FORD vs FERRARI, plus Two of My Favorite Films

I saw three films this weekend, although two were at home on my television set, and both could well be in my top three ever, with the other being South Pacific, which was highlighted two days ago in this blog:

                                         Rotten Tomatoes       Box Office     My Rating
                                    Reviewers  Audiences        Mojo

Ford vs Ferrari                    92              99                 #1                  A

Lost in Translation             95              85                                       A

Contact                                63              78                                       A

Ford v Ferrari, more than 2.5 hours long, is the best movie I've seen this year, featuring, Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby, Christian Bale as Ken Miles, Remo Girone as Enzo Ferrari, Jon Bernthal as Lee Iaococca and Tracy Letts as Henry Ford II.  Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were originally signed to star.  The car racing scenes were spectacular.  To quote Rotten Tomatoes:

Academy Award-winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale star in FORD v FERRARI, based on the remarkable true story of the visionary American car designer Carroll Shelby (Damon) and the fearless British-born driver Ken Miles (Bale), who together battled corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

Lost in Translation, released in 2003, I had recorded and decided to see because I'm heading off to Japan tomorrow, for this movie epitomizes my life in Japan.  The star of the production is the Tokyo Park Hyatt Hotel, which opened a quarter century ago.  This was my go-to hotel in those days, although I moved over to the Tokyo Westin soon thereafter because of my need to stay at Sheratons to take advantage of my Platinum status.

Sixteen years ago Scarlett Johansson was really cute.  Bill Murray was Bill Murray, but excellent as a jaded movie icon.  The true star of show was Suntory Hibiki 17-years old.  A cheap bottle can today be found for $900.  

I explain this all in one of my blogs on Japanese whiskies.  In  2003, the price was less than $100.  Murray can be credited with adding value to this brand.  Incidentally, in the same looking square bottle, Hibiki Harmony (left) can today be had for around $90.

Just about everything that Murray experienced in the film happened to me.  From the weariness of arriving in Tokyo to the nightlife to the lifestyle of the Park Hyatt, I re-live those days and nights when I see this movie.

To continue my nostalgic revival, I then last night saw Contact.  In intricate ways, much of what happened in this film wove through my professional career, to today.  An interesting point is that both Rotten Tomatoes reviewers and audiences did not think much of it.  I love Contact because it told my story:

• I worked at NASA's Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  I did something similar to what Jodie Foster did.  Way back in the mid-70's, the key question was, are we the only planets in the Universe?  With Nobel Laureate Charles Townes, we developed a system to detect extrasolar planets.  

• Foster argued for and got a billionaire's support for her work.  She argued for looking at the big picture and dreamt about finding Encyclopedia Galactica.  I am still dreaming the Blue Revolution and haven't yet found that rich donor.  She essentially got a trillion dollars.  I seek a mere $150 billion to build the first floating city.  Anyone out there looking for a legacy?

• She succeeded in establishing first CONTACT, with the emanation coming from the vicinity of Vega, a relatively new star, only about half a billion years old (our Sun is 4.6 billion years old).  There was no two-way communication in the film, as it takes 52 years for any signal to come from Vega and return.  However, Vega shows some promise:

• The signals led to a human transport device to get them somewhere (where?).  Jodie eventually got on board, but televised clips showed her only spending a few seconds of travel before crashing into the sea.  Was this a hoax of billionaire S.R. Hadden?  That was the conclusion, save for a troubling 18 hours of static on her device.  At this point, the movie I recorded stopped, without ending.  Thus, I don't really know what happened.  Very similar to the Blue Revolution.  Will the floating city be built?  I don't know.

• Pervading the film was the standard debate of science versus religion, a subject I touched on yesterday (just scroll down to the next posting).  Matthew McConaughey played the spiritual role. 
• Must mention Tom Skerritt, who agonizingly kept returning as the intellectual scoundrel.  Good job.

After Ford vs Ferrari, I had lunch at Merriman's, which was selected as the best Honolulu restaurant in the Hale 'Aina Award 2019 competition.  I just last month lunched at Senia, the #2 award winner.

I ordered fish and chips with a local beer.  My standard accompaniments of Old English Vinegar, Tabasco Sauce, ketchup, horseradish and lemon.

On the way home I picked up five cases of Stanford wines, which had just arrived at Foodland Farms.  They delivered them to my Fit and somehow the boxes just fit.

The two (one was Jen) were so efficient and friendly, waving goodbye.  Back to 15 Craigside, the security people helped me unload and got the cases to my apartment.  Miraculously, all 54 wines fit into my wine refrigerator.

I took a red and a white to dinner.  However, we only drank the Chardonnay, so will bring the Merlot to lunch today.  Will create a sensation because no one here drinks wine or beer so early in the day.  Tomorrow, on to the Japan.