The 24 Hour War

I came across this documentary on Kanopy via my public library. I watched it a week after I watched the 2019 movie "Ford v Ferrari" which is a dramatization of events in the 1950s and 1960s. It focuses most on the people involved in getting Ford competitive, including hiring Carroll Shelby.

This documentary includes the genesis and history of the two companies. Both world-renowned auto makers, both named after their founders, Ford and Ferrari were on opposite ends of the business spectrum. Ford made affordable cars to transport people reliably and comfortably. Ferrari was mostly interested in racing, they made only enough consumer cars to pay for the racing enterprise and they were the most successful road-racing company.

In a Ford/Ferrari deal gone bad in the early 1960s, Ford II came away with a grudge, determined to build Ford racing cars that would beat Ferrari in the biggest road races, Daytona, Sebring, and le Mans regardless of the cost. Ford assembled an expert team to design the car and build the racing engine but it wasn't easy. However as history tells us Ford in fact did win the three big races in 1966, and were 1-2-3 at LeMans.

This is a very worthwhile documentary. It uses archival footage and photos plus present day interviews with many mechanics, drivers, and Ford executives that were involved back in the 1960s.

I love the concept. I try to watch many of these racing documentaries. But this one is just hard to watch and enjoy. They try to switch scene every 3 seconds which makes this into a mess. And the switching of narration is also weird as a lot of showmen are hired to narrate scenes which they do with overblown emotions that seem fake. It all amounts to a loose narration of events that really gives you no time to understand details, but just tries to bombard you with emotional impacts like a modern B action movie.

I like the topic. I think the main concepts are great, but at the end it's very confusing and all over the place just because of the editing alone.

I have watched it for the archive footage. The rest is pretty useless. Nobodies competing to have the most spectacular superlative for yet another of White Man's expensive games.

Telling this piece of history it has everything you want and done well

I was quite pleased with the Ford vs. Ferrari recent release, though knowing it was putting a much more complex story in a Hollywood mass-market "Box". This movie is quite different, and to someone who knows a bit about the cars, people and events surrounding racing in the 64-67 timeframe, just great. All the key people (who are still with us) are either narrating or seen in the footage, putting a real personal stamp on the production. I'll keep it short and simple, this movie puts you in the time, with context, with fantastic historical film and with soul. One of the most difficult realities of the time was the unbelievable amount of danger that came racing these cars, and they have the accidents and stories to show it. Several of the drivers they interview lived through crashes where they probably should have died, and there is quite a bit of fire damage and skin grafts still noticeable at their present age. I met several of these guys, so the film brings back those experiences. Not to be missed!