What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Retired EE]

View attachment 196113
Ford v Ferrari from 2019 staring Matt Damon and Christian Bale

See it in the movie theater because, while the story and acting are so good they will work on the small screen, the race scenes - setting a new film standard - demand and deserve the biggest and best canvas.

When Ayn Rand looked for a business to frame her themes of the individual versus the collective / the brilliance and achievements of the singular mind versus soul-destroying groupthink, she chose architecture as it was a field where one man could still redefine an entire discipline stupefied by bureaucratic hegemony.

Had she waited, she could have use the field of auto racing, as Ford v Ferrari is really a Randian tale of highly confident, brilliant, risk-taking individuals beating the creativity destroying force of rulebooks, of decisions by committee, of decisions for "the good of the many".

Sure, it's slick and manipulative as Hollywood brought everything in its bag of tricks to this one, but as the original movie moguls knew when they built early Hollywood in the '20s, a good story with people you care about is all that matters - and this is a good story with people you care about.

Early Hollywood also knew (and, at times, hated) the value of actors - not just stars, but actors. And, while there are many good ones in Ford v Ferrari, this is Matt Damon's and Christian Bale's movie - good all the time, better when either is in a scene, magic when they both are.

You can read reviews to get the entire plot: Henry Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II - the Deuce - in the '60s, encouraged by Ford executive Lee Iacocca, wants to do the unthinkable and build a racing team at Ford to beat Ferrari and win Le Mans. He hires racing legend and race car builder Caroll Shelby to do something a corporate monolith shouldn't be able to do - defeat the tiny, craftsman-driven Ferrari team in an extreme test of individual and technological achievement.

This individual-versus-the-collective schism is instantiated by Shelby's chosen star driver and real-life Randian hero, Ken Miles. Miles represents everything that buttoned-down Ford and its boot-licking executives aren't. It is a movie of operatic sweep capturing, possibly, one of the last moments when man's raw intelligence and instinct, not translated to computer code and algorithms, could still win at the apex of a field driven by science, math, engineering, technology...and preternatural human talent. You need to see this movie.

N.B., The book that the movie is based on, "Go Like Hell", is every bit as good as the movie or, really, the movie is as good as the book - a surprise as both are brilliant. How a book about the singular achievements of singular men was made into a clearly corporate-driven movie without losing its soul is mystifying, but it happened.

A friend and I saw the movie this evening. Some observations: I agree with your overall assessment, articulated above. My thoughts as I watched the Ford and Ferrari business interactions depicted in the movie was that, in the greater overall view of this event, Ferrari could be described as the underdog, vs a giant American corporation and the associated corporate culture. However, as an 8 year kid who was at this race with my family (dad was in the US Army stationed not far away from LeMans), what was exciting to me, at the time, was that American cars came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. That was my principal emotional memory of the event. I also remember watching the victory in the pit lanes with the large crowds swarming the cars, thru a chain link fence about 400 yards away. Interestingly, we drove to the race in a 1962 Chevrolet Impala, bronze color. Lee Iacocca's character in the film nailed the description of what a young family-oriented man wanted (and I saw that same model car as background in the film). The few things that didn't get accurately depicted (to my memory of that era) in the film were the numbers of people smoking-- cigarettes seemed to be everywhere at the time, and also litter. In the photos my dad took, the viewing areas of the race course were heavily littered. Also, the 2nd day of the race was cloudy and overcast, with potential of rain showers-- the film showed blue skies. All, in all, a very good film with much better character development than the 1971 Steve McQueen film Le Mans.

 

[Fading Fast]

On in the background on mute is "On the Town," in which stars my second (behind the classic Checker) favorite NYC cab of all time:

 

[belfastboy]

Recorded from TCM and watched last night...."Anatomy of a Murder". I have to admit not being a great admirer of old movies. I can't abide the older style of acting. But this movie was great. Jimmy Stewart a marvel and a young Ben Gazzarra not far behind. I had some trouble with Lee Remick's performance and George C Scott was a bit over the top. The story line was great and the ending quite perfect.

