The movie Rush is actually about the real life rivalry that existed between the two Formula 1 racers, James Hunt and Nikki Lauda back in 1976. I don’t know much about Formula 1 racing, and I’m even more ignorant about its history; so it was interesting to see how the movie explored the background of each character, what seemed to motivate them and the challenges they experienced. The movie also shows the relationship that existed between the two characters, and how they came to respect each other especially at the end of it all.

One of the main things that I respected about this movie though was how they portrayed the Austrian Nikki Lauda. Now I don’t know how much truth there is to his portrayal, but I thought that the way how it was filmed, as well as the way that the character was portrayed was extremely inspirational for someone like me.

Some time after the movie begins we see Lauda for the first time narrating his experience of how he got into Formula 1 racing. Apparently he was from a well-to-do family, and was expected to continue the family business. However, he had an argument with his father when he made his decision to go into Formula 1 racing instead; and that ended up driving him to win more than anything else.

The most inspiring part of Lauda’s story came after the crash, when he pushed himself so hard to get back out on the road, just so that he could beat Hunt and accomplish his dream despite the physical injuries.

The acting wasn’t as mediocre as I initially thought it might have possibly been. The thing is, I wasn’t exactly sure that Chris Hemsworth was versatile enough in terms of acting, when I initially heard that he would be playing one of the main characters in the movie. This was especially since I had mostly seen him play Thor. While I didn’t think that his portrayal of Marvel’s Thor and James Hunt were startlingly different, I still think that he did a fairly great job.

One of my favourites actors in the movie though had to be Daniel Bruhl, who portrayed Nikki Lauda. While I had seen the actor before, I did not think that he did as great a job as he did in Rush for me to pay enough attention to him.

I can definitely say that watching the movie Rush made me appreciate the late James Hunt as a person. Sure, the movie mostly explores the competition between Hunt and Lauda; and it even shows how Hunt seemed to have a few demons of his own. He would drink too much and seemed to be living the life of a rock star in comparison to his competitor who was working at every point to see if he could win the competition.

However, it also showed an interesting side of him, where you could see that he wasn’t so arrogant as not to appreciate the dedication that Nikki Lauda showed to winning the competition. I especially liked the scene where James Hunt beats a reporter because he had insulted Lauda during an interview.

Even though the director Ron Howard goes out of his way to make sure that the story is told a little differently from the usual sports biography, it still ends up being a little “repetitive” as one reviewer described it. That’s the reason why I eventually got tired of watching those sports biographies. They feel so formulaic, I already know what’s going to happen in the end, and in this case, the only thing that saves the movie is that Lauda, the underdog does not win, and he and his rival become friends.