Oscars: Ford v. Ferrari v. Little Women

I’m missing the obvious Oscars matchup of Little Women with 1917. That’s what you’re thinking, right? While both are historical dramas set during or around a war, I feel that the themes and characters found in Ford v. Ferrari and Little Women suit each other.

Ok, I haven’t seen 1917 and didn’t want to try and match up Ford with Judy.

From its simplistic title, you might get the impression that two car juggernauts duke it out throughout the whole movie. This does happen, but it’s not the heart of the film. Ken Miles, Carrol Shelby, and the Shelby American racing team are the cornerstone of this modern racing epic. Thus creating a David and Goliath story wrapped within a David and Goliath story.

I know Oscar-worthy films should be serious, hard-hitting, and borderline, if not full-on, depressing. This movie isn’t any of those things on the surface. Except it’s all of those things while also being laced with humor. Also, a potentially disqualifying feature.

Ken Miles, played by Christian Bale, is a man who knows his business and well, none of it, including sugar coating. This makes him difficult to deal with, impossible even. Yet, he’s wonderfully relatable, loving, and you want him to come out on top. His type of passion is the kind the audience wants to see rewarded. That’s not necessarily true of the people they come up against.

Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) and Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) are, from the outset, destined to be the first set of Goliaths and the most unlikeable overall. Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) should be the ultimate boss in this high-speed showdown. But, he is portrayed more as an example of what men like Miles can become rather than an opponent. Even after the big race, Ferrari does not acknowledge Ford, but he does acknowledge Miles.

They could have easily spent the bulk of this story in the pits and on the track. High octane thrills with no substance. As it’s up for an Oscar, you can guess they didn’t do that.

The majority of the racing is held for the second act in favor of atypical exposition. We are treated to the evolution of the Ford GT Mk.ii, race politics, and, most importantly, the point that this is not a race where you turn left for four hours. This is a side of racing that is overlooked by the casual viewer.

Miles and Shelby (Matt Damon) illustrate a genuine portrait of the passion for cars. Both wax poetic on several occasions. The bits are eloquent pieces of scriptwriting. As someone who grew up surrounded by that same passion, I can tell you they, writers and actors together, hit the nail on the head.

My father isn’t a racecar driver other than at the occasional red light when he is feeling salty. But, none the less, he is a cut from the same cloth as Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby. He would work a full-time job, come home for dinner, and then head over to my uncle’s shop to tinker away on the latest car project. I cannot help but feel that the first act of the film was a love letter to gearheads and grease monkies.

By the time the car hits the racetrack in earnest, the field has been set with the odds stacked against Miles and Shelby American. But with the audience decisively in Shelby American’s fan club. In true David fashion, they take their shot at greatness. Everything that followed was inevitable, and I am not talking about walking into the theater, knowing who won the 1966 LeMans.

Characters like Ken Miles always getting screwed out of something. Even though it was a matter of time, I was still frustrated and disappointed when he downshifted. They were characters you wanted a complete and total victory for. But, it never comes. The acceptance of events was, I think, true to the real-life Ken Miles as he was known for being courteous while on the racetrack.

Bale’s performance makes the initial distaste for a photo op being a more critical grab then an outright, undisputed win fade away. He has blustered and argued through the entire film. Wrenches thrown, trunks hammered on, noses broken and all. At the moment where he should be shouting to high heaven and throwing anything he can get his hands onto, he is quiet, reserved, and content. The achievements won on the racetrack and in the garage were the ultimate prize.

It was this act of selflessness by Miles mixed in with the blunt determination of both Shelby and Miles that resonated as we switched gears the other day and watched Little Women.

I’ll admit to you that I did not want to like this movie. The 1994 version, in which Christian Bale played Laurie, had been so long a favorite, I could not imagine another taking its place. But the March family is as irresistible as ever. I don’t know why I bothered to fight being won over.

Jo, Beth, Amy, and Meg return to the silver screen for the third time in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 rendition. Rather than tackle the material from front cover to back, Gerwig opts to take a scalpel to Alcott’s content. She sews it back together, intermingling the second half of the novel with the first. The choice caught me off guard, knocking down that readiness to do a shot by shot comparison to the 1994 version. She must have been en garde for people like me.

She was also on the lookout for people who felt the character of Amy was nothing more than a snotty, little sister who got everything she ever dreamed of. Oh, fine, I’ll say it. A bitch. I have also been that person since I related so closely to Jo. You’re shocked. Each and every one of you by that admission, I’m sure. Watching this film allowed me to experience Amy in a new light. Although the manuscript burning is still unforgivable. I won’t let that go.

Arson aside, Amy’s sole ambition isn’t to be pretty. She wants to make a place for herself in the world. In that, she is not any different than Jo is. Where these two girls differ is in the ways they set about achieving their ambitions. Both girls attract the attention of the formidable Aunt March. They are given nearly the same lecture in the way in which they can be successful women. Jo opts to attempt debating Aunt March and incurring the old woman’s ire in the process. Amy, on the other hand, absorbs the advice without a single disagreement. Doors are opened for Amy and are shut for Jo. Despite the helping hand, Amy does not end up possessing the necessary perseverance. She folds her ambitions of being an artist, opting to find a route she is more successful in. Jo, although not without her own setbacks, bullies on as the blunderbuss she is.

It’s not hard to understand how both Saorise Ronan and Florence Pugh’s names ended up in the Lead Actress and Supporting Actress nominee pool. Both women took up their respective mantles, giving audiences fresh takes on the classic heroines.

What is harder to understand is how Laura Dern’s name isn’t in the Supporting Actress category for her portrayal of Marmie. She did get a nomination for her powerful contribution to A Marriage Story, and that is probably the reason for the focus on Pugh from the Little Women camp. Still, her take on Mrs. March was subtle and powerful. Dern made Marmie human, rather than a revered saint. I felt her scene with Jo on the floor next to Amy’s bedside was just as hard-hitting as her angry censure of double standards in A Marriage Story.

The stories in Ford v. Ferrari and Little Women are separated by a hundred years. A surface glance would suggest the only thing they have in common is Tracy Letts portraying an obstacle to be overcome. But that’s not all they share. These are tales of great passion. Not the romantic variety, even though Little Women is often classed as a romance, I beg to differ. The March family and the Shelby American racing team, Ken Miles, in particular, are both locked into a pursuit of perfection. A transcendental whirlwind.

Unfortunately for the pursuit of the Best Picture win, I think both have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning. Of the contenders I have seen thus far, I feel these two films should be the top of the list. They are, however, extraordinarily sentimental films with a hopeful ending in the case of Ford v. Ferrari and a complete fairytale ending in the case of Little Women. And, well, those don’t get the rewards and accolades that maybe they should.

Little Women, even with the happy ending, would have the best shot between the two because it is a more traditional Best Picture choice. But as SNL pointed out, this is not the year for feminist-leaning movies. Little Women: source material written by a first-generation feminist, screenplay written by a woman who also dared to direct the picture, and the subject matter was focused on four women. Yikes, maybe Ford v. Ferrari, is the better pick between the two.