Foxer55
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I love this movie! I’m a fan of Steve McQueen’s Le Mans and the Grand Prix movie with James Garner but Rush takes racing portrayals to a whole new level. It’s the dramatization of a real life event, the competition between James Hunt of Great Britain and Niki Lauda of Austria during 1976 to claim the Formula 1 World Racing Chanmpionship. Hunt is played by Chris Hemsworth and Lauda by Daniel Bruhl.
Normally I won’t give a movie 5 out of 5 stars on the basis that few movies are good enough to rate five. This movie, however, is such a powerful portrayal of human drive and spirit that I can’t help but give it 5 stars. It’s not a technical movie but there are plenty of race sequences within the film. It’s more a depiction of the personal struggles (no doubt overly dramatized for impact) about the lives of two men trying to claim a near unattainable goal. Both are portrayed as misfit outcasts, driven by their abilities, arrogance, and sheer will. James Hunt is a flamboyant, undisciplined, carousing, drugging, skirt chasing, wise guy who actually claimed he had bedded over 5000 women and who was hung-over every time he got on the track. He was basically disowned by his family because of his desire to race rather than go to law school or medical school. Lauda on the other hand carries a stern Prussian demeanor, very smart, very disciplined, analytical, rational, and very straight-laced – dislikable at first glance. His family was a powerful, old money Austrian banking family that disowned him over his racing desires and he was out to prove a point. The contrast between the two personalities helps to strengthen the tale.
The movie starts but quickley flashes back to build a complete background from which the story continues to unfold forward. The rivalry between Hunt and Lauda is established and developed to a bitter level between two men racing Formula 1 cars around the tracks at speeds approaching 200 mph. As the tension between the two builds over the course of the 1976 season, Lauda loses control of his Ferrari at Germany’s Grand Prix at Nurburgring in August of that year and crashes. He is hospitalized and hovers near death for several days before emerging with terrible facial burns and lung injuries from his entrapment in the blazing racer. The film offers a very distinct portrayal of all this and his subsequent disfiguring scarring. He suffers and struggles through recovery to reappear and compete at Italy’s Grand Prix just 6 weeks later at the astonishment of everyone.
Rush is really a great film. The final scenes are, at least to me, a heartfelt example of two mis-fit misfits exchanging thoughts on the lives they’ve lived, their own shortcomings, and their victories, fleeting as they may be.
This is now one of my favorite movies.
Normally I won’t give a movie 5 out of 5 stars on the basis that few movies are good enough to rate five. This movie, however, is such a powerful portrayal of human drive and spirit that I can’t help but give it 5 stars. It’s not a technical movie but there are plenty of race sequences within the film. It’s more a depiction of the personal struggles (no doubt overly dramatized for impact) about the lives of two men trying to claim a near unattainable goal. Both are portrayed as misfit outcasts, driven by their abilities, arrogance, and sheer will. James Hunt is a flamboyant, undisciplined, carousing, drugging, skirt chasing, wise guy who actually claimed he had bedded over 5000 women and who was hung-over every time he got on the track. He was basically disowned by his family because of his desire to race rather than go to law school or medical school. Lauda on the other hand carries a stern Prussian demeanor, very smart, very disciplined, analytical, rational, and very straight-laced – dislikable at first glance. His family was a powerful, old money Austrian banking family that disowned him over his racing desires and he was out to prove a point. The contrast between the two personalities helps to strengthen the tale.
The movie starts but quickley flashes back to build a complete background from which the story continues to unfold forward. The rivalry between Hunt and Lauda is established and developed to a bitter level between two men racing Formula 1 cars around the tracks at speeds approaching 200 mph. As the tension between the two builds over the course of the 1976 season, Lauda loses control of his Ferrari at Germany’s Grand Prix at Nurburgring in August of that year and crashes. He is hospitalized and hovers near death for several days before emerging with terrible facial burns and lung injuries from his entrapment in the blazing racer. The film offers a very distinct portrayal of all this and his subsequent disfiguring scarring. He suffers and struggles through recovery to reappear and compete at Italy’s Grand Prix just 6 weeks later at the astonishment of everyone.
Rush is really a great film. The final scenes are, at least to me, a heartfelt example of two mis-fit misfits exchanging thoughts on the lives they’ve lived, their own shortcomings, and their victories, fleeting as they may be.
This is now one of my favorite movies.
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