Tuesday, January 14, 2014

2013 - IN REVIEW: BIGGEST SURPRISE




RUSH

I have no interest at all in Formula 1 Racing; in fact the thought of watching grown men in cars driving round and round on a circuit for hours on end bores the hell out of me.  I am also not a fan of Ron Howard as a director.  Do not get me wrong, the man has made some great films in his career, but he is so inconsistent that I find myself not bothering checking out his films most of the time.  The fact that “Rush” was a combination of these two things, being it is a film about two rival racers set in the world of Formula 1 and was directed by Ron Howard, it is safe to assume I had no interest in the film at all.  The bland posters for the film never caught my eye and I literally never saw a trailer for “Rush” either.  It wasn’t until the film started getting stellar reviews that I decided to check the film out and I am so glad that I did, because “Rush” is an amazing movie; I was riveted to the screen for its entire running time.  While I was initially thrown a little by the accents of the two leads, Daniel Bruhl and Chris Hemsworth who play real life rivals Niki Lauda and James Hunt respectively, what followed were two stunning performances by these actors.  Both Hemsworth and Bruhl accurately represented these two men perfectly and their rivalry that dominated the sport in the mid 1970’s.  In fact, period detail of the entire film seems to be spot on; from the fashions to the lifestyles of these men, right up to the cars themselves, it is obvious that “Rush” had been very well researched. 

What I really liked about this movie was the fact that both Lauda and Hunt were completely different men, in life and in their approach to their sport.  Hunt was a playboy who lived life in a wild manner, and who had a natural talent behind the wheel.  He had a passion for the sport, to the point that it was something he had to do to survive; he wanted to prove to the world (and himself) that he could do it – he could be the best.  Lauda, on the other hand, was the consummate professional, looking after his body and mind so that he could always race at his best.  He also brought mathematics into his racing, working on probabilities (particularly when it came to risk management) and designing his car to the nth degree for maximum efficiency.  While Lauda was just as skilled a driver as Hunt, it would be fair to say his passion wasn’t as great as Hunt’s and this is brought to light when he mentions to a girl he is dating that if he could make as much money doing something else, he would do it.  In regards to the races themselves, they have all been magnificently staged and photographed by Howard and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (I have just noticed that Mantle also shot my biggest surprise of 2012; “Dredd 3D”)  and are very suspenseful.  Thankfully they have been handled realistically and not in the usual over the top manner you may expect from a film coming out of Hollywood.  While there is much more to say about this fine film, I will say no more except that I recommend it wholeheartedly.  Even if you are not a fan of the sport, like myself, “Rush” has been put together so well that I am sure everyone will get something out of it.  The following days after I saw it, I spent telling everyone I knew to go see the film; this for a movie I initially had no interest at all in seeing.

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