Rush – Movie Review

There are good sports related movies and then there are the awesome sports related movies, and Rush falls into the latter category. While most sports movies are content narrating the tale of the underdog competitor or team who undergoes a painful transition and transformation and ultimately ends up the winner defeating all odds, Rush takes an entirely different tangent altogether. Dealing with the lives of two rivals who are at the very peak of their sport, over the course of a six year period when their whole lives change due to the sport and their rivalries, and how they ultimately end up developing a grudging respect for each other, forms the crux of Rush.

What makes the movie even more interesting is the fact that it is based on the real stories of Formula 1 drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt and deals with their famous rivalry from 1970 to 1976 culminating with James Hunt winning the Formula 1 World Championship in what is considered a historic F1 season for more than a few memorable reasons.

In 1970, both Hunt and Lauda were young drivers whose families didn’t quite care too much for their dreams of becoming race car drivers and both of them almost simultaneously begin their careers with Formula 3 racing. Hunt the incumbent champion is pleasantly surprised by the new European upstart driver that Lauda is and that sparks off the embers of what would become a legendary rivalry between these two drivers. Both start off their Formula 1 careers at the same time and carry their animosity for each other to the highest echelons of motorsport as well.

While Hunt is somebody who lives for the moment, enjoys the thrill of the race and likes living his life on the edge, Lauda is somebody who is more meticulous, and drives because that is the only thing he is good at. In fact he is so good with automobiles and tuning their performance that Ferrari picks him up as a driver quite early in his F1 career. This and other things prompt Hunt to join the McLaren team which puts both the drivers’ car on an almost equal footing with their rivalry being reduced to their driving skills.

Chris Hemsworth portraying James Hunt and Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda form perfect foil for each other and whenever they are on screen together, they ensure that sparks fly. Their famous rivalry and penchant for throwing verbal barbs at each other is brought out quite well by Ron Howard, the director. Both the actors have breathed life into these characters and we only see James Hunt and Niki Lauda on screen rather than the actors’ individual personalities. Full credit must also be given to the casting team and the make up team for getting the looks of both these actors perfect in comparison with the real James Hunt and Niki Lauda.

Most sports movies and especially racing movies end up looking quite farcical and unbelievable with their scripts and underdog stories, the fact that this movie is based on real events and hardly contains any fictional elements means that this stands apart from other movies in this genre. And the way in which the entire Formula 1 races are reconstructed are extremely credible. Not for a moment does the viewer feel that he is watching a movie, rather it looks like he is watching a documentary filled with footage of real races. And the fact that this does not get boring at all speaks volumes for how engrossing the movie really is.

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All images in this post have been sourced from IMDB

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