 

[Zombie_61]

On in the background on mute is "On the Town," in which stars my second (behind the classic Checker) favorite NYC cab of all time:

View attachment 196277

She is a beauty, isn't she? I too think the Checker cabs are classic and more iconic, but these 1946-48 DeSoto DeLuxe taxicabs have their own charm.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Ronin, right now.

 

[3fingers]

On in the background on mute is "On the Town," in which stars my second (behind the classic Checker) favorite NYC cab of all time:

View attachment 196277

I followed a couple of those that were for sale a few years back, but that received the same reaction that my Divco milk truck fantasy did from SWMBO, so I suppose I will have to continue to enjoy them when spotted in a movie here and there.

 

[belfastboy]

I followed a couple of those that were for sale a few years back, but that received the same reaction that my Divco milk truck fantasy did from SWMBO, so I suppose I will have to continue to enjoy them when spotted in a movie here and there.

Is the Divco a purpose built milk truck? I owned a milk truck purchased from a local dairy in 1970. It was a 1950's vintage that they finally decommissioned. It has a 4 cyl Hercules engine geared very very low. The cool thing about was it was designed to drive whilst standing up (you did have the option of sitting down) and the brake and the clutch were the same pedal. About 1/2 way down the clutch would disengage and when pressed a bit further the brake would engage. Took some getting used to and had many jerky gear shifting in the beginning. But I lived in a commune house while in university and I could fit the whole dame house in the back to hit the town.

 

[3fingers]

Is the Divco a purpose built milk truck?

Yes. They were made for about 60 years until the mid '80s with few changes.
I have absolutely no need for one, but I like them for some reason.

 

[belfastboy]

Yes. They were made for about 60 years until the mid '80s with few changes.
I have absolutely no need for one, but I like them for some reason.
View attachment 196518

Yep, that is damn close to the one I owned except with mine they painted over the company name/logo. I had great plans to camperize it and drive it across the country until my uncle an ex milkman advised that with the low gearing it would either take me forever or I would burn it up after a few hundred miles. Paid $300 hard earned dollars for it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was one of those parked up against a building about a block away from here for about twenty years, until it finally disappeared into the soil. I think there were, in fact, people living in it at one point.

 

[belfastboy]

There was one of those parked up against a building about a block away from here for about twenty years, until it finally disappeared into the soil. I think there were, in fact, people living in it at one point.

We have 1/2 million dollar condos in my city that are not much bigger than the interior of one of them.

 

[Worf]

View attachment 196113
Ford v Ferrari from 2019 staring Matt Damon and Christian Bale

See it in the movie theater because, while the story and acting are so good they will work on the small screen, the race scenes - setting a new film standard - demand and deserve the biggest and best canvas.

When Ayn Rand looked for a business to frame her themes of the individual versus the collective / the brilliance and achievements of the singular mind versus soul-destroying groupthink, she chose architecture as it was a field where one man could still redefine an entire discipline stupefied by bureaucratic hegemony.

Had she waited, she could have use the field of auto racing, as Ford v Ferrari is really a Randian tale of highly confident, brilliant, risk-taking individuals beating the creativity destroying force of rulebooks, of decisions by committee, of decisions for "the good of the many".

Sure, it's slick and manipulative as Hollywood brought everything in its bag of tricks to this one, but as the original movie moguls knew when they built early Hollywood in the '20s, a good story with people you care about is all that matters - and this is a good story with people you care about.

Early Hollywood also knew (and, at times, hated) the value of actors - not just stars, but actors. And, while there are many good ones in Ford v Ferrari, this is Matt Damon's and Christian Bale's movie - good all the time, better when either is in a scene, magic when they both are.

You can read reviews to get the entire plot: Henry Ford's grandson, Henry Ford II - the Deuce - in the '60s, encouraged by Ford executive Lee Iacocca, wants to do the unthinkable and build a racing team at Ford to beat Ferrari and win Le Mans. He hires racing legend and race car builder Caroll Shelby to do something a corporate monolith shouldn't be able to do - defeat the tiny, craftsman-driven Ferrari team in an extreme test of individual and technological achievement.

