Rush (2013) – Movie Review

From the moment Ron Howard let it be known that he was doing a movie called Rush built around the 1976 Formula One season, everyone listening had massive expectations for such a flick, and they couldn’t help it. Those of us who love racing are nothing short of starved for good movies about our beloved motorsports, and with so many bad ones over the years we look at each new racing film with a particular scrutiny. Howard’s failure with his last two action projects (The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons) didn’t alleviate suspicions, either, but the fact that he teamed up with screenwriter Peter Morgan, who did Frost/Nixon with him, along with his visible enthusiasm for bringing Formula One to the screen made things a bit more encouraging.
The other hurdle that Rush will have to overcome straight away is comparison to that other odyssey of F1 rivalry, Senna. The list of truly great racing movies like Grand Prix and Le Mans is rather short, and Senna is by far the most recent.
These two films, while they share similar stories, take obviously different approaches, with one being a documentary and the other a Hollywood production with Olivia Wilde and that guy who played Thor.
Senna has been adored by practically everyone who’s seen it, so in the inevitable comparison Rush has some big shoes to fill, especially given that it has to recreate the Grands Prix and dramas of the past instead of compiling existing footage.
To be perfectly clear, Rush is not the all-time racing masterpiece that some may have hoped it would be. It isn’t an opus for F1 fanatics. The racing itself is intermittent and not always central to the story so no, it is not catered solely to car people, but what Rush does instead is present a genuinely good movie that just happens to be set in the glitzy universe of what has been called the golden age of Formula One.
Those of us hungry for racing flicks will leave full, but perhaps even more importantly Rush, through presenting a captivating story, is bound to make plenty of brand new race fans.
The plot of this movie is already well-known, but it bears repeating that Formula One in the ‘70s was an exciting world full of glamour, danger, and hair. The rivalry of James Hunt and Niki Lauda, which is the primary focus of Rush, is just one part of this era, but it was certainly one of its most exciting chapters.
Their rivalry, combined with their very much opposing personalities and approaches to racing, make for a gripping tale, and though most of this story is true, it translated to a Hollywood script almost seamlessly.

The 1970 Formula Three Race

The movie begins with Lauda and Hunt becoming aware of each other during a scrape in a 1970 Formula Three race and follows right up to the climax of Hunt’s 1976 World Championship win in the torrential rains of the Japanese Grand Prix, all the while examining their relationships and their approaches to driving.
Howard did take some artistic liberties by inserting Lauda into the opening race sequence, a race he was not a part of (Hunt’s Lotus was also red, not green), but other than that and a few very minor things put in for the sake of drama, all else seems true to the reality on which this film is based.
One of the reasons the Lauda vs Hunt story is so appealing for a movie is how the two drivers so neatly fit into conflicting archetypes.
Hunt is the English rock star/playboy who drives with reckless abandon, and Lauda is the cool, calculating Austrian who keeps to himself and drives methodically.
Rush does a very fine job of keeping each character on a level playing field. Much of the film is narrated by one or the other, and though first impressions might leave you thinking that James Hunt is the one protagonist here, that isn’t the case.
Senna gives you a clear good guy vs bad guy conflict, with Alain Prost at certain points being just a few steps away from pure evil, but in Rush there is no such distinction.
Hunt and Lauda at various points each show both arrogance and vulnerability, humor and frustration. Again, first impressions make it seem like Hunt, the more colorful and vivacious guy that he is, would be the one to root for but Lauda’s story is so compelling at parts, especially in his struggles to get back into the car after his near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring, that you really don’t know who to side with.
Hunt brings more in outright entertainment, but Lauda comes across as somewhat misunderstood and is probably the more interesting character in the end. There is no good and bad in this story, just two opposite characters who manage to leave the viewer right in the middle, looking back and forth.