F1 promises to strap you into the propulsive experience of what it’s like to be in the middle of a Formula One race car, and on that front, it more than delivers. Joseph Kosinski‘s precise direction and insanely crisp cinematography fully map out every vital angle to sell the audience on the ins and outs of how F1 works, and it’s translating into a huge box office performance. But, for my money, while the Brad Pitt-led movie sells itself as the ultimate F1 commercial, I still don’t think it’s the best cinematic display of the sheer velocity and fury that this style of racing thrusts its racers into. That film is Rush, the most heart-stirring and brain-shaking narrative depiction of F1, and it was somehow directed by Hollywood’s reigning happy camper, Ron Howard, the last person I’d ever suspect to make a film with such a rapid pulse.
‘Rush’ Follows the Rivalry Between the 1970s F1 Drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda
Rush presents a fictionalized version of the legendary rivalry between James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl), two of the top Formula One racers on the circuit in the 1970s. Despite both coming from similar backgrounds and both having the insatiable need to risk it all on the track, Hunt and Lauda were polar opposites in personality and philosophy. Hunt was a party animal who lived for the thrill of the chase, while Lauda was a rigid control freak who did whatever he could to maximize his odds of winning. Hunt approached racing like a daredevil who needed to believe in the intangible magic of risking death, while Lauda treated it like a Terminator, constantly running calculations and forsaking human connection to focus solely on results. It was a rule-breaker against a rule-follower, and the two constantly kept each other in check by beating each other on the track and being unified in their arrogance and irritation. This is where the Ron Howard touch is surprisingly vital, as he takes two completely different personalities and highlights their similar humanity.
Ron Howard’s Care For Humanity Amplifies the Race Scenes of ‘Rush’
Ron Howard has made numerous different kinds of films, but they’re all connected by his deftness with actors and his soft-hearted inclination that most people are well-intentioned in their actions. Rush is largely a two-hander between Hemsworth and Brühl, and they both give some of the best work of their careers. At this point, Hemsworth still hadn’t proven he was more than Thor, and his portrayal of Hunt was a revelation for audiences and critics alike. He’d shown a sexiness, a reckless abandon, and a scheming glint in his eye that instantly gave him layers of personality he wasn’t able to show in previous roles before. As Lauda, Brühl gives a performance so exacting in its meticulousness and so humorously unapologetic in its harshness that the real Niki Lauda proclaimed it a perfect rendition of him. It was considered an enormous snub when Brühl wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars, even though he’d been nominated at places like the SAGs and the Golden Globes.
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Thankfully, it’s not just ‘Maverick,’ but with fast cars. Although that would be pretty cool.
More importantly, the attention to their shared humanity makes the racing scenes feel even more intense, since you have such a clear picture of what’s at stake for the two. One issue I have with F1 is that the character work is so threadbare that it made me less invested in the racing scenes, since I had no real sense of what was on the line for the protagonists. Rush‘s greatest strength is in how it makes the heart that beats for interpersonal competition inextricable from the heart that pounds when speeding around a curve that could kill either Hunt or Lauda. The races aren’t just eye candy or occasional dopamine spikes, but heightened battlegrounds for glory and personal fulfillment where you never forget just how insane an idea it is to commit your life to something like this. Granted, it helps that the racing sequences are as thrillingly realized as they are.
In ‘Rush,’ The F1 Races Are Majestic, Dirty Sensory Overload
In stark contrast to the commercialized sleek sterility of F1, Rush‘s approach to filming the race scenes is one of maximum sensory overload, caked in grime, muck, and detritus. Shot by the Oscar-winning DP of Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later and its recent sequel, Anthony Dod Mantle, the cinematography bangs against the frantic editing to convey how being an F1 driver is like being at the center of a tsunami, where all the elements are thrown at you like bugs slamming against a windshield. Howard is unafraid to dirty up the frame and obscure shots of cars racing if it means maintaining the haphazard sense of flow that comes to such races, and his range of possible camera angles is wider than you’d expect.
Sometimes you get the camera going inside the engine or tire-spoke like it’s a Fast and Furious film, while others the camera is diagonally slanted along the road to capture the magnitude of a car hauling ass at top speed. Then it’s right up inside a racer’s visor so you can lick the sweat off their face (no kink-shaming). But then there are times when slow motion is implemented in a way that emphasizes how much raw power is held in any one part of an F1 car, like a particular shot of a tire spinning out in a rainstorm that’s one of the most hair-raising moments I’ve ever had in a theater. All in all, it’s how Rush is shot with the combined hectic rawness of a vintage documentary and the majestic grace of a Wong Kar-wai film that sells the danger and holy experience of F1 like no other film in history.
