Best Auto-Sports Racing Film There Is

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2015)

****SPOILER ALERTS****
Growing up in Indiana the only racing I really ever followed was one ... actually only one race that is: the Indianapolis 500 -- I occasionally would watch another Indy-class race or even a stock car race but growing up in the 60s and 70s, Formula 1 racing was hardly ever shown on American TV ... perhaps only on ABC's Wide World of Sports but I can't remember too many of those even (this of course was long, long before cable TV was even available and all-sports channels let alone all-auto-racing channels were ever thought of or dreamed of I imagine) ... even Sports Illustrated, the biggest and most popular sports magazine of the time, gave piddling coverage to Formula 1 racing ...
That is until one moment in time: the horrific crash of Niki Lauda ... let me remind everyone of the tried-and-terribly-true journalism credo: "If it bleeds, it leads" ... and so Sports Illustrated and even TV sports shows were quite suddenly very interested in the state of Niki and of Formula 1 racing ... cover stories were even devoted to this crash and the weekly sports magazines and shows were regularly doing in-depth coverage of Niki's recovery and then his amazing comeback not to mention the dynamic dual of Lauda and James Hunt for the world title that year ... and yes, even as a young teen, I too was engrossed in the monumental recovery and courageous return to racing that Niki made that year only to drop-out of the final race that season due to what he deemed to be unsafe racing conditions, that being a fairly heavy and constant rainstorm ... Hunt was able to win the world championship that season by only a single point having gained many points during Niki's (only) two race absence after the severe burns he received inside and outside his body which drew the sporting world's attention to him and Formula 1 racing that season ...
This movie not only covers the pure guts and determination of Niki's will to be a champion but shows the sport of auto racing better than any other movie I have ever seen ... it makes you feel the power of the machines, the speed and the mere inches these drivers operate within at those speeds, and the frightening results of a single miscalculation of the speed and inches they compete within ...
But I was further surprised that this film was directed by Ron Howard ... this is not to say I am not a Ron Howard fan ... I usually enjoy his films though some can be rather sappy etc (imho) and not to my taste but I do not shy away from watching most of his movies ... but thinking of joining his directorial skills and style with this sport and story was surprising to me and so when I came across it through some accidental luck on IMDb, I made sure to see it purely out of interest to see how all of these ingredients would mix ... well, the mix perfectly and this is a film to be admired and one that I would think would make most people's pulse jump a bit from the fine editing (credited to Dan Henley and Mike Hill) and perfectly planned racing sequences which, I have read, were a mix of principal photography, cgi, and archival footage ... a flawless blend to my eye and many kudos to all the folks involved on that side of the production ...
This is the best racing film I have ever seen and I would imagine the best one out there if judging only by the racing sequences alone ... I am not including the standard car chase scenes that pollute so many movies these days as frankly, those are most typically tiresome retreads (pun intended) of all the other car chase sequences done in all the other movies where you basically wait around for fifteen or twenty minutes for the next car chase to begin (let's take the "Fast and Furious" franchise for an example ... as one critic on this thread complained of the "wooden acting" in between the race sequences in this movie, I can't imagine what could be more oaken than the "acting" which interrupts the car chases in F&F franchise ... and for the record, the acting in "Rush" is not wooden but well done and the interplay and sparks between Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl (along with their counterparts) do not make it so you sit around only waiting for the next action sequence ... it is well done and each of the stars have a firm grip on the character and "character" of the man they are portraying ...
This is one of Howard's very best films, the best auto-sports film around, and a rock solid 10 in my book ... highly recommended for racing fans, of course (who have probably sought this out already) but also for fans of movies of people overcoming inner and external injuries and shortcomings to achieve their goals and it is quite certainly not one of the oh-so-many sappy, Hollywood cookie-cutter "oh golly he got grievously injured or had inner demons he had to overcome to finally win the big one and get the girl and have millions of adoring fans and the old-time trainer who never got his shot at the big time but knows everything it takes to get to the big time and finally found the one pupil he could impart all of this knowledge upon, etc, etc, etc" movies ... it is high-quality storytelling of each character's striving to become the best at what they do ...
definitely one to keep a copy of as it is worth watching on a semi-regular basis
take care, cormac
"One star in the sky so I named it Otis Redding" -- John Hiatt