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“Rush”: Portrait Of A Formula One Story

As the
Korean Grand Prix is on the horizon for this weekend, another sort of item that
involves formula one racing has just debuted in the movie screens, and this is
the movie, “Rush”, which tells the story of the 1976 battle between two of the
most opposite drivers of formula one at that time; the flamboyant playboy of
Englishman James Hunt, and his technical rival Niki Lauda.

This caught
the attention of director Ron Howard, who was a child actor in the 60’s and 70’s
with the Andy Griffith show and Happy Days and continued as a director with
such films as Coccon and Backdraft.

Howard spent
a good portion of last year as a guest of F1 races, to get an idea of what it
was all about, and in this film, there is more of a story and the explanation
of the fierce rivalry that went on. The cast is made of some unknown names and
other familiar ones. Hunt was played by Englishman Chris Hemsworth and his
rival Lauda was portrayed by German actor Daniel Bruhl. Actress Alexandra Maria
Lara, also from Germany, who is popular in Europe, but unknown in the United
States, played the part of Lauda’s wife, Marlene, a wealthy socialite, and the
English/Irish actress, Olivia Wilde, played Hunt’s first wife, Suzy.

The audience
would think that all this film took place in 1976, but it does not. The story
of this rivalry begins when both were in Formula 3000, when Lauda’s technical
superiority was already in effect and Hunt began his quest of having the queasy stomach
before the race, which made him sick before every start.

Both drivers
had to have major deals to get a drive in Formula One, and Lauda started it off
by buying his way into the Marlboro BRM team after having a fallout with his
father, taking a huge amount of cash to join teammate and later Ferrari
confidant Clay Reggazoni . Hunt, on the other hand, joined forces with the
Hesketh team, who had no sponsors and was owned by a wealthy Englishman, who
was just as much as a partier as Hunt himself.

But even
after a victory in 1975 at the Dutch Grand Prix, Hunt and his team ran out of money
and Hunt was without a drive. However, all this changed when Emerson Fitipaldi
decided to have his own F1 team, and left Mclaren, just in time to have Hunt
fill in his slot.

Lauda began
the 1976 season by dominating the early races, and Hunt could only win the
Spanish Grand prix, but was disqualified for having his car too wide, which
later became reinstated. The Englishman then won at his home race in Great Britain,
but finds out later that his wife was having an affair with legendary actor
Richard Burton. Hunt regains his composure, but at this time, Lauda is already
married and the German Grand Prix at the legendary Nurburgring is approaching.

Lauda does not want to race on a wet track, but is outvoted by others,
including Hunt, to proceed. During the race, Lauda has problems early on with a
bad pit stop, but comes back and moves up the grid until at Bergwerk bend, he
breaks a suspension arm and crashes heavily, getting also hit by another car in
the process. In the impact, the helmet comes off and the flames now penetrate
his head and the toxic fumes go into his lungs. Lauda was taken to the nearest
hospital and surprisingly comes back and recovers enough to race in the Grand
Prix of Italy just six weeks later. He finishes fourth and this puts more
confidence in him to continue for the title.

But the last
race in Japan, Lauda only lead Hunt by two points, and the wet track does not
help either driver. But only a few laps into the race, Lauda decides to stop
and pulls into the pits, claiming that the track was too dangerous to drive on.
Hunt goes on even after shredding his tires and pits to replace them, but it
seems it is too late. But Hunt does not believe it, and continues flat out to
finish in third, beating Lauda by one point to win the world championship.

In reality,
Hunt never did well again. He became a BBC racing analyst later on and passed
of a heart attack in 1993.

For Lauda,
he got tired of racing and returned in 1982, winning his second of three world
championship before retiring again for good. Today he is one of the managers
for the Mercedes formula one team.

The movie itself
was not full a lot of racing, but it put out a good story enough to forget it.
Lauda himself was even impressed with the film, and the accent of Bruhl of his
Austrian driver that he was playing was perfect enough to make this an accurate
portrayal of an event that is one of the most famous moments in sports.

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