Directed by:
Ron HowardScreenplay:
Peter MorganCinematography:
Anthony Dod MantleComposer:
Hans ZimmerCast:
Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, David Calder, Natalie Dormer, Stephen Mangan, Christian McKay (more)VOD (1)
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Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, Rush portrays the exhilarating true story of two of the greatest rivals the world has ever witnessed - handsome English playboy Hunt and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Lauda. Taking us into their personal lives on and off the track, Rush follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. If you make one mistake, you die. The epic action-drama stars Chris Hemsworth as the charismatic Englishman James Hunt and Daniel Brühl as the disciplined Austrian perfectionist Niki Lauda, whose clashes on the Grand Prix racetrack epitomized the contrast between these two extraordinary characters, a distinction reflected in their private lives. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (17)
I don’t remember them. It’s set in 1976 which is ten years before I was born. But thanks to Howard, it doesn’t matter, because he is great at intimating the atmosphere of a time when car racing wasn’t just based on math (the great closing conversation digs a lot at this fact) and when people like hunt were our heroes - knights in shining armor. A perfectly balanced screenplay that has something to say, devoted direction, precise, while it’s clear that this is a labor of love. Hemsworth has never acted so well (or he wasn’t acting and that’s what he’s like) and Brühl simply became Lauda. Rush is a picture that refuels faith in car racing, in movies about car racing and about well-told stories from real life as such. The dialogs are polished, the visuals are somewhere between a modern style and faithfully capturing seventies style, the tension can be cut with a knife and there is no chance to get bored during those two hours. I expect at least three Oscar nominations. The best movie this year so far. Zimmer risks nothing in terms of topic. P.S.: Girls will like this too, even if they don’t like racing, because the racing takes up only about a quarter of an hour of the movie. Happiness is your biggest enemy.
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Rush follows Morgan’s template, where he starts with some real events, finds a “timeless" theme in it and then subordinates everything to that theme. Not a thread of truth remains in this dramatization of real events, but it doesn’t matter, because the end effect is that things could have been like that and they might easily have said it like that. Which isn’t a bad approach; and he’s a dramatist anyhow. It would be a mistake to expect faithfulness to the truth from Rush, and an even greater mistake to try to find an insight into the racing car driver’s soul, Le Mans - style. And it would have been stupid to expect a sports cliché from them. Sport is only secondary in this movie. What can you expect from it, then? A drama (first and foremost drama!) about rivalry between two adversaries where one is heads and the other tails of the same coin and where each represents a different archetype of the sport; a charismatic playboy enjoying life to the full and darling of the camera with a talent straight from God while others look after his career versus the drilled, tight, precise art of a through and through rational careerist who avoided the spotlight under all circumstances. A portrait of two men where one wouldn’t have existed without the other and... A sort of racing yin and yang. In the audience-pleasing garb (and Howard knows how to sell it, no doubt about that) of Formula 1, while not being about Formula 1 at all.
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Formula One racing is among the sports I'm interested in, as long as I see a good story behind it. The story of Niki Lauda (and James Hunt) is like that of course, whose book “My Years with Ferrari" I read several times, and I was always fascinated by Laud's perfectionism and the cold mind, under which of course, the mind must be boiling. And that's exactly the kind of Lauda film Rush showed me. Daniel Brühl looks like his double and pointedly plays on that thin edge of unsympathetic arrogance and sympathetic genius the character needs. Chris Hemsworth is just the same as the young man Hunt. And the film tells their story with different embellishments, but that important “ice versus fire" and that hostile mood is there. In addition, the races are superbly filmed, Zimmer's music fits... And the whole part in the hospital, especially the putting-on of helmets, is so plausible, as if a person was watching a documentary (like the most impressive scenes from Senna).
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Ron Howard is evidently good at making biopics. Even if you don’t grow fond of Niki Lauda or James Hunt, there is still the final scene that simply launches everything a mile high. But if you’re naturally open-minded when it comes to good movies, you will definitely appreciate that the actors who portray these two characters exactly pinpoint the meaning of the term rivalry as such. Niki Lauda or James Hunt were no idiots, but they were definitely not normal, either. Whatever was between them was something that is no longer fashionable in sports today. It was mutual hatred that was supported by a great deal of respect for one another. This movie captures this perfectly. I cannot but give it a five-star rating. Niki sure must convince you of that at the end of the movie!
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Perhaps you can get into the smoothly flowing storyline and the genre-specific battle of contradictions. Yet in all honesty and humanity, I cannot do it justice, and anyone who has ever loved Formula races when it was not about strategic team laps but truly deadly entertainment will feel the same. From the first roar of the engines through the acting concert of the explosive Chris Hemsworth and the cold Daniel Brühl to a breathtaking final act filled with visual perfection and emotional richness. And if that isn't enough for a full experience, Hans Zimmer roars and the car is instantly back on the track. A track where every press of the pedal could be your last.
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