this time, the Le Mans organizing committee came up with a "bad idea", they found Ford vice president Leo Bibi in room P, because the top three in the field at that time were all Ford GT, so the Le Mans organizing committee wanted for The Ford to arrange three cars to cross the line at the same time at the last moment. There has never been a time in le Mans history when cars of the same team are tied for the first place, and while ford is complete, Le Mans officials also hope to expand the popularity of the event.
Leo Bibi thought it was a good idea from a Ford perspective, and his own driver could make history while avoiding uncertainty caused by infighting, so Bibi told Carol Shelby about it. Carol Shelby didn't want to see such an outcome because he knew Ken Miles' efforts deserved an independent title, but the toughness of the Ford hierarchy led him to compromise, and when Ken Myers finally entered the P room, Carol Shelby told him to slow down and wait for Bruce McLaren behind him and have the two cross the line at the same time.
Carol Shelby and Ken Miles at Le Mans
This was extremely unfair to Ken Myers, who struggled with it for a long time after learning about it, but eventually accepted the decision of Ford's top brass. Racing was what Ken Myers considered to be his life and the reason he served in the British tank corps during World War II, and tolerance and dedication led him to decide to fulfill Ford's wishes.
Three GT40s crossed the finish line side by side
In the end, Ford's three GT40s crossed the finish line side by side, but Ken Myers lost to the rules of the race, because McLaren's car was tens of meters behind Miles at the time of departure, and Le Mans was a race with distance, so if the two cars crossed the line at the same time, Bruce McLaren would be the final champion...
After the game, Carol Shelby said apologetically: I shouldn't have told you about slowing down.
Ken Miles said, "What you promised me was a chance to compete, not a chance to win."
What is the concept of winning the three major races in the same year, Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans"? More than 50 years after Ken Myers, no one has achieved this distinction, and you can imagine how difficult it is to achieve.
Ken Miles was originally the closest person to this honor, but unfortunately it was not achieved because of personal grievances and bureaucracy.
Unfortunately, shortly after le Mans ended, Ken Myers was dying in an accident while testing the prototype of the GT40 MKII's successor, the internal number J-car. Because of this, the regret of the World Car Endurance Championship Grand Slam makes Ken Myers' story even more legendary.
"Speed King" does not exaggerate Ken Miles' experience in order to enhance the drama, and the film's authenticity is extremely high, and the scandal that shocked the racing world in 1966 is highly restored.
Bruce McLaren, the winner of the Le Mans Championship, also competed in the 1965 Le Mans Championship, but did not even finish. Why he became the 1966 Le Mans champion was not only thanks to Ken Myers for slowing down, but also to Ken Myers and Carol Shelby for how perfectly they transformed the GT40 car. Incidentally , it was this success that made Bruce McLaren, the founder of today's top sports car brand, McLaren.
The biggest irony of the film is that Ford won the game in a "Ford-style" way, but what really supported them to win the championship was actually the "Ferrari". When all the senior executives of The Ford Company and the media reporters flocked to the champion Bruce McLaren, only Enzo Ferrari silently paid tribute to Ken Miles.
In fact, Ken Miles and Carol Shelby's match of heaven was, from the outset, not the high-achieving Ferrari, but the contradictions within Ford.
We will find that in any "ism" country, stupid "bureaucracy" is a real obstacle on the road to success.
"Speed King" is also worthy of praise for Christian Bale's dedication and acting skills. "Balloon Man" Christian Bale once again follows through on his masochistic approach to character development that "says no but is physically honest".
From the 200 pounds of the last "Vice President" to 136 pounds, even Matt Damon said that he lived like a monk, and that such dedication to movies is worth learning from all filmmakers.
On "Vice President", next "Speed King"
There are also a variety of American humor in the film to be played, and Matt Damon and Christian Bell play the juggling memes of films they starred in, such as "Batman" and "Mars Rescue";
Also impressive is the scene where Carol Shelby drags a car with Henry Ford II and scares Henry Ford II to tears.
As the audience was humming and groaning for the frightened Henry Ford II, even holding a handkerchief to wipe his tears, one of his words:
"I wish my father had lived to this day, seen the car with his own eyes, and felt the speed."
Instantly full of humanity, poking at the tear point.
Ford's war with Ferrari led to Fiat's acquisition of Ferrari in 1968, because Ferrari really didn't have the money to fight Ford anymore. Part of Ford's four-game winning streak came from the Le Mans restructuring, which in 1968 abolished the prototyping rules, requiring more than 50 cars to be mass-produced to compete in the highest division of Le Mans. The new rules prevented Ferrari's prototype from competing in Le Mans in 1968.
The century-long war between Ford and Ferrari ended with Ferrari's exit. What about Ford? They failed to buy Ferrari for $16 million, but beat it with £360 million!
The values conveyed in "King of Speed" are extremely correct: a champion is not everything, and not winning a championship does not mean nothing.
「I am a mechanic. That has been the direction of my entire vocational life. Driving is a hobby, a relaxation for me, like golfing is to others. I should like to drive a Formula One machine, not for the grand prize, but just to see what it is like. I should think it would be jolly good fun!」
"I'm a mechanic." This has been the direction of my entire career. Driving is a hobby and for me it's a relaxation, like playing golf to someone else. I wanted to drive Formula One, not for the grand prize, but to see what it looked like. I think it's going to be fun!"
------ Ken Miles
Some people say that some men have gasoline flowing in their bodies, and I think Ken Miles and Carol Shelby have not only gasoline flowing in their bodies, but also a soul-burning duel against dreams...
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