Movie Review : The 24 Hour War

By Nolan Browning - October 6, 2016

Adam Carolla is at it again with his second automotive documentary film — “The 24 Hour War.” His directorial debut in the world of documentaries came in 2015 with co-director Nate Adams and “Winning : The Racing Life Of Paul Newman.” The “Newman Doc” as it has been called was a solid debut with great interviews and insight into the little-known racing past of the famous actor. For the latest film, Carolla would tackle one of the most legendary battles in automotive racing history between Ford and Ferrari in the late 60’s. The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and directors Nate Adams and Carolla introduced the movie on stage with Adam’s children, Sonny and Natalia. For Adam this was a passion project to make sure the stories were preserved for future generations before many of the key contributors had passed. Adam had the idea for the film after reading A.J. Baime’s book entitled “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans” and becoming fascinated with the story.

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Photo by http://www.130down.com/

The beginning of “The 24 Hour War” tells the parallel stories of how both Henry Ford and Enzo Ferrari became involved with the automotive industry. The film does a great job at contrasting the large differences between their two companies and then bringing it back around to the importance of racing for both historic brands. The two world’s collide in the mid-sixties as Ford and Enzo begin talks for Ford to purchase the Ferrari brand. After a disagreement of how the racing side of the business is to be handled, Enzo backs out of the deal and uses it as leverage to sell to the Italian Fiat brand. Thus begins the famous rivalry as Henry Ford II commisions a project with a seemingly unlimited budget to beat Ferrari at LeMans. The Ford GT race program is born and the various trials and tribulations through the development are chronicled.

The documentary features detailed interviews with many key drivers and employees from the Ford and Ferrari organization that were involved with the racing program. The list of driver’s interviewed includes the likes of Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, Bob Bondurant, and many more. Carolla also uses historical footage of the great Carroll Shelby to help tell how he developed the Shelby Cobra and Ford GT40. The historical race footage from places like Sebring, Daytona, and LeMans sets the tone of the film and keep the viewer interested. On rare occasion some portions of information – such as a moment when Ford Motor Company told the race team to swap in factory engines – seemed to be repeated to help get the point across when they could have trusted the audience’s memory a bit more. But overall the movie serves as a wonderful visual journey through a time when racing helped create some of the most legendary cars and drivers we will ever experience.