This individual-versus-the-collective schism is instantiated by Shelby's chosen star driver and real-life Randian hero, Ken Miles. Miles represents everything that buttoned-down Ford and its boot-licking executives aren't. It is a movie of operatic sweep capturing, possibly, one of the last moments when man's raw intelligence and instinct, not translated to computer code and algorithms, could still win at the apex of a field driven by science, math, engineering, technology...and preternatural human talent. You need to see this movie.

N.B., The book that the movie is based on, "Go Like Hell", is every bit as good as the movie or, really, the movie is as good as the book - a surprise as both are brilliant. How a book about the singular achievements of singular men was made into a clearly corporate-driven movie without losing its soul is mystifying, but it happened.

Saw this on Tuesday at the Geezer Matinee myself. Great film in the classic Hollywood mode. I could see the two leads being played my Gable and Tracey easily with Bogart as the company stooge Bebe. Sidney Greenstreet or Laughton could play Da Deuce to a tee as well. The film kept me entertained. I wish I didn't know how the story ended before I hit the theater cause I'm sure it was a tragic shocker to many. One fact I dislike that they played with, from what I've heard and read Miles had driven at Le Mans the year before for Ford so why would the company goons be so adverse to him only a year later?

"Do you know who those men were? Representatives from Porsche... they were here looking to give you a ride!"

"Well you should know how we feel about Germans...."

I guess Ken Miles had had his fill of German interactions during WWII.

Two hours well spent.

Worf

 

[Worf]

"Overlord" - Sigh what this picture could've been. Nice premise. Airborne soldiers on D-Day drop behind enemy lines to destroy a radio jamming tower. It's a pretty straight forwarded premise till the secret Nazi lab starts spewing out reanimated Nazi Zombies. We could've had a lot of fun with that premise BUT in a classic instance of "colorblind casting run amok" they decided to integrate the 101st Airborne with black soldiers. While I'm sure my uncles would've loved the Jump Pay it's an obvious fact that the U.S.Army was completely segregated at the time. Still, this wouldn't have been a deal killer if they'd done it Tarrantino style like "Inglorious Basterds" and taken it over the top to say... "Castle Wolfenstein" territory. As it is the film doesn't know what it wants to be and winds up being nothing...

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

Saw this on Tuesday at the Geezer Matinee myself. Great film in the classic Hollywood mode. I could see the two leads being played my Gable and Tracey easily with Bogart as the company stooge Bebe. Sidney Greenstreet or Laughton could play Da Deuce to a tee as well. The film kept me entertained. I wish I didn't know how the story ended before I hit the theater cause I'm sure it was a tragic shocker to many. One fact I dislike that they played with, from what I've heard and read Miles had driven at Le Mans the year before for Ford so why would the company goons be so adverse to him only a year later?

"Do you know who those men were? Representatives from Porsche... they were here looking to give you a ride!"

"Well you should know how we feel about Germans...."

I guess Ken Miles had had his fill of German interactions during WWII.

Two hours well spent.

Worf

I'm really glad you enjoyed it. It is very much like a modern version of an old Hollywood movie. In addition to your casting suggestions, I could see Carole Lombard as Ken Miles wife and Raymond Massey in the Phil Remington role.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Watching again one of my old favorites on VHS:

National Geographic: The search for the battleship Bismarck (Robert D. Ballard)

 

[MisterCairo]

I can't abide the older style of acting.

Around here, them's fightin' words...

Joking aside, our Christmas Cavalcade of Classic Classics has begun, somewhat early but it is snowing here (global warming, where are you when we need you???), with Christmas With The Kranks.

We do not understand why this film is so maligned. Is it Citizen Kane? No, and that is a good thing, because who the hell wants to watch that! All the nonsense that goes along with Christmas (keeping up with or outdoing the Joneses on decorations, etc.), mandatory traditions whether you like them or not, and all the other things that I vigorously engage in each year!

