I know I'm not the only one who's been waiting all year for this film to come out. Rush is a movie that has promised to be everything; featuring a script good enough for the Hollywood masses, and adrenaline filled racing footage to satisfy the most hardcore F1 fans.
I'll be honest, despite being incredibly excited to see Ron Howard's take on one of F1's most exciting seasons, the closer it got to the film's release date, the more apprehensive I became about it turning into a typical Hollywood picture, destined to join the very long list of good, but not great films. Thankfully I was wrong...in part.
Don't worry, there won't be any spoilers in here as I'm not talking about the storyline, although you already know that right, since it actually happened? Well, most of it did, but this film does of course include some scenes to spice up the script. One scene in particular springs to mind: about halfway through the film, Hunt is shown to basically assualt a journalist, which I am not certain actually ever happened (although rumour seems to suggest it could have done). In the film however it seems the scene was added in order to emphasise the growing respect Hunt had for Lauda, as this journalist had been a little disrespectful to the Austrian earlier on, but it's a scene that doesn't really fit in to me.
But anyway, aside from that small questionnable part, the film is largely accurate. Hunt is the partying playboy, Lauda is the quiet, calculated racer. The script does a good job at portraying the drivers, and the footage of racing is effective at portraying the fast paced, adrenaline filled job these drivers had.
One thing I will say is the motorsport fans amongst us will not be fooled by the dressing up of Brands Hatch to look like Monza, as well as the shaking of cameras to blurr out the fact the cars being filmed are moving quite slowly. But given that many of these cars are the real, original chassis' so driving them at danegerous speeds would be out of the question, as well as that filming each race on location would be quite some task, these small things can be overlooked. The film does a good job at highlighting many of the difficulties an F1 driver faced during a race, and so I am hopeful it can also serve as an eye opener for the less informed viewers amongst us.
However, there is one thing I think this film, and pretty much every other motor racing film I have ever seen (apart from TT 3D, actually) is missing. That is footage and a potrayel of one of the biggest challenges a racing driver faces pretty much every second they are behind the wheel...driving on the limit. Rush does a good job at highlighting speed, a good job at showing the lack of visibility in rain and a good job of showing the horrors of an accident. But it doesn't show how at many points during a lap, a driver will be hanging onto the car, fighting it and constantly correcting it. Instead it has footage of some power slides that are clearly the result of a very heavy right foot rather than actually being on the limit. There are a few scenes with some real lock ups that help to add realism to the footage, but it's hard for an F1 anorac to not notice the way a lot of these incidents are very scripted.
Nevertheless, without using more CGI and without risking smashing up priceless machinery, I suppose pushing Hunt's actual championship winning car to the limit would be impossible. So working with what he had, Ron Howard has done a very good job.
One area in particular where the film really excells, is in its use of sound. We all know that F1 is quite often defined by the sounds, and so capturing the raw engine notes and gearbox details, has no doubt been very effective in causing many F1 fans to produce wry smiles and shivers down their spines during the film. I even really loved the including of noises when cars clipped kerbs and spluttered on over run; very realistic. Maybe Formula 1 should take note and add some proper audio to today's live races...
All in all, I really did enjoy the film. The racing footage was as good as it could be, and with many of the cars being used actually being the genuine articles, it was even more impressive. The sounds were fantastic, the script was effective, and even the acting was top notch. So overall, as a hardcore racing fan myself, I have to say, Rush is very much worth going to see. Go and see it in the cinema too, as I have a feeling that without the big bass surround sound, the film will be significantly less effective.
