A “Rush” of a movie

By Josh Archanian

April 30, 2021

“Rush” portrays the 1976 Formula uno season. Is it an action packed, drama filled movie directed by Ron Howard that shows the tense battle between two rivals at the pinnacle of motorsport. Niki Lauda, (Daniel Brühl) Austrian precisionist, and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), a British womanizer, fight for the Driver’s World Championship. With the cars being little more than an engine with some fiberglass the film shows the physical and mental determination of a Formula One driver in the 70s and the risks that come with it. It shows the determination that F1 drivers had, fighting the risk of death.

This film portrays the 1976 formula one season. Not only does it show the tense battle in F1 for the championship, but it also touches on the political side of Formula one. Two completely different drivers wanting the same thing. Niki Lauda is the more calculated and spends time making sure he has the best car and helping the engineers. James Hunt is the traditional racing driver that drives the car and has a life outside of racing.

As the film goes on, there is an idiosyncratic relationship that forms between the two. Even though they have very different views on life and on how to approach racing, they become really good friends even though they want to beat each other on and off the track.

This was not simply a Hollywood glorification of events that didn’t actually occur. It strikes a good balance of not being too involved to where you would have needed to watch a race, but is also almost entirely accurate which will please the avid Formula fans.

Daniel Brühl and Chris Hemsworth played both of their characters to perfection, so well in fact, that Niki Lauda himself said Bruhl did an outstanding job portraying him. Daniel Brühl really was able to capture the honest and unfiltered way of going about things, like going as far as telling the mechanics what to do. Chris Hemsworth was the perfect choice for playing James Hunt. Without even knowing what kind of person James Hunt was, you could tell almost instantly based on Hemsworth’s performance.

I went into this thinking it will be good, but it would be stupid and oversimplified from the average racing fans point of view. I was pleasantly surprised. The film didn’t really have any unrealistic scenes where they just start going full throttle when the plot needs them to, which sadly happens too often in racing movies. It is a perfect movie if you want to try and get someone liking Formula one. A. The story is worth a watch even if you don’t like motorsport

“Rush” is a R rated movie with a runtime of about 123 minutes and is a solid three stars out of four.