A review of the 2019 film “Le Mans ’66”
I’m no petrolhead. I don’t own a car and I don’t even drive. But this car-racing movie is a cracker. That’s because it’s a well-written, character-driven film pitting corporate bureaucracy against individual flair.The corporation is the American Ford motor company which decides in the mid 1960s that it wants to make its image more exciting by winning the Le Mans 24-hour race which had traditionally been dominated by the Italian company Ferrari.
The individualistic over-achievers are American former racing car driver, now designer, Carroll Shelby and top driver and engineer, the British Ken Miles. The support roles are well-cast but Matt Damon, as Shelby, and especially Christian Bale, as Miles, are terrific.
Director James Mangold does a fine job keeping the excitement going for some two and a half hours which earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Picture.
As the ending tells us: “The Ford GT40, developed by Shelby and Miles, won Le Mans in 1966, 1968 and 1969. It remains the only American-built car ever to win the 24 hours of Le Mans.”