Two Formula One drivers: one, a level-headed Austrian with a sharp sensibility for his vehicle; the other, a hot-headed Englishman with no sensibility at all. Put them at loggerheads, you end up with a piece of racing history that the Kings of Hollywood would go to battle for. After Peter Morgan wrote the script on spec, Studio Canal won the fight and started production, and now, there is Rush.
One thing’s for certain, they got the name right. It’s rare that a film moves as quickly as this one without leaving its audience exhausted or half-baffled. Filler is kept to minimum, leaving just enough to build characters and explain plotlines. This car-studded picture probably necessitated it –with as rich a history as the Hunt vs Lauda competition, there was a hell to a lot to fit in. Props to Studio Canal; they managed to roll out a quick-flick picture and keep us on the edge of our seats without succumbing to the ruinous cramming that big budget films often suffer from.
But let’s not pretend that this was a low-budget back-street production. In fact the estimated $38million which was set back for the film is a figure which would make anyone’s knees quake and given this hefty sum, the cast is hardly a shock to the system. Arguably the biggest selling point is
extremely hot-off-the-press Chris Hemsworth, who was filming the Box Office-topping
Avengers when he auditioned for the role of James Hunt, bringing his much-loved bulk and brawn to a movie which is otherwise not very female-friendly.
Daniel Brühl, on the other hand, is the modern German actor that every Hollywood film-lover knows. After playing in Tarantino’s huge hit
Inglorious Basterds, and his more recent collab with Benedict Cumberbatch in
The Fifth Estate, he’s become Hollywood’s go-to-guy for the principal German role, facing only minor competition from
Fifth Estate co-star Moritz Bleibtreu and his Austrian
Inglorious Basterds co-star, Christoph Waltz. But it has to be said, box-office frequenters aren’t going to stroll into a screening of
Rush and see the face they know so well; for this film, Brühl is decked out with what looks like a horrifically uncomfortable mouth piece in an effort to imitate Niki Lauda’s protruding top jaw. If it wasn’t hard enough putting on an Austrian accent, the gumshield-style prosthetic was reason enough for Brühl to be a little down-in-the-mouth.
In fact, word has it that Brühl isn’t the only one that didn’t look himself for the film. Although Niki Lauda himself was a big part of filming, and has reportedly praised the honesty of the film, the movie – in true Hollywood style – massively overplays the rivalry between the racers. Not a huge or particularly upsetting divergence from the truth, but considering this is the entire premise of the plot, a calculated move. Potentially more distressing is that the film is said to underplay Lauda’s wife’s shock at his devastating facial injuries. Perhaps in an attempt to put Lauda’s relationship at a complete contrast to Hunt’s playboy image and failed marriage, the film writes Lauda’s wife as unconditionally understanding, and almost entirely unphased by his life-altering deformity.
So what's actually going on here, is Hollywood acting like an Expressionist painter. Rush vaguely resembles the lives of Lauda and Hunt, but there's a whole lot of artistic licence being used. That said, it's a portrait of the drivers that could have been worse. The danger with presenting real people with actors in a re-written script, is that actors are charged pistols: they come with their own reputation, their own audience, their own personality. So the picture is already half painted before the painter even comes to the canvas. In my opinion, the screen isn't the place for accurate historical representation, there's always going to be a problem with "based on a true story". But that doesn't mean they don't make good films. Rush is as thrilling and fast-paced as you could wish for, but it's at the peril of accuracy.
