Rush: No Limite da Emoção

This is an amazing film. I can't recommend it highly enough for F1 fans like me, sports fans, or anyone interested in a story of rivalry i.e. something different to the unoriginal junk movies which get churned out each year.

All the crew involved should pat themselves on the back. They've done a fabulous job making this film critique, explore and honour two memorable F1 drivers.

James Hunt's fun, party lifestyle along with his brash and raw driving talent. This is contrasted against Niki Lauda's methodical thinking, technical brilliance and professional lifestyle. These two characters are total opposites but as their lives are explored it also acknowledges the value of an enemy, i.e. something to beat. I believe this is a commentary on human nature in that the best of us shines when we have something to beat or overcome.

Do yourself a favour and see it now.

As Asif Kapadia's gripping and extremely moving 2010 documentary Senna proved, cinema audiences have a thirst for the larger-than-life characters that inhabit the Formula One track. The sport itself is frightfully dull (although I'm sure plenty will disagree with that), but the sportsmen willing to lay down their life for a kick and a trophy are infinitely more fascinating, especially in the days of lax safety rules. The sport nowadays is little more than advertising on wheels, but when the likes of James Hunt and Niki Lauda battled it out on the track, epic rivalries were created, and no matter how talented these men were at driving these "coffins on wheels", every race could spell out death. Rush portrays the clash of two opposing personalities. The long-haired, dashing Englishman James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) was all about the adrenaline, embracing the post-race parties and lying with the many women that would throw themselves at him. He was reckless, willing to risk his life and others in order to win, but, as described in the film, there was no better driver in the world in terms of raw talent. His rival, Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), was focused, clinical, and even helped design the cars he would drive. He was the early-night type, 'rat-faced' and cold. In every sense, he's the perfect villain. But where Rush succeeds the most is challenging our early conceptions of these two characters. There's little fun to be had with Lauda, but played by Bruhl, he evolves into the underdog of the movie, perhaps the only one that actually gives a damn about his own life and the life of his opponents. This, naturally, leads to tragedy and a particularly wince-inducing scene in which Lauda requires having his lungs vacuumed, but it's at this point that we realise just what these two drivers mean to each other. As Lauda watches Hunt claw back some points in the 1976 Formula One season, it becomes clear that these two need each other to survive. Their hatred of one another only serves to fuel the flames, and leads to Lauda's defiant early return to the driver's seat, scarred and bandaged. Fast cars, beautiful women and exotic locations hardly sounds like a recognisable workload for Ron Howard, one of the most play-it-easy directors out there. His past films have been unjustifiably successful, critically and commercially, never stamping a recognisable directorial trait onto his work. Yet here, although the bright sheen of the 70's initially takes some getting used to, he has managed to create a world that is very much alive, using snappy editing, a pumping soundtrack and some growing sound design to re-create this world for petrol-heads. But he doesn't neglect his characters, and evokes the great work done on Frost/Nixon (2008), which was also a study of two giant, clashing personalities coming together on the world stage. Rush is an exhilarating experience, able to distinguish each race from the next and literally putting us in the driver's seat with the use of digital cameras. Although it occasionally drifts into formulaic territory with the introduction of the 'wives' (played by Oivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara, respectively), Howard cleverly uses this as an insight into Hunt and Lauda's personalities. Hemsworth is very good in his first 'proper' post-Thor role, but it is Bruhl that you take away from the film. How he gets you to initially loath him, only to be cheering him on at the climax is the work of a great actor, and it's a crime that he has been snubbed by the Academy this year. Hopefully this will inspire a host of decent sports movies, as Rush proves that you can mix character study and even existential musings with the thrill of sport.

What a breath of fresh air... A brilliant film in every respect. I was lucky enough to this movie at a special preview and I cant tell you how great a film this is... At first you think its about racing cars, but its not it really does give you an insight into the human condition...

The rivalry between Hunt and Lauder is just played brilliantly... The race sequences are superb, really taking you back to the 70s... The heyday of this awesome sport. It shows the end of an era where the gentlemen drivers begin to give way to professional sportsmen and the end (in my opinion) of the excitement of the sport. It shows what a pale reflection today's F1 is of this once great sport, and what great characters we have lost...

