RUSH.....Review

[bertvorgon]

As some of you that are on here, are around the same age as me, you maybe followed the F1 series back in the mid 70's. I was just getting into racing, so I lapped up everything, specially F1, as it appeared to be the pinnacle for any young aspiring racer. As much as a dreamed of emulating John Morton/BRE, the F1 series had such an exotic tone to it.

I went to see RUSH, the other night, and was totally impressed with the movie. Is it a full on race movie...No....but, it totally captured the time and flavour of the period. Ron Howard did a brilliant job in my opinion of revealing the characters of Niki Lauda and James Hunt, stitched together with the F1 series of the time. The feel of the time was more of guys from the garage going racing, even though it was at a relative dollar thing back then. It was just before the really big money hit F1.

I used to grab the latest ROAD & TRACK, to read the latest on what was going on, and occasionally on TV, you would see some of the incredible driving of the time, no electronics then. In the movie they even have the 6 wheeled Tyrrell P34, which I remember as such a crazy departure from the norm.

As a race movie....you can't do a race movie in my opinion..the mass market would not go to see that, and for us, we might as well just watch a great taped race or live TV these days. We know what happened to Steve McQueen with LeMan, the studios got cold feet and threw the love story into the fray. Gran Prix has great racing footage, yet is mixed with all the characters.

I do feel though that this movie, through it's great character portrayal, blended with the F1 scene at the time, has done a great tribute to the racing world. The two fellows who play Hunt and Lauda really do them justice.

Hope you enjoy it.

[two_68_510s]

My kid (24) is taking the old man to see this this weekend, thanks for the review.
Coming from a racer, I appreciate hearing about the subtleties of getting the feel of the times. Ron Howard is getting good.

I clearly remember freaking out when I heard about Lauda, I don't know why, but it bothered me more then Senna.

[bertvorgon]

I agree..it's the FIRE issue for me. Burns are horrendous at the best of times. Any driver's nightmare is being stuck in a burning car.

It took Jackie Stewart to really start to advocate for better driver safety, both the car and the track design.

I have my Halon extinguisher right next to me in the 510, and that's why I like the simple latch on my seat belts, it is bullet proof from a quick release point. I have never liked the aircraft style.

Let us know what you think of the movie.

[S15DET]

Loved it. It was so good that even my wife said it was "OK".

[duke]

I thought it was awesome. Even the two girls that I saw it with enjoyed it...which says something.

[bertvorgon]

There were a few scenes in there that would be lost on non-racers, that really cemented it for me, stuff I used to do.

Only someone that really talked to the racing community, would "get" that detail(s), and Howard put that into the film.

It showed a level of detail, that even though it might be lost on most, racers will understand, because only racers will have done it.

Like Brad, my wife loved it also.....as even though I was not at the F1 level, far from it, it portrayed that passion and drive, that I lived for 27 years of hard core racing, so she understood the movie..

[Byron510]

That's kind of funny and coincidental;

I was watching the other RUSH movie earlier this evening staring Getty, Alex and Nielsen.

But I would look forward to seeing the automotive version as well. Glad to hear they've done the movie justice. I still remember us all attending team Worlds Fastest Indian together. I really enjoyed that.

Byron

[rnorrish]

I've been wondering why there hasn't been a push for a group of us to go...

This weekend is a bust, but I'm sure there could be a week night that works for most.

Is there still a discount Tuesday somewhere?

[510wizard]

I saw the movie on opening day and thought that is really well done. Ron Howard seems to take on movies that we all know what the out come is and still makes them enjoyable. In the last scenes, it shows the total respect that Hunt and Lauda had for each other.

[Dave Patten]

The attention to detail is what I was amazed by.

The in car shot from the main straight looking across the driver's cockpit into the Watkins Glen pit lane truly caught the attention to detail put into this movie. The structures in that pit area (now long gone) were unique to Watkins Glen and they looked just as I remembered from my trip there in 1978 for the USGP.

I'll have to dig out my old snap shots from that trip, including some from the demonic and infamous Bog. For the spectators this race was as much about the party as it was racing.