Rush

I watched Rush while looking after my daughter on Thursday night.  It was a fantastic film.

Firstly, I'd better say that I'm a Formula One fan.  I watch all the races and I'm one of those nutters who gets up at silly o'clock to watch Australia, Malaysia, China and Japan live.  The Hunt/Lauda battle is before my time, but it's legendary in the sport and often spoken about.  That said, I only knew the barest bones of the story.

The film starts with Chris Hemsworth wandering into a hospital before getting treated by the nurse, played by Natalie Dormer - Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones, and seducing her.  It's then we get introduced to Formula Three and the first meeting with Niki Lauda.  We get to see the beginnings of their rivalry and how different they are as racers.  Lauda is the calm, methodical, planning driver and Hunt the balls to the wall, seat of the pants racer, neither an inch better than the other.

Throughout the film we see the depths of their commitment and just how dangerous Formula one was forty years ago.  Two drivers died every year and yet these men still queued up to put their lives on the line in the pinnacle of motorsport.

Strangely this isn't a fast paced, car movie.  It has nothing in common with the Fast & Furious series, films I also greatly enjoy, but for completely different reasons.  Rush is a film about what drives men and women to be the very best in the world.  It is also about the truly extraordinary story of Niki Lauda's recovery.  He won two more world championships after that crash.

If you want to be inspired by one of the greatest human triumph over injury, watch this film.  If you’re a Formula One fan like me, the question is simply, why haven't you watched it yet?