A real must see movie

In 1976, the rivalry between two brilliant racing car drivers, the British James Hunt and the Austrian Nikki Lauda, came to a head in the almost literally life-and-death struggle of the Formula One championship. American director Ron Howard ("Apollo 13", "A Beautiful Mind", "Frost/Nixon") and British scriptwriter Peter Morgan (both play and screenplay of "Frost/Nixon") have done a terrific job bringing the titanic struggle to the big screen, aided by some excellent casting and powerful sound and cinematography. Those were the days when most years a couple of drivers would be killed, so the stakes could not be higher.

Sensibly the car racing does not over-dominate, since this is essentially a character- driven conflict, but when the racing is on screen - notably in the final race - the excitement is visceral. The Australian Chris Hemsworth (previously best known as "Thor") and the Spanish-born German Daniel Brühl ("Inglourious Basterds") are so good as the British and Austrian drivers respectively that the dialect coaches should receive a special commendation. Arguably Brühl gives the stronger performance which should auger well for his future career.

A great strength of this tale is that there is not a hero or a villain. Both drivers had privileged backgrounds and were superbly talented, but both were flawed. although in very contrasting ways, including styles of thinking, driving and womanising (Olivia Wilde as model Suzy Miller and Alexandra Maria Lara as aristocratic Marlene Knaus respectively).

I never saw the recent film "Senna" (2010) so "Rush" reminded me most of the much older "Grand Prix" (1966), but what is stunning about "Rush" is that it all happened. A season of the fastest sport in the world decided in the last race by one point - you couldn't make it up. Rush to see the movie.

The film is just over 2 hours long, but when it was over it seemed like I had been in the cinema about 30 minutes.

The film centres on the battle for the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship, and the rivalry between the Austrian "professor" Nikki Lauda and the British playboy James Hunt.

The two are depicted as enemies, but in actual fact they were good friends who trusted and respected each other on, as well as off-track. This bit of artistic licence does not spoil the film and is reasonable in order to make the battle between the two for the F1 crown more intense.

The film is nicely paced. We are introduced to both characters through their own narrative and scenes that leave the watcher in no doubt as to their background and philosophy on life.

The two are first seen in competition in 1970 at a Formula 3 race at Crystal Palace (where they have a coming together) and sets the scene for the rivalry throughout the film. I'm not sure if this is further artistic licence. The two definitely did race each other in F3, but I am not convinced as to whether this actual incident occurred.

After that we are given a whistle stop journey between 1973 (when Hunt came into F1) to 1975. We are shown the dangerous nature of F1 at the time with the Francois Cevert accident at Watkins Glen in gory detail – although this does not seem like gratuitous, but necessary to bring home just how unforgiving the sport was back then – and it truly was (of the top 12 points scorers in 1976, F1 cars were to claim 3, 1 ended up in a wheelchair and 1 had his career ended by a leg crunching crash).

We are then taken to 1976 and that titanic struggle for the World Crown. Only one real issue here – the British Grand Prix result, but I suspect this was simplified in the interests of time.

The casting is superb. Chris Hemsworth, an Aussie, does an excellent job on public schoolboy James Hunt, while Daniel Bruhl both sounds and looks frighteningly like the Austrian. There is little room for a supporting cast amongst the drivers which is a shame – only Clay Regazzoni has a part of any real substance. Peterson, Watson, Depailler, Scheckter, Andretti et al could have featured a little more I think. What did their contemporaries think of the two protagonists? The supporting cast is mainly required for Hunt – Lord Hesketh, "Bubbles" Horsley and Teddy Mayer / Tyler Alexander of McLaren, while the Ferrari team principals are rarely seen.

The love angle is perfectly catered for by Olivia Wilde (Hunt's first wife Suzy) and the gorgeous Alexandra Maria Lara - of Downfall fame – as the future Marlene Lauda. Both give quality performances.

The attention to detail is superb. Although the tracks are not the actual ones (for understandable reasons) the cars, the helmets, the sponsors are all authentic. The film "feels" like it's happening in the 70's.

For anyone interested in great personal stories, F1, the 70's, cars or just like to see a great film, then Rush is for you.