Cast: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde
Director: Ron Howard
Country: USA | Germany | UK
Genre: Action | Biography | Drama | Sport
Official Website: Here
Editor’s Notes: Rush is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. Special Features include: Race for the Checkered Flag: The Making of Rush, The Real Story of Rush, and Deleted Scenes.
Rush from Ron Howard is quite simply a cinematic experience. This is a boys own adventure story built around the intriguing world of Formula One and the sport’s stereotypical elements of fast cars, playboy drivers, willing groupies and intense rivalry. The thing is though that amongst these extremities of life lies an almost unbelievable truth, a story that is so laden with fantastically uplifting and tragic moments that surely it must be exaggerated?
This is a boys own adventure story built around the intriguing world of Formula One and the sport’s stereotypical elements of fast cars, playboy drivers, willing groupies and intense rivalry.
The film opens at the beginning of the 1976 Formula One season when the rivalry between Britain’s James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) is at it’s peak. Both drivers are willing to risk everything in order to beat the other with playboy Hunt relying on instinct and pure speed, while the methodical but brilliant Lauda has a more measured approach. This clash in styles extends back many years and through flashbacks the drivers relative, and hugely comparative, rise through the ranks is explained, and so is the basis of their mutual dislike and distrust.
Building towards key and life changing events that occurred during the 1976 season Rush is thrilling both for fans knowledgeable of the sport and also audiences new to Formula One.
Motor racing has always been a difficult thing to accurately convey on film. The pure speed and danger of the action is often somewhat lacking in tension but director Ron Howard has expertly placed the audience right in the car itself, at times literally. The camera zooms in and out the cockpit picking up lightning fast gear changes and pistons pumping to their limits. Pit stops are enthralling set pieces in themselves as the viewer is fitted and bolted to the car with the wheel and there is the unavoidable feeling that everything and everyone is absolutely on the limit.
Motor racing has always been a difficult thing to accurately convey on film. The pure speed and danger of the action is often somewhat lacking in tension but director Ron Howard has expertly placed the audience right in the car itself, at times literally.
All this would be simple cosmetics if the cast and crew didn’t match the subject matter for excitement and performance and without question they do. Hemsworth and Bruhl are note perfect in their roles as the leading protagonists and the narrative perfectly switches from one to the other as the story ebbs and flows with their incredible highs and shocking lows. It would have been too easy for them to become caricatures of their real life counterparts but each delivers their role with a subtlety and respect that is intoxicating to an audience unsure of whom to prefer. The support around them is also excellent in that they don’t invade what is a very central story of two men.
Among all the plaudits that must be paid to the performances, huge credit must go to Howard for his handling of a difficult subject. The film doesn’t flinch at times when there must have been the temptation to withdraw a little from the reality of certain situations, and to avoid spoilers these won’t be elaborated on, but rest assured audiences will be left in no doubt of the severity of the consequences that come from making a mistake in a Formula One car.
One thing that must be noted though is that when watching this film the volume must be turned up to maximum. Rush is a mechanical, adrenaline fuelled symphony of noise that creates an atmosphere so involving that you may find yourself sweating with tension on more than one occasion. The beauty of some of the cinematography, particularly in the final races is so stunningly portrayed as to be art itself. There is little fault to find in a film that warrants multiple viewings and should be on everyone’s watch list. Just stunning.
[notification type=”star”]90/100 ~ AMAZING. Rush is a mechanical, adrenaline fuelled symphony of noise that creates an atmosphere so involving that you may find yourself sweating with tension on more than one occasion. [/notification]
