Rush to see this movie

 

By: Peter Lewis

 

Films about racing or cars usually don’t do as well as the studio may have hoped.  The majority tend to drift into the genre’s clichés of primarily focusing on the action and how shiny the filmmakers make the cars in the hopes that it will amaze the audience.  While the visuals may do just that, these films suffer from lack of character development, story, or lackluster to clichéd dialogue that make the film be viewed negatively or be forgettable.  With the odds completely against these types of films, it was surprising to see Peter Morgan, writer of award winning films such as Frost/Nixon, The Last King of Scotland, and The Other Boleyn Girl, would even take on a film like this.  However, even with the odds seemingly stacked against Morgan, he has done what looked to be the impossible and easily made the best drama (against a racing background) of all time.  

            Rush is set in what is commonly referred to as “Formula 1’s Golden Age” (in the 1970s) and focuses on the organization’s most famous and polarizing figures at the time: James Hunt, played by Chris Hemsworth and Niki Lauda, played by Daniel Bruhl.  During this time period both Hunt and Lauda emerged as the best in F1 and started one of racing’s most memorable rivalries.  What made it even better was how both men were completely different from one another.  Hunt was a playboy and brash person who worked his way from the lower ranks all the way to the highest point, but Lauda was a no nonsense hardworker and calculating genius behind the wheel that bought his way into the series.  Both drivers’ paths collide in 1970, in Formula 3, the minor league to Formula 1. Unsurprisingly, when they first come in contact with each other the relationship doesn’t get off to a great start.  From that point on each driver’s career takes a drastically different turn.  Lauda’s skill and potential is seen by Ferrari, at the time and today one of the best teams in Formula 1, and he is signed on to drive with them for the 1975 season.  Hunt and his team from F3 manage to get to F1, but face the season without a sponsor.  The 1975 season concludes with Lauda winning the championship and Hunt’s team going under.  However, Hunt’s skill and desire to defeat Lauda impresses McLaren Racing, who sign him on.  The film then gets to the infamous 1976 F1 season and racing’s most famous story begins to unfold.  For those who know the story, the film does a fantastic job at staying true to the history of these events and doesn’t follow the Hollywood route of changing things simply because they feel like they have to for interest; the filmmakers knew the original story on its own was great and kept it as is.  For those who don’t know the story, the film keeps everything grounded and easy to keep up with even though it goes through the season fast, but keeps the primary events that shaped the season with good amounts of time and allows things to develop.

            Just as it seemed Ron Howard’s career had started coming to an end, he looked inside of himself and put everything he did right in the past into the film and allowed it to be a successful as it was.  Peter Morgan’s writing captured the personalities of Hunt and Lauda very well and the dialogue of the film is very impressive.  Howard’s direction allowed the rest of the cast to do very good jobs with their roles, but, above all, Hemsworth and Bruhl are spectacular as Hunt and Lauda and their performances will defiantly not go unnoticed.

            Fall is the time of year where Oscar hopeful films are released in hope becoming worthy of nomination, Rush proves that it has plenty of worthy parts that will and should be nominated.  Howard’s direction is easily at the same level from a drama standpoint as it was in Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon and the action during the race makes the film action packed when it wasn’t even the focus. Peter Morgan has been nominated for best screenplay before and it’s very safe to say it’ll happen once more.  As for Hemsworth and Bruhl’s portrayals, either one or both have a good shot at having the honor of being nominated.  Hemsworth for pulling off a brash playboy very well and making the struggles Hunt went through come to life and Bruhl successfully pulling off a character that wouldn’t normally be liked, but in the end turns out to be the best of the two and the one most audiences would appreciate is job well done every time.  As a whole the film will easily be up there as well.

            Rush is easily one of the best films of 2013 so far and a highly memorable and one of the best racing/sports movies ever filmed.  Niki Lauda himself in an interview with Hollywoodvshistory.com stated, “When I saw it the first time I was impressed. There were no Hollywood changes or things changed a little bit Hollywood-like. It is very accurate. And this really surprised me very positively."  For these reasons, Rush is a must see; it has the quality of an award winner, but feels like a film anyone can get behind and enjoy.