Composite Score: 81.33

Starring: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, Natalie Dormer, and Christian McKay

Director: Ron Howard

Writer: Peter Morgan

Genres: Action, Biography, Drama, Sport

MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, nudity, language, some disturbing images, and brief drug use

Box Office: $96.98 million worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Rush has all the makings of a stereotypical man/dad/TNT Sunday afternoon movie – fast cars, hot women, hot men, and the 1970s – but also manages to craft a meaningful story about friendship, rivalry, and how life was meant to be lived, making it an incredibly fun watch. This film contains excellent acting performances from both Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl as the leads, James Hunt and Niki Lauda respectively, contrasting and playing off of each other in compelling ways. The story is unique, giving some insight into the sport of Formula One racing and its history. To close the introduction, in my own opinion, Rush is Ford v Ferrari with a far more interesting and compelling story than just “Aren’t cars neat!”.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                Women do not necessarily get the best treatment in this film. Part of that comes just from Hunt’s historically accurate love them and leave them attitude, but there is more than just Hunt’s machismo that contributes to problematic gender roles in the film. The nudity in the film is fairly mild by modern standards – a couple of butts and boobs – but does little to contribute to the film’s story and feels somewhat gratuitous, simply used in montages of Hunt’s lecherousness, which we get without the nudity, and in a montage of the marital bliss of Niki Lauda and his wife Marlene, which again, we really don’t need. Even the script’s treatment of Marlene is somewhat denigrating, using her as the object of Lauda’s eventual decision to remain safe rather than an actor urging him with her voice to seek safety and life beyond racing.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                At the center of film is the rivalry between Brühl’s Lauda and Hemsworth’s Hunt. This relationship is portrayed in all of its complexity, speaking to the reality of rivalries and friendships. It also provides a view at the lives of both racers and shows the need that each had for the other one, both competitively and outside of racing. The rivalry begins with the two racers in Formula Three pushing each other to work harder with their contrasting styles of racing. As the two enter into Formula One, their rivalry becomes more antagonistic as Hunt’s more aggressive racing leads to losses for him and Lauda’s more risk-averse methods ultimately bring him a world championship. Off the tracks, their lives are contrasted as James Hunt parties his way through relationships and time off while Niki Lauda seems only to think about racing and how best to improve his cars. Neither approach seems to be working socially, as Hunt’s wife (Suzy Miller portrayed by Olivia Wilde) leaves him after a brief marriage, and Lauda pushes almost everyone else but his wife away. As the rivalry intensifies to the point of disaster, both men also seem to soften toward each other, appreciating the ways in which the other pushes them to get better. This culminates in a conversation toward the end after the 1976 season where both men share a mutual hostility, respect, and concern for one another, fully displaying the complexity of such a relationship.

                While not just a simple racing movie, at its heart, Rush is a very fun racing movie. I can remember seeing this in theaters with friends as a freshman in college and then driving back to campus at top speeds because of the excitement we felt leaving the theater. Even on a small-screen rewatch, the film succeeds through effective visuals and sound to elicit a sense of excitement, entertainment, and suspense in its audience. There is a very palpable relatability to the characters and events of the film that keep the audience engaged, which is helped along by the film’s pure entertainment value as a fun movie about racing.

                Rush takes the typical sports/racing movie and expands on it, turning into a deep character study and exploration of human relationships. The deeper levels of the movie coupled with strong performances from its two lead actors and the overall fun nature of its subject matter make Rush one of the Greatest Movies of All Time without question – always  worth a first-time watch or another rewatch.