Oh boy! What rush! It’s been a couple of days since I watched the Chris Hemsworth / Daniel Bruhl starrer movie and even after having tried my best, I couldn’t stop myself from tapping these groveling lines. If you’re thinking I’m here to analyze the movie rationally, let me be clear – I’m going to inundate you with blind, passionate reverence for the movie and its cast and crew. So get lost if you want me to be rational.
After having missed the unusually highly rated movie on IMDB for more than three weeks, I thought my chances of managing to see the motorsport flick on the big screen were pretty bleak. Thanks, however, to the movie aficionados of Mumbai that even after more than 20 days, there was a show running on a Saturday, in a theatre near me.
I abstained from making a booking online, thinking that there would hardly be any audience, but boy, was I lucky to get a pair of the last few seats in the front row! Whew!
I stopped watching and following F1 years back, when I realized that the good old days of balls-in-mouth wheel to wheel racing were long over. I watched this movie, and realized why F1 is as big a sport as it is today. The danger, the unpredictability, the passion, the crazy personalities – back then in 1976 the sport was all about courage, charisma and capacity. The dangers were real. People were getting killed every few races. Cars were unpredictable. They slithered and twitched when the drivers didn’t want them to. Gearshifts were manual, and F1 cars were not monkey friendly. People who thought sex was the breakfast of champions expressed the thought aloud, and proved it with their actions. They drove cars like a racing driver should, and didn’t care if they were killed in a wild bid to overtake.
James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Two diametrically opposite personalities. One British, another Austrian. One claimed he slept with more than 5000 women, and once had a queue of British air hostesses outside his hotel room in Japan waiting to sleep with him. Another wouldn’t go to sleep even an hour later than his usual routine to make sure he didn’t lose his time at work the following day.
It’s an incredible story, about a couple of incredible personalities, with incredible courage and talent. However, the best part about Rush is that in the able hands of Ron Howard, it’s been told in an equally incredible way.
The atmosphere, the cars, the detail, the performances – Rush brings back the golden era of F1 racing to you to savor, as an unabridged delicacy. Savor it, I suggest. You’ll get a rush you’ve not experienced in a very long time. I promise! It’s probably the best motorsport movie ever made!