The 24 Hour War

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

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.

... is that at times the viewer forgets it actually is a documentary and gets caught up in the action. Adam Carolla achieves such a feat in this film, a feat no less amazing than those of the engineers who built the cars showcased in the story.

This is achieved by the most aggressive use of sound bites this reviewer can recall in the documentary medium. And some of the best editing. Even though different voices are talking about different things, it seems TO THE VIEWER that one voice is telling a continuous linear A to B story, from beginning to end.

Amazing.

As for the story itself, it is indeed iconic because it marks the end of an era when (as explained in the film) it was both possible and even desirable to enter the race with a "factory" build package which in theory even working stiffs could order from their local dealer.

Another bonus for Corolla is that he brilliantly manages to coax the viewer to overlook that this is really a David and Goliath tale -- Ford possibly could have purchased Italy itself after Ferrari turned his deal down -- and allows you to think that these two contenders may have been evenly matched. This too heightens the drama.

Finally, the coup de grace, the timing makes it possible to have the same personalities who were in the thick of the action appear on camera as they are in 2017 ... which again makes this all the more dramatic.

Great film.

Great story that I had never heard before. Well done.

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.