Someone tweeted the other day that 2019 was the last truly great year of movies.
While I don’t necessarily agree — 2023 was pretty great, between the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, Oppenheimer itself, Killers of the Flower Moon, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One and more — I think it does mark a milestone in terms of racing movies and media.
I would like to point out, too, that some of these flew under the radar given the absolute breadth of what came out that year. Here’s a short list:
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
- The Irishman
- Parasite
- Uncut Gems
- Midsommar
- Ad Astra
- Marriage Story
- The Lighthouse
- Knives Out
- Avengers: Endgame
- Booksmart
- John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum
Not only is that just a huge year for releases in terms of subject matter / franchise popularity, it was a huge year for big-name directors. Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Bong Joon-Ho, Sam Mendes and Mike Flanagan all released additions to their already-prominent filmographies. Directors experiencing career surges and boosts around that time — Robert Eggers, Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, the Safdie brothers and more — started tacking on to their resumes.
In the middle of all this, sometime in November, Ford v Ferrari came out. No big deal, right? It was actually the capstone of a banner year for racing movies.
James Mangold, having already helmed Logan, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma and more, directed. Christian Bale and Matt Damon — two of the biggest stars of their time — were in the lead roles. The film nabbed a spot on the National Board of Review‘s top 10 of the year and won two out of four Oscar nominations. It grossed over $225 million on a budget of just under $100 million.
The movie rocks, yes, but I’m looking at it as the pinnacle of a huge year for motorsports in public media. I’ve seen 10 racing-themed productions from 2019 alone — of the 63 total I’ve seen, only two years seemingly come close (2021 and 2017, each with 6).
We had a slew of TV documentaries, produced by NBC Sports, FOX Sports or ESPN in conjunction with specific races or events: The Wood Brothers and Drive Like Andretti from NBC; Unrivaled: Earnhardt vs. Gordon from FOX; and Qualified.
On Netflix, Shelby American documented the life of one of Ford’s most prominent figures (and hats), Carroll Shelby. This came out around the same time that Damon played him in Ford v Ferrari, also with a fantastic hat and sunglasses.
Three Before February, made by well-known NASCAR creator Brock Beard, documented the deaths of Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin Jr. and Tony Roper, all of whose passings led up to the death of Dale Earnhardt and forever changed stock car racing.
Finally, three other feature films joined Ford v Ferrari as having theatrical releases that year.
Blink of an Eye shortened its source material’s title, but still told the story of Michael Waltrip‘s experience at the 2001 Daytona 500 and the triumph-to-heartbreak swing across just a few minutes after Earnhardt’s death coming to the checkered flag. Director Paul Taublieb is staying in the motorsports side of things in 2025, directing a supercross documentary called Pay Dirt.
Rapid Response, as far as I know, did show up in some theaters. It profiles Dr. Stephen Olvey and his experience as a medical professional in motorsports, covering safety concerns, responses to crashes and more.
Trading Paint is pretty bad, but we get to see John Travolta play a late-model driver alongside Shania Twain (sure, why not) and Michael Madsen. This came out the same year Travolta played a borderline offensively-portrayed stalker in The Fanatic, directed by Fred Durst (yes, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst).
By the time the decade turned to the 2020s, 2019 had given us Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio taking out the whole Manson Family crew before they could get to Margot Robbie; de-aged Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in a gangster epic; Parasite becoming the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture; and the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to that point.
It also gave us the most impressive slate of racing movies we have experienced to date.
Yet another reason I think 2019 is potentially the best year in film in the past decade or more, and easily the best and most significant of the 2010s.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.