FORD V FERRARI

'FORD V FERRARI (i.e., Ford vs. Ferrari or Ford Versus Ferrari''). James Mangold, director''', producer (one of three). Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller, script. USA/France: Chernin Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox (production) / Twentieth Century Fox (distribution for USA and much of the world), 2019.

Not SF but a historical drama on auto racing and other competitions set in the mid-1960s, primarily concerning the Grand Prix "24 Hours of Le Mans" event. The intimate relations between men (and one woman and one boy) and cars are developed intensely, including the experience of what might be called the Automotive Sublime in a high-power, high-tech, high-style, high-speed automobile: In the quotation that one critic correctly says "bookends" the film — "There’s a point at 7,000 RPMs where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless. It disappears. All that’s left, a body moving through space, and time. At 7,000 RPM, that’s where you meet it. That’s where it waits for you."

RDE, Initial Compiler, 17Dec19, 23Jan20