Rush

With the F1 season currently on hold, I recently saw Ron Howard's 2013 film, Rush, which dramatised the famous rivalry between racing drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda in the 1970s. The film released just as I was getting into the sport and it took me a while before finding it on Netflix where I found time to finally watch it.

Ron Howard's filmography from his time in the directing seat is an interesting one as he goes between award winning dramas, such as Frost/Nixon and Apollo 13, to lighter entertainment with Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Robert Langdon trilogy. He knows his way around creating a good drama but sometimes I've found his style to be fun if somewhat forgettable not long after the credits have rolled, and Rush begins with lots of fast editing editing and bright, flashing images complete with a voiceover which made me wonder if I'd get the same story here.

Racing in the 1970s was fast and exciting but also very, very dangerous as the sport accumulated a body count, which it has sadly to continued to do to this day. And Howard is keen to show this right from the opening scene as we see a race in Germany which nearly claimed Lauda's life and would leave him permanently scarred. The director captures the era brilliantly and I was hooked from the start as we meet the playboy driver, Hunt, and how he would collide with Lauda on and off the track, but I was still apprehensive about Howard's style.

Sometimes in biographies directors will take great care in capturing all the right facts to convey the story, whereas others will paint in broad strokes using artistic licences to 'get the point across' which I feel is what we have here. It's not a bad thing but I did find myself distracted at times thinking 'I'm not sure that conversation really happened' which might not be to everyone's taste. Nonetheless, Howard's makes Rush extremely entertaining to watch and is boosted by Daniel Brühl's top notch performance as Lauda that it is almost uncanny when compared to the real man. Chris Hemsworth is appropriately cast as Hunt and does a great job too but this really is Brühl's film.

By the time of the final race and as Hans Zimmer's grand soundtrack gained momentum, I was sold and could happily forgive Howard's simplification on certain aspects because the story was just so engaging to watch. He gave justice to the men involved and offered an experience that should appeal to those not interested in the sport. As for any fans of F1, this is an easy recommend and one I could watch again.