{"id":11786,"date":"2013-10-19T11:54:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T01:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=11786"},"modified":"2014-09-07T10:43:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T00:43:56","slug":"rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=11786","title":{"rendered":"Rush"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rushposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: \u00a0<\/strong>Ron Howard
\nWriter: \u00a0<\/strong>Peter Morgan
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, Olivia Wilde<\/p>\nT<\/span>hat 1976 Formula One season must have been one hell of a spectacle.<\/p>\n

As a lapsed F1 fan who watched predominantly during the Nineties, I can recall just one season<\/a> where the championship was determined in the final race.\u00a0 Although the lead up was exciting, we didn’t exactly get a Hollywood ending.\u00a0 Michael Schumacher, who was ahead of Damon Hill by a single point, crashed into him ‘by accident’ halfway through the final race, ruling them both out and ultimately winning the competition.<\/p>\n

The 1976 Formula One season on the other hand, offers up drama on a whole other level.\u00a0 I knew nothing of the season before I watched the film and once the credits began to roll, I immediately went home and did some research on Google to discover that very little had been embellished or sensationalized.\u00a0 What we see in Rush<\/em> is more or less what happened.\u00a0 Two incredible race drivers – the flamboyant James Hunt and the reserved Nikki Lauder – both at the peak of their powers, squared off in a season of racing that involved incredible drama both on and off the racing circuit.\u00a0 Both Hunt and Lauder seem to have lead improbably dramatic lives that lend themselves perfectly to a cinematic retelling.\u00a0 Even though the film does not cover it, I learned that one of the drivers eventually passed away just one day after proposing to their girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Rush<\/em> is a fantastic character study and it requires no interest in motorsports to appreciate.\u00a0 If anything, part of the film’s charm is exploring a sporting environment that is absurdly dangerous and unprofessional by today’s standards.\u00a0 Lauder repeats a mantra that he can accept a ‘20% chance of dying’ on race day.\u00a0 When it rains on the Barcelona circuit, he protests and suggests the race be cancelled as any percentage higher would be ‘unreasonable’.\u00a0 In his narration at the start of the film, he explains that there is an average of two deaths per Formula One season.\u00a0 Such is the mind-boggling reality of Formula One safety in the Seventies.<\/p>\n

The window dressing in this film is fantastic and offers perfect cinematic escapism for the viewer.\u00a0 James Hunt was apparently a ridiculous real life Austin Powers, having bedded over 5000 women in his lifetime and having such ungodly talent that he could have champagne and caviar in the pit lane, moments before the start of a race.<\/p>\n

Nikki Lauder is equally mesmerizing although for completely different reasons.\u00a0 Born to wealthy Austrian parents who disapproved of his career choice, Lauder actually makes his debut in Formula One ahead of Hunt, despite Hunt having better results, thanks to Lauder’s extraordinary business acumen where he strong-arms Ferrarri into making him their lead driver.\u00a0 He is awkward with women and has few friends yet he is single minded in what he wants and ruthless in pursuing results.<\/p>\n

And that gives us all the trappings for a fantastic film.\u00a0 It is a credit to Ron Howard, Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl that\u00a0Rush<\/em> is an absorbing watch both on and off the circuit.\u00a0 The racing sequences capture the chaotic mayhem of Seventies Formula One wonderfully well.\u00a0 The cars travel at fantastic speeds and yet they seem to be made so delicately that a single bolt coming loose could lead to disaster.\u00a0 Off the circuit, Hunt and Lauder are such interesting larger-than-life characters and so much drama occurs in both their lives during that ’76 season that you wonder how anyone had any time to focus or plan for the next race.<\/p>\n

Rush<\/em> is a near perfect sports film that studies two different mentalities in pursuit of sporting excellence.\u00a0 I don’t think either Hunt nor Lauder are necessarily that relatable to the average person and in the modern sporting world, you sense neither would be able to do what they do in this day and age.\u00a0 And thats what makes Rush<\/em> so interesting.\u00a0 It perfectly captures a bygone era.\u00a0 As the tagline puts it: “when the sex was safe and the driving was dangerous”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A well-oiled machine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[875,1689,1690],"class_list":["post-11786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-chris-hemsworth","tag-daniel-bruhl","tag-ron-howard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11786"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16381,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786\/revisions\/16381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}