Ron Howard’s examination of the fierce intra-team rivalry between Formula One drivers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) succeeded in portraying the high speed thrills of that sport in the 1970s and in somehow making Formula One interesting. James Hunt has been long revered as one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport, and if his legacy is defined for future generations as that shown in Rush, I don’t think he’d mind. It’s polished, turbulent, and the sexiest movie about cars since Crash. No, not that one, the one about people having sex with cars.
A British/German co-production, Rush did great business at home and elsewhere taking in $90 million worldwide on a meagre $38 million budget. It also showed that there’s more to Chris Hemsworth than Thor, or Home and Away. He gives a nuanced performance where a clichéd, dull-as-dishwater-hottie would have easily sufficed, and the counterpoint that Bruhl presents as the jealous Lauda lifts this film above your average sports biopic.
These two features, combined with the interesting central conceit that both drivers are actually on the same team, allows Ron Howard to wrestle from that fraught central relationship a movie about the limits of friendship, and the occasionally confusing line between respect and intimidation. What could so easily have been an embarrassing retrofest actually becomes a high stakes, exhilarating (and accelerating) thrillride. Our very own Matt Donato gave it a great review, because we are taste makers of the highest calibre. He singled out Bruhl’s performance, but it’s easy to forget how good Olivia Wilde was as Hunt’s supermodel girlfriend Suzy Miller in the excitement of Chris Hemsworth’s abs and luscious blonde hair.
If Rush had been terrible, I wouldn’t personally class it as a British film. Luckily it’s great, and therefore deserves its place on this list.