Ford v Ferrari Blu-ray review

Feb 24, 2020- Permalink

I really enjoyed Ford v Ferrari. I initially screened it at the Toronto International Film Festival and enjoyed it so much that I saw it again at a press screening closer to its theatrical release. 20th Century Fox released it for home entertainment on February 11th and I received a Blu-ray/Digital combo to review last week. The movie tells the true-life story of Ken Miles (Christian Bale) and Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), whose racing and design team helped the Ford Motor Company defeat Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s just good old solid filmmaking with great performances and amazing race scenes.

The 1080p AVC-encoded transfer is in the theatrical release’s 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The detail on the video presentation is excellent from sun-weathered faces to greasy overalls to gritty race tracks. The colour palatte is pleasing and natural and captures everything from the sun-drenched sky over a desert race track to the more muted tones in the garages and rainy Le Mans track. Contrast and black levels are good and there really isn’t digital noise or compression artifacts to comment on. All in all, it’s just a very good video presentation.

Your ears are given the choice of an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack, English Dolby Digital 2.0 and descriptive audio 5.1 tracks and French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French and Spanish. The sound editing team have outdone themselves. Your surround speakers are given such a workout that they’ll probably hit the showers afterwards. You’ll be immersed in the races as the cars in the races move around the soundscape so well that you’ll swear you need to check your blind spot. Low frequency growls from the engines add extra heft to the races. But even in quieter non-race scenes, the ambient effects are very good. Dialogue is clear and well-prioritized and the score is bright and dynamic.

Besides the digital code, you also get theatrical trailers and a one-hour look at the production and the real-life story behind it.

With great performances, stunning video and audio, and a lengthy behind-the-scenes doc, you’ll want to park Ford v Ferrari in your physical media collection.