Trailer Trashin’: Thor Drives a Racecar in Rush

Well, I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend and that all of you who wanted to get out to the movies did so and enjoyed yourselves. As I mentioned last time, I finally saw Star Trek Into Darkness, and while it definitely has its problems, I quite enjoyed it. This week’s installment of Trailer Trashin’, the last one of May 2013, takes a look at director Ron Howard’s upcoming biographical action-drama Rush.

Premise: Set against the sexy, glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing in the 1970s and based on the true story of a great sporting rivalry between handsome English playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and his methodical, brilliant Austrian opponent Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl). The story follows their distinctly different personal styles on and off the track, their loves, and the astonishing 1976 season in which both drivers were willing to risk everything to become world champion in a sport with no margin for error – if you make a mistake, you die.

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My take: Given that both the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine and the motion picture camera came to be at almost the same time, and given that both cars and movies have gone on to hold such special places in American culture, it’s no wonder that Hollywood has long had a love affair with automobiles and racing. From the silent film Racing Hearts (1922), to Disney’s Herbie series, to Tony Scott’s Days of Thunder (1990), to Universal’s Fast & Furious series, almost as long as there have been movies, there have been movies about cars. Now, award-winning director Ron Howard is entering the auto-movie waters with Rush, an action-drama about the 1976 Formula One season and the rivalry between drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda. This is the third trailer for Rush, and while I don’t know if I’ll see it at the theater, I’m definitely going to keep an eye on it.

One of the main things that Rush has going for it is an impressive cast. The centerpiece of the cast is Chris Hemsworth as the late James Hunt. As a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I love Hemsworth as Thor, but I’ve also enjoyed his other work, like George Kirk in Star Trek (2009) and the Huntsman in Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). He seems perfect for this sort of loveable bad boy role, and if you compare pictures of Hunt from the mid-1970s and Hemsworth in this film, they really do look almost identical. Taking the role of Niki Lauda is German actor Daniel Brühl, who looks like he will be a good counterpart to Hemsworth. Considering that his most notable previous Hollywood roles were small supporting parts in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), this is probably be the introduction to Brühl for a lot of people. We only see a little bit of Olivia Wilde as Suzy Miller, James Hunt’s first wife, but she’s an actress I’m always happy to see getting work. Some other notable names in the cast include Natalie Dormer from The Tudors and Game of Thrones, and Pierfrancesco Favino from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) and Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons (2009).

I have to admit, I’m not overly familiar with the directorial work of Ron Howard. The only films of his that I’ve seen are Apollo 13 (1995), which I thought was great, and Angels & Demons, which I found reasonably entertaining but not particularly memorable. However, I do find him to be an interesting director, because he’s made so many films in so many different genres. Howard hasn’t done a straight-up action film since Backdraft (1991), and if Rush is successful, it might be a good way for him get back into that arena of filmmaking. Howard is also working from a screenplay by award-winning writer Peter Morgan, the two having previously collaborated on Frost/Nixon (2008), so I assume the director has some solid material to work from.

I also think the actual racing action on display here looks cool. You get a real sense of how dangerous this sport can be, with these huge, overpowered machines barreling down the track at such incredible speeds. Also, I think that the European setting gives it a different look than what we’ve seen in a lot of previous films about professional racing, which have largely focused on the American racing. Here, we’ve got old buildings, pounding rain, fog-covered moors, and plenty of other bits of visual texture. And I love how it looks like the color of the image has been kind of desaturated, which really gives it a bit of the look of an actual film from the 1970s.

In the end, this is a good trailer for what could be a good film. The cast is great, the key behind-the-camera figures are talented, the racing looks cool, and the story is intriguing. But even if the film does live up to its potential and gets a lot of critical acclaim, I fear that, given its September release, it might end up being largely left out in the cold by the time awards season rolls around, which was what happened to Drive (2011). Ultimately, Rush is a movie I’m certainly interested in seeing. I’ll wait to see how it’s received, but there’s a good chance I’ll be checking out Rush when late September rolls around.

ANTICIPATION: I may not “rush” out to see it, but I’m interested in how it turns out.

Release Date: September 20^th, 2013

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Natalie Dormer, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, Christian McKay, and Sean Edwards
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Peter Morgan