By JENNIKA INGRAM | Reporter
Positive reviews are rolling in for former Palisadian Matt Damon and his co-star Christian Bale in “Ford v Ferrari,” which opened in theaters November 15.
Based on a true story that dates back to the 1960s, Henry Ford II is determined to beat Enzo Ferrari “at his own game” by building a faster car and beating him in France’s 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance racing event, according to Rolling Stone.
Ford is not deterred by Ferrari’s success at racing and enlists a Texan named Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), a former racer, to make a “better, faster car.” The Le Mans champion and co-driver in the Aston Martin that won the race in 1959 agrees on the insistence that volatile British driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) is part of it: They create the GT40.
Damon recently appeared on an episode of the television show “Ellen” and said that in doing the movie, he had the opportunity to drive in a car with the real-life Mario Andretti, 80, at 200 MPH. Damon said: “It’s indescribable.” He said he’d do it again—if it was with Andretti.
Cast members include Josh Lucas, Tracy Letts, Caitriona Balfe, Noah Jupe, Jon Bernthal and Ray McKinnon. Writing credits go to Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller.
Multi-talented Academy Award nominee James Mangold (“Logan, “Walk the Line”) garnered attention early in his directing career with films such as “Cop Land” with former Palisadian Ray Liotta and “Girl, Interrupted” with Angelina Jolie in the ’90s.
Rotten Tomatoes critics have it trending at 92% at the time the paper went to print.
The film is distributed by 20th Century Fox, rated PG-13 with a runtime of 2 hours and 32 minutes.
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