The Blabbering Inferno: RUSH. REVIEWED.

Rush (2013)

Rating- 15

Running Time- 2 hours 3 minutes

Directed by- Ron Howard

Written by- Peter Morgan

Rush was a film that I was only interested in after hearing how good it was from others. Before that I had no motivation to see it as I’m not a huge fan of F1, the Hunt/Lauda rivalry was before my time anyway and Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl aren’t enough to make me want to see a movie. But I did go to see it based on word of mouth alone and I’m very glad I did. Rush is a brilliant movie and here’s why.

The film is a depiction of probably the greatest F1 rivalry of all time and quite possibly one of the greatest across all sports. But you don’t need to know anything about that to enjoy the film; I had very limited knowledge of it going into the film and I still loved it. Why? Because the film, beneath the surface, really isn’t about that. The fact that the film is based off real life events holds little bearing to what makes this film good; it is all about the two central characters. It doesn’t matter that they are representations of real people, the essence of the film lies in how the two characters develop and evolve because of their relationship with each other. The feelings of the two characters towards one and other are mutual throughout the film; it starts out as jealousy, then hatred and finally respect. With the overall moral being that you can gain just as much from your rivals as you can your best friends, if not more. This is something that is true in real life and this film depicts it perfectly.

Given that the film is largely based on the characters’ relationship with each other it was vital that the acting of Hemsworth and Bruhl was of a high standard or this film just wouldn’t work and, fortunately for Howard and co, it was. I went into the film with a somewhat negative opinion of Hemsworth as I had only ever seen him portray the character of Thor, who I don’t like, so I was pleasantly surprised while watching this film as he was brilliant. He was, without doubt, the shining light of this film. He played the character of James Hunt so well; the good-looking, confident jock with deep lying problems regarding his fears and relationships. I think this film shows that he can break away from the role of Thor whenever he wants to and still be highly regarded and popular amongst cinema goers; he can easily avoid being typecast if he chooses. But Hemsworth’s brilliant performance didn’t overshadow the greatness of Bruhl as Niki Lauda as he was also very good in this movie. He wasn’t someone I knew an awful lot about, I recognised him from Inglorious Basterds (2009) and I enjoyed his performance in that but this film showed to an even greater extent what a fine actor he is.

Overall, I feel that Rush is a film that F1 fans will love and that everyone else will love as well. The representation of the real life events will win the admirations of racing fans and the brilliant performances and character development will appeal to pretty much everyone. All in all, a very good film.