 

[Hat and Rehat]

Soylent Green.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Leon - The Pro director's cut

From my old VHS.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fashions of 1934 from, well, 1934 with William Powell and Bette Davis

• It's a bit clunky and dated, but if you can see past that, it's a fun pre-code as Powell and Davis bring their Powellness and Davisness in full force

• Powell plays a lovable conman - a "Thin Man" on the wrong side of the law, really where he belongs - and Davis a fashion illustrator who team up to, well, cheat the silly fashion world via a series of schemes that get harder to follow as they go from stealing designs, to stealing clients, to putting on stage shows with (let me emphasize this) vey scantily clade feather dancers, to... well, you get it

• The plot - also involving an old female friend of Powell's from Brooklyn who has "reinvented" herself as a Russian Princess living in Paris - is not the point as the joy is in watching Powell's insouciant confidence get them into trouble as Davis' pragmatism and smarts try to get them out, plus, did I mention those girls and their feathers

The Girl From 10th Avenue from 1935 with Bette Davis, Ian Hunter and Alison Skipworth (I'm guessing, Warner Brothers' answer to MGM's Marie Dressler)

• This quick, tight 75 minute movie deserve more than the two stars assigned by my cable company's on-screen guide as, as always, Warner Brother packs a lot of smart plot into these quick '30s era movies

• This is another "they got married in a hurry / accident" code-enforce movie, as Davis plays a working girl who prevents a drunk society man from making a fool of himself outside the wedding of the girl who jilted him, then Davis and he spend the day together ⇨ get close ⇨ get drunk (him more so) ⇨ get married

• In real life, they'd have just lived together as there's immediate chemistry and he needed companionship and she needed finical help, but the code forced a quick marriage, so be it, but he still keeps her tucked away as she's not "proper" for his society friends

• It's better than the plot sounds as Davis, as always, imbues her proud working girl with character (she'll divorce him anytime he wants with no strings or alimony) and passion (she gets him and his career back up and running) / at the same time, husband Ian Hunter is not a cad, but is healing his heart while trying to do right by Davis whom he is growing fonder of right when the girl who jilted him reappears in his life

• In a killer scene, Davis debones the jilter who was trying to embarrass unsure-of-her-manners Davis - this scene alone is worth the watch, but the entire movie works and has more heart than many modern ones (see next movie)

The Art of Racing in the Rain from 2019 with Milo Ventimiglia and Amanda Sayfried

• It's all Hallmark, Hallmark, Hallmark, despite my desire for a movie narrated by a dog to be more

• If you can get past the cloying plot and cliched characters, it is, well, kinda pretty mainly because of the dog and occasional Ferrari

• The movie's one villain is so desperately drawn to fit today's acceptable political narrative that it's laughably obvious, albeit still insulting

• Did I mention the dog and the Ferrari?

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Saw this on Tuesday at the Geezer Matinee myself. Great film in the classic Hollywood mode. I could see the two leads being played my Gable and Tracey easily with Bogart as the company stooge Bebe. Sidney Greenstreet or Laughton could play Da Deuce to a tee as well. The film kept me entertained. I wish I didn't know how the story ended before I hit the theater cause I'm sure it was a tragic shocker to many. One fact I dislike that they played with, from what I've heard and read Miles had driven at Le Mans the year before for Ford so why would the company goons be so adverse to him only a year later?

"Do you know who those men were? Representatives from Porsche... they were here looking to give you a ride!"

"Well you should know how we feel about Germans...."

I guess Ken Miles had had his fill of German interactions during WWII.

Two hours well spent.

Worf

Just a note if you all like the Ford vs Ferrari storyline.
Check out “24 hr War” currently on Netflix.
It’s a 2016 documentary of Ford vs Ferrari with outstanding footage and interviews of anybody who was anything in the development of the Ford/Ferrari wars.
It is truly an in depth view which covers the beginnings of Ferrari and of Ford. It ends in 2016 with Fords 50th anniversary of the LeMans win by repeating the victory.
In general this film answered so many aspects of what the battles were all about and who did what and the enormity of the efforts on both sides. The interviews are amazing!
Highly recommended.
Bowen