"Ford V Ferrari" and the Power of Good Editing

Scene from Ford v Ferrari

On the surface, director James Mangold's work on Ford v Ferrari doesn't seem that impressive. After all, how many times has a camera zoomed in on Vin Diesel pulling the hammer down as he prepares to start a drag race? It has to be a few dozen at this point. People love watching cars go fast, and that only begins to explain why Mangold's latest has gotten where it is. True, it has some fun performances by Matt Damon and Christian Bale, but what it does in its third act is one of the most magnificent uses of editing and sound design by any film in 2019. So what if it's a period piece grounded in realism and not Furious 7 jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper? It still has a lot to achieve, and it does so over the course of one of the most daunting 40 minutes of cinema of the past year.

Ford v Ferrari has a simple end goal. The Ford Motor Company wants to arrive at the 24 Hour Race in Le Mans and prove to the European car market that America can compete. The race, as suggested, lasts a consecutive 24 hours as drivers circle the tracks, hitting extreme weather conditions and doing their best to not have something as major as a wheel fall off or an engine overheat. It's a grueling task and one that has been set up by screenwriters Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller. Whereas the first half of the film sets up conflict and character with enjoyable ease, it also gives the audience enough of an automotive lingo to handle the race at Le Mans. Up to this point the audience has only really seen tests of cars being pushed further and further to go faster and faster. There is a thrill with seeing Ken Miles (Bale) grin as he finds himself entering a new barometer for speed.

There is so much set up that all the film really needed to do to complete its journey was give a satisfying conclusion of Le Mans. The conflict has been set up, where every party has their own personal investment in this race. For Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts), it's proving that he's more than the son of an automotive genius. For Miles, it's living his dream to be a racecar driver that can feed his family with the winnings. For Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), it's about winning on an international stage, proving the value of speed and ingenuity against Ford and a company that fought him the entire way there. He is the pit stop leader and one who is constantly being bombarded with small subplots. Suddenly the simple goal of presenting a world of racing now has to juggle the 24-hours in a car as well as a lot of drama from the sideline, where Shelby is constantly dealing Ford and even the opposition at Ferrari trying to book him on bogus penalties.

Everything else has been done. Now it's time for Mangold to create the feel of a race that actually feels like it lasts 24 hours. This is a tricky proposition given that an amateur filmmaker would cut it down to 10 minutes, slowly introducing payoff in a montage that shows success approaching quicker and quicker. This isn't one of those stories. Instead of quickly getting to the point, the story pulls back to reveal how much this car race is about more than cars. It's about Miles driving, sure, but it's also about Shelby proving himself as he watches Ford come and go at various hours, panning over to people in a balcony communicating through vicious eye contact. There's a constant need to have the focus shift, and that's the result of editing that needs to be clean and focused. 

If one was to judge the film solely on its car racing scenes, it would still be worthy of some Oscar attention. The way that Mangold pans down from the sky as a car drives ahead is one of those slick shots, creating awe for the scenery around him. His knowledge of when to cut to a close-up of Miles or even him shifting gears is one of those tense action beats that plays like music. Think of a song shifting time signatures, as if from a slow verse to a fast chorus. That is the cacophony that Mangold achieves with the editing by Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker, and Dirk Westervelt. Every gear shift feels like punctuation to a beat in the race. By the time the camera cuts back to Miles, there is this breakneck speed of movement that makes you understand the elation in his face. Sometimes it's nothing more than him starting a car, but Ford V Ferrari makes those moments carry the weight that they need to, and it does so for almost 40 minutes.

As one would expect from a 24-hour race, there are obstacles along the way. At various points, Miles is forced to overcome cars crashing around him. As the camera cuts from the exterior in on Miles, there is this paranoid sense that he might not make it. By watching Miles react, there is a connection that makes his maneuvering all the more impressive. By taking that quickly of a moment to process events, it plays like a race unto itself. The audience has to react and process thoughts quickly, for the sake of the race to continue and for Ford to indeed beat Ferrari for the ultimate goal. 

The moments become more sparsed out as the film goes along. The cuts become longer as if allowing the audience to breathe. Even the chance to watch Miles's view the scenery around him gives the sense that the time for overthinking has ceased for the moment. It's time to take it easy, save the wits for whatever lies ahead. While it may not seem like the biggest deal for a race film to do this, it works as its own form of dramatic tension. Because of that early automotive lingo, it also makes certain actions hold more tension, like the fear that the motor will overheat, or a wheel might pop off. There's always that tension even when the camera takes its sweet time with the race. Yes, it is fraught with tension, especially during a nighttime rainstorm full of dangerous fog, but it all flows like a steady wave. Those moments are broken up with quieter moments, allowing the viewer to keep up with the race without feeling overwhelmed.

Then to add in Shelby's angle (and subsequently Miles' family) is the work of sports movie genius. It's a simple task to cut to people watching TV, listening to a radio, and hear their elation at Miles and Ford winning the race. It creates an epic scope with a limited amount of shots. By doing so, it manages to create Shelby's internal dialogue as he watches the track, trying to find ways to keep the car going. The occasional cuts to opposing forces at Ferrari only show how unsafe the bet is. The Shelby scenes are about the strategy to keep the car going, and it eventually adds moral dilemmas. Ford wants all three cars to cross at the same time despite Miles being way ahead. This would potentially upset a simple victory. This moment is the most drawn-out, creating a cliffhanger as to whether Miles will sacrifice his reputation with Ford by just winning, or give into potential loss by following orders. It allows the film to think more about where the focus should be.

Many films have more deliberate and effective editing, but Ford V Ferrari does the unthinkable. It takes reality and adds a stylized cover over it. The difference is that where The Fast and the Furious franchise praises itself on stylized races, they often lack an intent behind their editing beyond the wow-factor. Ford V Ferrari has the wow factor, but it knows to place it within the realm of stakes. Because the audience has a basic understanding of automotive design by the time of the Le Mans sequences, there is no need to fill in the blanks. Everything has been built so that turning a gear no longer is just a cool shot. It has a history behind it that is implicit. The exterior shots paving the way for interior shots of Miles smiling feel more powerful. Most of all, it captures what makes racing exciting on a cinematic level. Because of how much thought it puts into each sequence, it is suddenly more than a race. It's about the American dream coming to life on a world stage.

The truth is that Ford V Ferrari is a film that's just as impressive to learn about cars as it is what goes into making a crowd-pleasing film full of adrenaline. Many films have had car races, but rarely has the editing and sound design felt so crucial to it working. It's one thing to watch a car race, but to feel the physical act of processing abrupt decisions by simple editing choices only makes the film all the more powerful. It may fall into a conventional finale, but that doesn't mean that those who love the art of watching a camera glorify a car with a spiraling camera and a pit crew rich with their own personality can't enjoy the ride. Like the Ford car itself, a lot went into making this ride fly by. It's arguably the reason it's going to resonate for years to come, presenting something that unifies society towards a bigger, more inventive goal.