"Rush" - Hunt / Lauda movie

[surreal]

Anyone else seen this yet?  I saw it on Friday afternoon and had quite mixed feelings for most of it.  I felt the script, especially the dialogue was pretty terrible in places and it felt quite cheap.  I don't know if that was due to it being a period piece, or that it was in effect an indie movie with a decent budget.  I really wanted them to show more of the racing as it skips past most of the races in the season, just showing "Lauda wins, Hunt fails to finish" or whatever - I especially wish they'd done the British Grand Prix with the crowd protesting until they did a restart but it just missed that out completely.

However, it really makes up for that in the final third which is terrific.  Some of the best racing car footage I've ever seen, and I thought it was good of them to mix in some real footage of Hunt and Lauda at the end.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I was worried about miscasting when I saw the trailer, particularly Hunt, but the racing scenes seemed to have a real sense of danger and tempo. Was really looking forward to seeing it but don't get paid for a fortnight. I hope it's still on somewhere by then.

[surreal]

Both leads do a great job I thought, can't think of anyone else I'd have put in place.  It moves well between the two giving an insight into the contrasting personas, but as I said some bits of the script just seemed a bit off.  Very enjoyable though and worth waiting for the proper driving scenes, just the build up seems to drag a little so more of the racing action spliced in between would have been welcome.

[Mini]

I thought it worked really well overall, with the tension off the track making the superbly directed race sequences particularly nail-biting.

[SavageHedgehog]

Part of me wants to see it because it looks like does a really good job with the period detail, which is always fun, and the rest of me doesn't want to see it because it's about racing and directed by Ron Howard. I'll probably wait until it's on BBC2 in a nice lazy Sunday double-bill with Days of Thunder.

[Mini]

I'll probably wait until it's on BBC2 in a nice lazy Sunday double-bill with Days of Thunder.

I'd recommend seeing in the cinema if possible, if just for the excellent sound.

EDIT/PLUG: I reviewed it here http://screengoblin.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/rush/

[Icehaven]

I liked it a lot, although agree it was really cheesy in places. Bruhl was really magnificent, I thought, best thing about it. And agree with above, see in a cinema for the amazing sound. Jesus, I needed a lie down afterwards.

[weekender]

I don't know what Lauda or Hunt were like in real life, obviously, but I got the impression from this film that they could both be cunts.

Yet somehow the film seems to get across their good points, their rivalry, I feel that it makes a strong showing for what might have been like to be a Formula 1 driver in the 1970s.

I dunno, I felt myself warming to them both - and moreso the film - as time went on.

[dr beat]

I saw this a week last Friday and was sadly disappointed.  All the expositionary dialogue, and some cheesy scenes, made it feel like one of those cheap made-for-TV biopics that you might find on channel 5.  Maybe the final third redeemed it slightly (along with Julian Rhind-Tutt and Stephen Mangan) but I was glancing at my watch well before then.  I didn't think the racing scenes were that good either. 

[Sam]

The camerawork by Anthony Dob Mantle was excellent. Lots of strange angles and tight close ups which suited the film. The leads were great and although the dialogue was a bit off in places, the themes were strong and there was enough nuance to the central rivalries, a bit of depth beyond the broad stereotypes.

I found it quite gratuitous, too much vomit (after the fifth time he blew chunks it was getting absurd); the lung pumping made me squirm in my seat; the removing of bandages was also cringing; the swearing was overdone and too self-consciousness.

The whole thing was too long, 90 mins would have been fine for such a (literally) fast paced film. The depiction of women was uncomfortable but suppose true to the period. Was the scene where he fucks the air stewardess supposed to be funny? It was like a video game power up or something, Mario eating a mushroom. Also when he punches out the reporter? Should we be cheering for him cos he's sticking up for his rival? What with the quip as if it's a superhero/bad guy situation, I couldn't work out how complicit the audience was in it.

Amazing camerawork, messy film, entertaining nonetheless.

The shortest review I can think of would be:

Shagging, swearing, racing, bleeding.

[Blumf]

My only complaint with this is I don't think they gave a wide enough view of the racing. That is, I don't think if a viewer came to this film, without knowing much about F1, they'd leave with much of an idea about it. Perhaps a few more/longer race scenes earlier on with more action beyond just Hunt/Lauda. However, I could see this being tricky to fit within the pace of the film, so fairy-nuff.

8/10 - Well worth a watch.

[Mini]

I thought the lung vacuum scene was great, rarely is a big popcorn blockbuster quite so visceral.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

A few thoughts-

-People talking about the gore are overplaying it, it really isn't that bad, neither is even the vacuum pump. It's done from the side and you really don't experience that in full. The worst part is pulling the bandages off. It's reasonably sterilised, I would say.

-Hunt was surprisingly good, thought there was some intangible element of his character missed out on. Either the actor or director failed here, I wish there had been some more exploration into his psychology. Live fast die young, yes, but it was bent for expediencies sake more than once. The really unsubtle foreground shots of half drunk glasses of wine were really unnecessary. WE KNOW, YES HE IS A PARTY ANIMAL.

-The racing scenes were all marvellously done without exception and the level of racing involved was reasonably uncompromising. As soon as the Murray Walker soundalike took over the commentary from the awful Formula 3 bloke it all fell into place.

-Mangan wasn't suited to this at all.

-Bruhl was terrific, as he usually is. Lauda is an interesting man, as well as an infuriating one- he really did capture the essence of him.

-Overall, exciting, exhilarating in certain places, a little lacking in the overall F1 cast- it was about more than Lauda and Hunt, some of the other characters barely got a look in- how can people like Mario Andretti barely feature? Lauda was brilliant, I think in the end he became the centrepiece character. He was vulnerable, his logic was inconsistent and he was transparently in F1 for conflicting reasons he wouldn't admit to himself, through the cloud of his impeccable logic.

That surprise brief moment of him with his partner swimming naked was wonderful, as well, so surprising, beautiful and so well done. Of course the 1970s style is what drives the film in terms of tone and pace but what lingers is the more human elements. The rivalry between Hunt and Lauda was more friendly than the film makes out, as was alluded to by the film footage towards the end.

[Buelligan]

I'm very much looking forward to seeing this.  People who liked it might enjoy watching When Playboys Ruled the World, a documentary which contains quite a lot of Hunt footage - as well as plenty of Barry Sheene.

[dr beat]

I thought the BBC doc which was shown last week did a better job of telling the Hunt/Lauda story - in fact it would be interesting to see how a cinema-released documentary would compare to Rush.  Hunt was a larger than life character, and I thought whathisface struggled to match that in his performance. 

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I thought he did reasonably well, the film had some rather unsubtle props to indicate the excess, it was almost to the American Political Cartoonist level where I thought some arrows were going to come on screen pointing to "<----MARIJUANA" "HALF DRUNK BOTTLES OF CHAMPAGNE FROM LAST NIGHT----->" "<-----WHIZZ" "CUM FROM SEX----->"

[Buelligan]

I thought the BBC doc which was shown last week did a better job of telling the Hunt/Lauda story - in fact it would be interesting to see how a cinema-released documentary would compare to Rush.  Hunt was a larger than life character, and I thought whathisface struggled to match that in his performance.

Thanks for the pointer, just found it on YouTube - looking forward to watching it tonight!