I apologize for the long copy/paste, but I thought I should post this.
FWIW I saw this on FB by Art Garner who wrote Black Noon - the book about the disastrous 1964 Indy 500.
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I so wanted to like the new Ford v Ferrari movie. Instead I came away incredibly disappointed. Disgusted at times. A few of the racing scenes are good. Others are LOL bad. Remember the movie Driven? That bad. Nothing is as bad, however, as the characterization—make that character assassination—of Ford executive Leo Beebe.
I suppose every good story needs a protagonist and an antagonist. In Ford v Ferrari the protagonists are obvious, Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles. Unlike some, I have no problem with Matt Damon and Christian Bales in those roles. I enjoyed the interaction between the two.
The antagonist is Leo Beebe. At least the character called Leo Beebe. I researched Beebe while writing Black Noon because he took over Ford’s racing program little more than a month before the fateful 1964 Indy 500.
By all accounts he was extremely bright, quiet and unassuming. He could be forceful and demanding. But nothing like the scheming, conniving, yes man portrayed in the movie.
Beebe should be remembered as a hero. He put himself through the University of Michigan in the late 1930s by working on the line at Ford’s Rouge Plant. He was captain of the basketball team as a sophomore. He also played baseball, earned six athletic letters and a Big Ten academic award. He taught high school and coached after graduating, but the bombs soon fell on Pearl Harbor and he joined the Navy.
When the Navy saw he had worked at the Rouge they sent him back to the plant. The Rouge was to become the arsenal of the free world and Beebe was to play an important role. He reported to a young ensign named Henry Ford II.
Beebe had a master’s degree in communications, but proved to be a wizard at logistics. He worked tirelessly, helping to quickly shift plant production from cars to armaments and move them around the world. At the end of the war, Ford hired him to help return the Rouge to automotive production. He then became the company’s Mr. Fixit.
Twice in the years to come he was recalled to government service for his logistical talents, first to lead humanitarian efforts for Hungarian refugees after that country’s failed revolt against communism, and again when Fidel Castro took over in Cuba and refugees flocked to the U.S. When the new Edsel Division flopped, Ford turned to Beebe to shut it down. And Beebe was in Europe trying to resurrect Ford’s brand there when Iacocca asked him to turn around Ford’s floundering racing programs. He had never been to a race. Yes, Beebe worked for Iacocca and Don Frey, not the other way around as the movie implies.
His first race was the 1964 Charlotte 600 where Fireball Roberts was badly burned. A week later he was at Indianapolis when Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs were killed. He went to work trying to improve safety and the racing program’s organization. He had nothing to do with Ken Miles not driving at Le Mans that year—Shelby didn’t even run Ford GTs in 1964. Pure fantasy.
As is much of the movie. There are so many inaccuracies it’s easier to identify the parts that are true. Ford did beat Ferrari and Miles did get screwed. The interaction between Miles and his wife and son is good stuff. I hope it’s true.
We’ve been asked to cut the movie makers some slack. It’s a “movie” after all. Okay, so there was no last lap, last turn pass by Miles to win the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona and save Shelby his company. He won by eight laps and that wouldn’t have been very exciting. So what if there was no final record-setting “perfect lap” by Miles at Le Mans. There probably should have been. I’ll let you decide on those cringe-worthy in-car racing shots of Bandini and Hansgen, bug-eyed, hunched over the wheel in seeming terror of racing against Miles, two of my LOL moments.
Yes, it certainly appears it was Beebe who first floated the idea of dead heat at Le Mans in 1966. Some say it was Bruce McLaren, others say it was Henry Ford himself. Unlikely. But almost everyone else, including Shelby, soon bought into the idea. Shelby was probably relieved he didn’t have to make the tough decision himself.
French officials had told Shelby and the Ford execs before the finish the dead heat wasn’t going to work after all. Everyone, including Shelby, decided not to tell the drivers on the track. There were none of the histrionics depicted in the movie. Years later Shelby said it was his fault; he should have stood up more for Miles. But in the aftermath it was Beebe who stood up and took responsibility.
Not a single reviewer I’m aware of has challenged the depiction of Beebe. Most, even automotive and racing reporters, say they never heard of him. A number have referred to him as (horror of horrors), a PR guy! I hope one or two do a little research on the subject because the hatchet job on Beebe is unacceptable and makes the movie, for me, unbearable.
It was an interesting car to set in.
