The closer you are to death, the more alive you feel. It's a wonderful way to live. It's the only way to drive.

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2013)

First of all, I have to accept that I am not an F1 fan. So I am completely ignorant about the history of this sports and the famous rivalries associated. What I liked about "Rush" was the movie can convey its subject to those who doesn't really need to be F1 fans. The film is about the famous rivalry between 2 F1 stars, James Hunt & Nicki Lauda. Now more than their achievements on the track, it was about how their rivalry commenced and what may be the factors that led to the rivalry.
Ron Howard is quite aware about the subject he was going to handle and the possibilities to become a stereotyped sports drama comprising of phoenix rise, great fall etc etc, if not handled smartly. As mentioned earlier, I have no idea about the rivalry so whatever I understood is what I got from the movie. Ron and writer Peter Morgan initial conveys their background (both hailing from wealthy families with different ambitions) and the cultural differences. Also we can see how their attitude towards their life results in their positives and negatives and how the outcome plays during some of the important points of their life. The common feature in both the characters is the extreme self confidence.A balancing act was well performed by Ron and his writer Peter and thus kept the audience away from an absolute clichéd sports drama. I will not claim that the movie was flawless but chances are rare for you to get disengaged from the experience due to boredom. This is the strength of the presentation by Ron Howard and it is simply terrific by the fact that its a real life rivalry. Also he didn't opt for a docu-fiction style and used possible cinematic liberties without affecting the realism of the subject. Now there is a particular scene where Hunt punches a journalist which I found a bit "filmy". I cannot confirm whether it happened in reality (since the character sketch of James make it possible) but currently I like to see it as one of the cinematic liberties. After all its based on an "incredible" real life story as credited. A major highlight of the movie along with the performances from the lead cast are the well choreographed pulsating F1 races especially the German Grand Prix & Japanese Grand Prix. Some brilliant dialogues between James & Nicki towards the end conveyed the rivalry with a silent mutual respect between them.
I may not have seen many of Chri Hemworth's performances but from what I saw, I rate this as Chris's best performance till date. He literally lived as James Hunt. But the actor who got a more meatier character, more one-liners and overshadowed Chris at places was Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda. Alexandra Maria Lara (as Marlene Knaus) portrayed the role of Nicki's supportive wife while Olivia Wilde portrayed Suzy Miller (James's wife).
But the biggest highlight is the score of Hans Zimmer. I just have no words to describe that score and I am sure those who watched this experience will surely notice the score. Anthony Dod Mantle's used a color tone to suit 70s and he along with Daniel P. Hanley & Mike Hill's editing delivered a terrific job with the race sequences. Just like the F1 races, the movie moves at a breakneck pace. The make up and costume department justified their presence by providing the 70s look to all the characters while the production designing team came up with a similar effort by providing us the feel of 70s.
Overall, the movie was a terrific experience as if you are in an F1 race. This will surely engage you even if you are not an F1 fan or follower with its theme and the emotions associated with it.