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Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend Reviews

Functional at best, Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend merely ticks off plot points rather than crafts them with the film falling flat in the process.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 15, 2023

It is inevitable that viewers will compare this film with James Mangold’s Ford vs. Ferrari, and the truth must be told: 'Lamborghini' is no match for this one.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 14, 2023

There are more scenes about the man behind the legend trying to keep his marriage intact than ones about him trying to piece the actual car together.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Dec 12, 2022

The period details are above par and Grillo is up for the challenge, but “Lamborghini” comes out as perfunctory and unenlightening as a school report from a bored teen.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 8, 2022

...a frustratingly bare-bones biopic that never gets out of neutral.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 29, 2022

Fortunately, the film is only 97 minutes long. But even this grace note comes at a cost to the viewer. The end of the story comes out of nowhere, as if the filmmakers ran out of money and stopped shooting before they were really done.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Nov 26, 2022

A movie that squanders the charisma and energy of Frank Grillo because he’s literally only in half of the movie.

Full Review | Nov 23, 2022

This biopic is a lemon.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Nov 23, 2022

Lamborghini never picks up much dramatic speed and remains stuck in neut- OK, enough of the hacky metaphors. No derisive comments about how the movie grinds its gears or blows a tire or snaps the key off in the ignition rendering it immobile.

Full Review | Nov 22, 2022

‘…a stripped down but appropriately stylish and personal tribute to a man whose passion for cars changed the way we drive,’

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 21, 2022

Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend is a straightforward telling of a life and missing the personal nuances that could make his story worthy of the cinematic touch.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 18, 2022

Stuck in neutral, this lackluster biopic of the creator of the iconic luxury sportscar brand is too flat and unfocused to get revved up about.

Full Review | Nov 18, 2022

The only part of the movie that matches the coolness of a Lamborghini car are the vintage cars themselves, which are the definition of elegance both inside and out. I wish I could say the same about this barely-there film.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 18, 2022

Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend barely scratches the surface...

A pamphletized biopic that does the easy thing — beautifying Italy and vintage automobiles — but stalls with everything involving humans.

Full Review | Nov 16, 2022

Despite a game performance by star Frank Grillo, never gets out of neutral and tells the least interesting version of Lamborghini’s story possible.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 16, 2022

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Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend (2022) – Film Review

Director: Bobby Moresco Cast: Mira Sorvino, Frank Grillo, Eliana Jones Certificate: 12

By Liam Bird

It’s one of the most famous stories from the automotive world, the feud – or the argument at least – between Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari. After the Second World War Ferruccio Lamborghini, a grape farmer’s son with an interest in all-things mechanical, made a fortune manufacturing tractors and air-conditioning systems. His wealth enabled him to buy expensive cars; it is said his collection allowed him to use a different one every day of the week. In 1958 Lamborghini drove to Maranello, in order to purchase a Ferrari. He went on to own several more.

So the story goes, Ferruccio’s Ferrari 250 GT suffered continually from a problematic clutch, so much so in fact that he returned it to the factory for repair. While being made to yet agan wait, Lamborghini sought-out none other than Enzo Ferrari himself in order to inform “il Commendatore” personally of his displeasure, not only with Ferrari’s after sales service but also the quality of his cars.

Ferrari listened carefully, before telling Lamborghini, as only the hallowed and cantankerous Enzo Ferrari could, “The clutch is not the problem. The problem is you don’t know how to drive a Ferrari. Stick to tractors”. (Or words to that effect…).

Incensed by such curt dismissal, Lamborghini vowed he’d never buy a Ferrari again, and promptly retorted ‘Correct, I am a farmer but I’ll show you how to make a sports car and I’ll do it by myself to show you how a sports car has to be.’ In 1963, in St Agata Bolognese – just up the road from Maranello – Automobili Lamborghini set-up shop.

“Disappointed”

As is always the case with tales of such legendary rivalry, certain elements have no doubt been highly embellished over the years. Still, you’d think a team of people making a film about these things would strive to get as many details as correct as they could. If only that were the case here.

As attractively packaged, shot, and promoted, as Lamborghini: The Man behind The Legend is, as a viewer, and perhaps more importantly a car enthusiast – for surely that’s where this picture is so squarely aimed – you can’t help but be bitterly disappointed at just how so obviously wrong certain all-important elements of it are.

