Ferruccio Lamborghini Biopic Deserves to Be Better than It Is

We’ve all heard the legend: Ferruccio Lamborghini tried to buy a Ferrari, and Enzo wouldn’t let him because Lamborghini made tractors and therefore wasn’t “a gentleman.” Or that Ferruccio owned several Ferraris but was frustrated that the clutches wore out, and Enzo got miffed when Lamborghini suggested a fix. Or that…

That’s the thing with legends—when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. So somebody finally printed it, by trying to put the legend of Ferruccio Lamborghini on screen. And not just anybody: Academy Award winner (for Crash) Bobby Moresco, who wrote the screenplay for and also directed Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend, available now in limited release and on Amazon Prime.

The movie is based on the book Ferruccio’s real-life son Tonino published in Italian titled “Ferruccio Lamborghini: La Storia Ufficiale.” Now you could assume the son Tonino would write a flattering portrayal of his famous industrialist father. And maybe he did (anybody who reads Italian want to chime in?), publishing the biography on the 100^th anniversary of father Ferruccio’s birth in 1916. And there is a great story in there. Somewhere.

But the problem is it’s all presented in chopped-up scenes with crunchy, bite-sized dialogue that doesn’t taste as good as the setting looks, or the real story deserves.

We start out with young Ferruccio returning from the war. Both the real and the movie Ferruccio served in the Italian Army as mechanics. There are the clichés of the beautiful girl who waited for him, the farmer father who wants his son to stay on the family farm, the struggles of a young entrepreneur.

Ferruccio and his business partner friend Matteo turn an old Topolino into a race car. They will use the prestige of their wins to gather funding to build their first tractor.

“We’re redesigning the engine, increasing the displacement, turning a 500-cc into a 650-cc. I have also an idea for a new cylinder head with overhead valves. It will be as fast or faster than any car in the race,” enthuses young Ferruccio.