"Rush" is worth watching

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2015)

"Rush" is another cinematic success for its director, Ron Howard. It is a 2013 film written by Peter Morgan and is currently available on NetFlix Instant Download Streaming. The film is just over 2 hours long, but when it was over it seemed like I had been in the cinema about 30 minutes. The film centers on the battle for the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship, and the rivalry between the Austrian "professor" Nikki Lauda and the British playboy James Hunt. The two are depicted as enemies, but in actual fact they were good friends who trusted and respected each other on, as well as off- track. This bit of artistic license does not spoil the film and is reasonable in order to make the battle between the two for the F1 crown more intense. The film is nicely paced. We are introduced to both characters through their own narrative and scenes that leave the watcher in no doubt as to their background and philosophy on life. The two are first seen in competition in 1970 at a Formula 3 race at Crystal Palace (where they have a coming together) and sets the scene for the rivalry throughout the film. I'm not sure if this is further artistic license. The two definitely did race each other in F3, but I am not convinced as to whether this actual incident occurred. After that we are given a whistle stop journey between 1973 (when Hunt came into F1) to 1975. We are shown the dangerous nature of F1 at the time with the Francois Cevert accident at Watkins Glen in gory detail – although this does not seem like gratuitous, but necessary to bring home just how unforgiving the sport was back then – and it truly was (of the top 12 points scorers in 1976, F1 cars were to claim 3, 1 ended up in a wheelchair and 1 had his career ended by a leg crunching crash). I gave it 9 stars.