Play like a pro with expert knowledge from a champion of the game

If you don't know the ins and outs of play, bridge can seem like an intimidating game--but it doesn't have to be! Armed with the techniques and strategies in the pages of this book, you'll be bidding and winning hands like a boss! A good book for beginners, it has lots of advanced techniques useful to experienced players, too. This is as  close to an all-in-one bridge book you can get.

 

 

About the Author

H. Anthony Medley holds the rank of Silver life Master, is an American Contract Bridge League Club Director, and has won regional and sectional titles. An attorney, he received his B.S. from UCLA, where he was sports editor of UCLA's Daily Bruin, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is the author of UCLA Basketball: The Real Story and Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed and The Complete Idiots Guide to Bridge. He was a columnist for the Southern California Bridge News. He is an MPAA-certified film critic and his work has appeared nationally in Good Housekeeping, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. Click the book to order.
 

  

 

Ford v Ferrari (8/10)

by Tony Medley

150 minutes

PG-13

Too long with some pretty Hollywoodian add-ins, this is still an interesting take on Ford’s challenging Ferrari’s dominance in racing in the ‘60s. It tells the story by concentrating on Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale).

The film definitely takes a point of view in picturing Ford executive Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas, in an outstanding performance) as a villain. But was he? Is this film accurate or do director James Mangold and writers Jez Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth, and Jason Keller simply paint Shelby as the prime mover when Beebe was the Ford executive in charge of the racing program?

I don’t know where they got their information but Beebe really comes across as the ambitious heavy in this film. If this is not true, then it is a shame to defame a man who is dead in this manner, and there is evidence that he was not the heel projected in this film. There is absolutely no need for a heavy in this film apart from the competition with Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone), and, frankly, I doubt this presentation of Beebe.

Another questionable representation is that of Miles as a cantankerous, hard to get along with, guy. According to Charlie Agapian, who was his crew chief, “He was a very, very likeable fellow. If you got into any kind of trouble with what you were doing, he would show you how to handle it and take care of it. He was a great guy; I loved him.”

The film shows Miles and Shelby in a knock-down, drag out fight with one another.  Agapian says, “Unlike the movie they were great friends. I’ve never seen them in an argument or anything like that. I’ve never seen any fist fights.”

Some of the other arguably silly scenes include Miles making eye contact with his competitor in the Ferrari as he is trying to pass him at 200 mph with them so close together it seems impossible that they did not touch. It's really hard to believe that such a switch in concentration would be made with their lives on the line every second.

So, it’s a Hollywood movie, most of which comes from a screenwriter’s imagination. The racing scenes are good and the story is good, potentially counterfactual though it may be in vital parts. It’s just disappointing that Hollywood always seems to take such liberties to “beef up” a story that doesn’t need any beefing.

All that said, this is a thoroughly enjoyable film with fine acting, directing, and good racing cinematography.

 

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