Le Mans '66

The movie takes some minor liberties with the story, but overall sticks very closely to the true story on the broad strokes. Matt Damon and Christian Bale capture the persona of Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles. I had a chance to meet the former in person. Clealry, Bale spent some time studying old videotape of Ken Miles. The accent and facial expressions are very close to Miles.

Ford v. Ferrari is every bit as good as people are saying. I think it's really hard to make a great movie out of a story with this kind of structure, but they've succeeded. Matt Damon and Christian Bale are great together as Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles. The actress playing Mollie Miles has the perfect sweetness and love with a spot-on moment of "yes, I will kill you." The extensive featuring of her and Miles' son makes the movie's heartbreak moment truly affecting.

I think even non-racing fans would enjoy this movie. For a guy like me who grew up dreaming of race cars and recognized almost all the names (of the drivers, not the Ford executives), it was awesome. I count it as the best racing movie ever, although sadly there's not a lot of competition for that title.

If you are ever in Dearborn, Michigan, then I recommend checking out the Henry Ford Museum at Deerfield Village. The GT40 driven by Miles at LeMans in 1966 is usually on display. (Sometimes its in the Ford World Headquarters.) I also recommend Lee Iacocca's autobiography. He was a fascinating individual as well. There was also a book written about Enzo Ferrari called "Ferrari: The Man and the Machine."