1976 was an exciting year in Formula One racing.

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2014)

This is a Ron Howard film of a predominantly true telling of the 1976 year of Formula One racing. Featured are the world champion from 1975, Austrian Niki Lauda, and his rival Brit James Hunt, seeking the world championship. Lauda and Hunt were quite opposites, the Austrian the focused, precise, calculating racer. It was a profession he was very good at. The Brit a flamboyant risk-taker, a womanizer who enjoyed a good drunk after a victory, and who nervously vomited before a big race.
The actors chosen are excellent, with costuming and makeup resembling the real racers quite closely. The Aussie Chris Hemsworth puts on his best British accent as James Hunt, and Daniel Brühl (full name ' Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo ') is authentic as Niki Lauda.
This is much more than a telling of the racing season. In the hands of director Ron Howard we are treated to selective slow motion and stop action, and even POV shots of the racing engine's intake and exhaust valves at work from inside the combustion chamber. In slow motion, of course!
Surely some archival footage was used, but they recreated certain racing situations very realistically. Overall the cinematography (shot digitally) and the sound track are superb. A very enjoyable movie, of two fierce competitors who gained deep respect for each other, in spite of their attempts to bury each other on the track.
Their spouses were capably played by Olivia Wilde as Suzy Miller Hunt and Alexandra Maria Lara as Marlene Lauda. Of note, Hunt died at a relatively young age of 45, but Lauda is still going strong in his 60s, as an aviation entrepreneur.
June 2019 edit: Lauda died recently so I took the opportunity to watch this again. I enjoyed it almost as much now, 5 years after my first viewing.