Tuesday 3rd September 2013

Rush: review

Worth the wait or an over-hyped, CGI'd caricature?

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Let's cut to the chase: fears Rush would have all the integrity of Days of Thunder can quickly be allayed. It's not devoid of Hollywood silliness, but it succeeds is capturing both the spirit of the times and the essence of the two extraordinary men at the heart of the story.

The movie opens with Lauda recalling that, on average, two of the 25 drivers who started the year would be killed before the season's end, before posing the question: 'What kind of people do this job?' Accidents are recalled in all their gory detail and the depiction of Lauda's burns following his Nurburgring crash is not for the squeamish. This harsh reality is offset by hedonism of the period and voyeuristic enjoyment of Hunt's rapacious sexual appetite, with Hemsworth convincing as Hunt, even if the portrayal is undeniably sympathetic.

Finished product has a whiff of CGI about it

Saying that the Lauda character, played by Daniel Bruhl, travels further. We're presented with a complex, driven man who rebels against his family, borrows money to buy his way into Formula 1 and then clings to the coat tails of Clay Regazzoni.

The action scenes are also some of the best since Le Mans. Some of the crashes rely on CGI but the Nurburgring sequence successfully captures the fear and desperation of the moment as fellow drivers Arturo Merzario, Brett Lunger, Guy Edwards and Harald Ertl fought to pull Lauda out of the burning wreckage.

Given that so much time and effort was spent recreating these pivotal scenes, it's a shame Howard couldn't resist the schmaltz. There is, for instance, a classic Top Gun/Days of Thunder moment when Lauda, struggling on his return to the cockpit, instinctively dodges an accident and is instantly returned to his former glory.

These scenes are frustrating because they make you question the astonishing things that really did happen, such as Lauda's return to the grid just six weeks after his accident. You get the impression the director tried to retain the authenticity, but then, at the last minute, couldn't quite restrain himself.

Maybe there should be a director's cut for purists that dispenses with the nonsense because at heart this is a great racing movie that successfully captures the glamour, bravado and brutality of the time.

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See here for PH's trip behind the scenes and more on the making of Rush.

 

[richb77]

Its been a long time coming (A good F1/motorsport movie) and the story itself is a great one.

OK, Maybe too much CGI but i can look past that.

Looking forward to it!

[Krikkit]

The trailer put me off this with some fast-and-furious shifting going on. Catch it on BR when it's out!

[graeme4130]

Looking forward to seeing it, however, as with all these things, I'm going with an expectation of it being 'holywoodized' as has been the case where many a good book has been altered for the big screen

[dapearson]

It sounds much better than Driven...

[Mutley]

Got my ticket for next Friday, am looking forward to this. Trying to avoid the hype and reviews as I don't want to be clouded by others thoughts.

[CooperD]

Looking forward to seeing this. The trailer looked very good when I was recently at the cinema to watch the Alan Partridge film.

[Ferosferio]

Going to see this tonight and I've, so far, managed to avoid most of the chat around it.

Looking forward to it - I have high expectations of Bruhl's portrayal of Lauda.

[Galileo]

From the trailers I've heard, James Hunt has an Irish Accent FFS.

[JMC1]

It can not be any worse than Driven and it will not be as good as Le Mans but..
I am looking forward to it very much as this is the era that as a kid I first started buying Autosport and following F1 religiously.

[Vocal Minority]

That may be just you Galileo, I didn't hear that.

I think it looks OK, if the alternative to CGI being smashing up old GP cars it seems a fair trade off to me (there are only so many things you can replicate ala the Lauda crash at Nurburgring).

I am looking forward to seeing it, yes it will be hollywoodised to an extent, as it is a film, and it has to be accessible to more than petrolhead and history nerds. If you want the last word in detail and accuracy, there are documentaries and books for that.

I just anticipate a lot of the feedback being competition between people who want to prove they are the biggest petrolhead by pointing out how st they think everything is...

[cathalm]

Vocal Minority said:

I just anticipate a lot of the feedback being competition between people who want to prove they are the biggest petrolhead by pointing out how st they think everything is...

Ha! Spot on sir but good luck avoiding that. What you describe is pretty much the standard of PH forum threads these days. That and people taking Dan Trent to task on his work with a big smug smile on their moosh (under their beard).

[Mutley]

Galileo said:

From the trailers I've heard, James Hunt has an Irish Accent FFS.

Chris Hemsworth is Australian. I can put up with a bit of an accent, as much as I want it 100% accuracy isn't available and some artistic licence will be taken, so I now just go along, accept as much as possible and try to enjoy what I see.

[Skater12]

I'm not going to let the purists influence my own view of the film.
It's a Movie, made for entertainment. It's not a documentary and I don't think it should be categorised alongside films like Senna.

Personally, I can't wait to see the mid 70's cars thrashing it out, regardless of how "hollywood" it may be.

I'm sure there will be loads of people who'll say "that's not quite right" or "it didn't happen like that", but who cares!
The same people who comment on films like Gone in 60 Seconds with "the mustang in the film wasn't a Shelby GT500, but a standard fastback modified by a hod rod company"
Who cares! the car looked almost as hot as Angelina Jolie crawling out from under a fezza !

Kids will hopefully learn from this film a bit about the real gladiators of F1, and appreciate it's progression and development over the years.

Popcorn at the ready !

[OlberJ]

Feck sake PH, at least put a spoiler tag in here!

No point going to see it now if we know Lauda survives.

[DavidWearsPrada]

I've got a feeling my driving is going to be appalling on the journey home from the cinema.

I've got high hopes for the plot I get bored pretty quick with the old fashioned good guy v bad guy script (which took a little bit of the shine off the Senna biography).

[Yazza54]

OlberJ said:

Feck sake PH, at least put a spoiler tag in here!

No point going to see it now if we know Lauda survives.

[gowmonster]

OlberJ said:

Feck sake PH, at least put a spoiler tag in here!

No point going to see it now if we know Lauda survives.

LOL.

did anyone see the recent BBC documentary on it was good, will be interesting to see how they compare, docu vs film (i'm not expecting them to be the same apples/oranges etc)

[LuS1fer]

Yazza54 said:

OlberJ said:

Feck sake PH, at least put a spoiler tag in here!

No point going to see it now if we know Lauda survives.

I have to reveal that James Hunt has since died. Sorry about that.

Not entirely unrealted, that reminds me of Lord Hesketh's very nice venture into motorbikes at that time, the V1000.

[PorkaFly]

Howard was very careful to get buy-in from Lauda, and Hunt's family...Lauda is happy with film and helped actor who plays him, and Hunt's family turned-up on the red carpet; so for me that's good enough for me. Anyway a bit of Hollywood into F1 is about time! I remember when TopGun came out, despite the flying and aspects being a bit Hollywood I knew of few fast-jet pilots who didn't love it for what it was...most military folks still do as it shows a side to squadron life, training and ops most don't see or ever understand (psych wise). Did a lot for recruitment too at the time.

Back to Rush... Interesting to hear Lauda's reaction to the watching the Nurburgring crash and what allegedly happened to him in hospital - it seemed to quite shock him.

Looking forward to seeing it...the blokes antidote to enduring chic-flics on a Fri/Sat.

PF

[chris_speed]

Viewers of the beeb doc will remember the reality of Lauda getting back in the car was even more Hollywood than the film is described here. If I remember correctly, he said in interview that he got in the car, and couldn't physically move to drive it. Eventually got over it, but he mentally froze.

Someone remind me, that doesn't sound quite right.

Chris.