Lead man Frank Grillo does his best to portray a sharp-suited Ferruccio Lamborghini, but constantly struggles to hide his all-American accent (not to mention the way Americans always mishandle a knife and fork). And why, upon presenting the first ever Lamborghini at what’s meant to be the Geneva Motor Show, which in the scene looks as if it’s taking place in a village hall somewhere, and sees a 350GT being uncovered rather than a 350GTV, does he then quote Frank Sintara?

Ol’ Blue Eyes did indeed say “You buy a Ferrari when you want to be somebody. You buy a Lamborghini when you are somebody.” But he didn’t say it until after his visit to the Lamborghini factory in 1969. The Lamborghini 350 GTV (not the 350GT) was first shown to the public in 1963, in Turin.

To be fair, Grillo is not to the only one who’s struggling with his accent. Gabriel Byrne plays the most Irish Enzo Ferrari anyone’s ever heard, and Patrick Brennan, who takes on the role of Lamborghini’s first test-driver, New Zealander Bob Wallace, portrays a man whose voice could’ve have come from anywhere but. Thankfully, he only has a few lines.

“Raft of mistakes”

As the film progresses, the raft of mistakes continues to grow. We see what’s clearly a Ferrari engine being unveiled as Lamborghini’s first. “I don’t like the carburettors” growls Grillo’s Ferruccio. We’re not surprised! Enzo Ferrari’s chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce (he never owned one) has been over-dubbed so it sounds like a London Cab; there’s a Ferrari 246 Dino, a car not launched until 1968, parked outside the new Lamborghini car factory in what’s meant to be 1963; Ferruccio Lamborghini drives a Ferrari 250 California (he never owned one). And why, when sat alone at dinner after yet another argument with his long-suffering second wife, played convincingly by Miro Sorvino, is it a Miura that Ferruccio is sketching on a napkin?

Lamborghini’s ground breaking mid-engined masterpiece, the first ever supercar, the Miura, was designed by Marcelo Gandini. Every Lamborghini fan knows that.

The film also continually cuts back to a fictitious race between Byrne as Enzo Ferrari and Grillo as Ferrucio Lamborghini, in which Ferrari drives a Mondial, and Lamborghini drives what’s clearly an American spec Countach. Why? Why too would these two most famous Italians be racing along a road upon which the signs are clearly written in English?

Having sat through Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend in its 90 minute or so entirety, like every Lamborghini fan the world over, I’m sadly all too aware that this story deserved to be told in a much better way. This dreadful film is, for all the wrong reasons, a load of old bull.

‘Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend’ is on digital platforms now

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Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend

This thrilling, high-speed biopic reveals one man's dream of making the world's fastest car-and beating rival Enzo Ferrari. This thrilling, high-speed biopic reveals one man's dream of making the world's fastest car-and beating rival Enzo Ferrari. This thrilling, high-speed biopic reveals one man's dream of making the world's fastest car-and beating rival Enzo Ferrari.

• Bobby Moresco
• Tonino Lamborghini
• Eliana Jones
• Mira Sorvino
• Frank Grillo
• 80 User reviews
• 35 Critic reviews
• 3 wins & 1 nomination

Top cast 29

• Billie Alland

• Ferruccio Lamborghini

• Enzo Ferrari

• Giorgio Lamborghini
• Clelia Monti

• Young Annita

• Bob Wallace

• Radio Reporter

• Antonio Lamborghini

• Gian Paolo Dallara

• Blonde Beauty
• (as Ema Kovac)

• Graphic Artist

• Evelina Lamborghini

• Young Ferruccio Lamborghini

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Antonio Banderas and Alec Baldwin were originally cast to play Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari respectively.
• Goofs In the movie it's suggested that Ferruccio Lamborghini rejected Franco Scaglione's first design proposal in favor of a more conventional design that was to become the 350 GT, the first production Lamborghini. In reality the very first Lamborghini prototype, the 350 GTV, looked exactly like the "rejected" design sketch in the movie. It was presented at the 1963 Turin Motorshow, so way before the 1964 Geneva show where the first Lamborghini was introduced according to the movie.

Ferruccio Lamborghini : You buy a Ferrari when you want to be someone. You buy a Lamborghini when you are someone.

• Connections References Citizen Kane (1941)

User reviews 80

Not the story anyone wanted to see..

• MikeHunt1075
• Nov 20, 2022
• How long is Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend? Powered by Alexa
• November 18, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Lamborghini: The Legend
• Rome, Lazio, Italy
• Grindstone Entertainment Group
• Lady Bacardi Media
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Runtime 1 hour 37 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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