Rush
 

Ron Howard's F1 masterpiece "Rush" was released today in DVD and Blu-ray formats; available for sale at retailers, and for rent at your local Redbox.

If you missed this great slice of '70s racing history, at a time "when sex was safe, and motor racing was dangerous", now's your chance to see it.

TO

Wow, how times have changed, 2014 Racing History, "When sex is dangerous, and motor racing is dangerous"

^isn't that "when sex was safe and racing was dangerous"?

I gave up after 30 mins. Great slice of motor racing history? More like horrendous b movie thinly disguised by modern production quality.

Remain baffled by the love for this film. I assume because of the latent sentiment for the subject matter, but how bad would the film have to be...?

I'd love to see a great film about Hunt v Lauda. Rush isn't it.

Couldn't disagree more. Loved the movie. Saw it first on the Imax and then watched it again at home.

Not the greatest script. However and more importantly, Olivia Wild was smoking hot as a blonde, in fact she's tied with Margot Robbie (Wolf of Wall St.) for hottest blonde in a movie in 2014.
The guy who played Lauda (who we remember from Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds) did a tremendous job, much better than Jonah Hill who actually got his second Academy award nomination. They should have spent much more time showing how totally different is to drive these tin cans than today's automatic F1 cars. For instance Jackie Stewart's drive around the N-ring in a Rolls Royce in 'The Quick and the Dead' where he tells you how utterly insane it was to drive a 1970's single seater on that track should have been worked into this script somehow as it's the most important race of the whole story.

I would have really loved to see Michael Mann do this film instead of Ron Howard.
Mann did an amazing job with Public Enemies (Christian Bale, Johnny Depp), another historical film.

The guy who played Lauda was good, agreed. But Chris Hemsworth was laughable casting for Hunt and as soon as you saw that choice, you knew the people behind this film either didn't have a clue or didn't care. And so it proved.

Thor was not the best choice but I give him credit for losing 100 pounds to play Hunt.
I think Jude Law would have been a better choice for pompous and "posh" racing driver.

And I would have given Cristoph Waltz a shot at playing Lauda. But at the end of the day these racing films never do well because racing drivers with a couple of exceptions like Senna, aren't that interesting in real life. It has to be an interesting story first, which you certainly had here, but the script has to be very gritty and raw. This was more a PG-13 type of a thing. You could only do so much with this script no matter the casting.
Downton Abbey has more interesting script-writing and that's about a bunch of rich unemployed people eating dinner in tails every night.

I am generally harsh critic of anything anything from Hollywood but have a soft spot for racing/cars movies so I tend to look the other way. I enjoyed Rush even with its warts.

Agreed. But the first 30 mins of Rush were chronically derivative, cliched claptrap, not gritty and raw. The film really could have been about anything. That's the real pity. The real story is so good, the atmosphere and the way they went about things back then so different. To make it into a generic racing b movie, full of idiotic dialogue and voice overs, was just depressing. Which is why I couldn't get through it.

It's all very subjective, of course. I just found it a deeply naff (nearest translation in US english = tacky) film.

I loved it, saw it on a bigger than normal screen in the theatre, pre-ordered the DVD, received it today. Can't wait to watch it again!

I thought Daniel Bruhl's performance was actually Oscar-worthy. I didn't think Hemsworth did nearly as well portraying Hunt, but Hunt was such a complex and larger-than-life character, WHO, really, could have played him?

Even after all these years, I still respect Niki greatly, and I really miss James.

I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. As a favor to Ron, I did some of the stunt driving.

Loved the movie, watched it on an IMAX screen and plan to pick up a copy. Hollywood didn't get it perfect, but this film was way better than the majority of the movies that get churned out.

Enjoyed it. Hated the Hunt casting...but it is what it is. I've more respect for the movie after watching several interviews with Lauda with his point of view.

My wife LOVED the movie. Absolutely went bonkers for it.

For sure. The scripts of "Le Mans" and "Grand Prix" weren't anything great, either, but the racing was so exciting that the silly subplots didn't really matter. Now, if you tell me there's no good racing in "Rush", I'll take it out of my Netflix queue.

I loved Grand Prix the filming at speed was great. I was 8 years old made my mother and cousin take me. My cousing got sick. LeMans, terrible story but I live anything with Porsches especially the mighty 917's! Ordered Rush looking forward to seeing it. I am suprised Hunt casting was not to your liking.

I liked 'Rush', but just watched the documentary '1' and enjoyed it much more. For die-hard F1 fans, sometimes just jumps/skips around parts of some stories, but focuses on the evolution of safety and has some great footage. I had not heard of this movie but glad I came across it.

"F1" Formula 1 - Exclusive Trailer [HD] Official Movie 2013 Formula One History - MostMovies - YouTube

I thought I read that it was streaming for free (it may have ended) but you can get the DVD or stream it from Amazon.

1: the latest and best Formula 1 film - Formula 1 - Motor Sport Magazine

-Tom

^ that was an excellent documentary. If you have surround sound the engines in that movie make me wish that's how it was today vs. the F1 kitchen blenders of today or at least before the engine switch for 2014.

on a side note, the Cevert life story would make the best movie ever. I can't believe Ron Howard made this Lauda v. Hunt movie first. People watch Rush and think Lauda had bad luck instead of realizing he was very lucky for this era. The number of guys getting wasted by crappy cars and crappier tracks during Stewart/Cevert's time was mind-boggling.

No, Lauda was NOT lucky for his era. His era was the same as Stewart's and Cevert's. Cevert perished at Watkins Glen in 1973, the same "time" that Lauda and Hunt were competing in Grand Prix with him and Jackie.

There were minimal safety changes between 1973 and 1976, when Lauda had his shunt at the "Ring". In fact, there was only one change to the cars: "safety structures" around dashboard and pedals, which had NO effect on Lauda's injuries. The most severe was the burning of his lungs.

The most dangerous time in F1 was between 1968-1977, when there were 9 driver fatalities. There are a lot of "stories" that can be told about that time that might make an interesting film. Ron Howard chose to direct this film from a script written by an Englishman who felt the story worthwhile.

I agree.

TO

That reminds me, I have a phot on my wall of a driver's meeting at Watkins Glen 1972. Lauda looks like a rather normal fellow prior to the fire, and Cevert looks like he is asking a question to the Chief Steward. Must have been before Hunt joined the circus, as he is not in the photo.

Lots of other interesting fellows: Andretti, Redman, Fittipaldi, Revson, Ickx, Regazzoni, Schecter. Most of these guys made it out alive, and are still with us today.