Rush (2013)

In the past 5 weeks, I have spent some time admiring two extremely good looking men. The second is Hrithik Roshan in Bang Bang, and the first is Chris Hemsworth in Rush. I have watched Chris in The Avengers, and he made for a perfect Thor.

Last month, I watched Rush again on television, and then thought about my incomplete post. I had watched Rush last year itself, soon after its release in India. That particular weekend was a great weekend – I had watched two biopics based on sports - I had watched The Fighter on television. As for Rush, since it is based on F1, I had wanted to watch it as soon as I could.

The sibling and I had spotted VJ Yudhishthir (Yudi) when we had gone to watch Rush. The minute James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) appeared on screen, I realized why Kimi Raikkonen considers him as an idol, and why his legend lives on - he is supposed to have slept with 5,000 women. In today's times, he would be considered a sex addict, and asked to go through de-addiction.

The movie paints the F1 circuit in a realistic and gripping manner, and credit goes to the director Ron Howard who has previously directed A Beautiful Mind. There are a few scenes that struck me as unreal, and the wikipedia entry shows that some scenes had been created specifically for the movie. For instance, the scene where James Hunt beats up the journalist who asks insensitive questions on the impact of Niki Lauda’s looks on his marriage.

This year, I realized the casting is perfect and the lead actors and actresses resemble the real-life characters. This link has more information, and I am going to post two pictures.

This is the real Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

This is a still from the movie.

I found it painful to watch the scenes post Lauda’s crash at Nurburgring, Germany. I shed some tears watching the scenes at the hospital, and when Lauda tells Hunt that while he was responsible for the crash in some way, he was equally responsible for getting him back to racing.

There is this exchange between James Hunt and his wife Suzy.

Suzy: Why have you come here, James?

James: To get you back.

Suzy: You don’t want me back...you never wanted to be married in the first place. You did it because you hoped it might change you...settle you down... help with the racing. Not because you loved me. And who knows, if it had been just the drinking, or the dope, or the infidelity, or the moods...it might even have worked...but when it’s all of them?

James: I know. I’m terrible.

Suzy: No, you’re not terrible. You’re just...who you are...at this point in your life. And God help anyone that wants more.

James: Will he be able to give you more? He has quite the bad boy reputation himself.

Suzy: What’s important is how it feels to me. And it feels like he adores me.

The real-life incidents are slightly different from what has been depicted. What would I have done if I were in Suzy's place - the movie character's place? If this question had been asked last year, my response would have been that I would not have gone skiing 'that weekend' with another bad boy. I would have just let some dreams die and reconciled for second best. Today, my response is that I would have first left Hunt and then gone skiing at a later date.

The references to rats are delightful, even though I am no fan of rats in real life. Lauda says, “Behind my back I know some of you guys call me ‘The Rat.’ Because I look like one. It’s meant as an insult. But I don’t mind it. Rats are ugly, sure. And no one likes them. But they’re intelligent. With a strong survival instinct.”

This remains one of the best movies I have watched.

Pianos that played differently

I grew up with the notion that genius and madness perennially go hand in hand, and reading Rand helped me romanticize the idea a lot more than I should have. Today, I admire the genius who can hold to his/her sanity.

It is not easy to do so.

This is going to be about two movies. I watched 'Shine' recently, and have to depend on my memory to state what I think of 'The Pianist'. Both of them have pianists from Poland as protagonists. Both are based on true accounts. Both performances won the lead actors Oscars. In the first case, the pianist’s father is a survivor of the holocaust. In the other, the pianist himself is a survivor of the holocaust.

After Shine was released, there was controversy surrounding it with claims that the father had been unfairly portrayed as an extremely authoritarian parent. Geoffrey Rush plays David Helfgott (a child prodigy) whose father survives extermination. The father rebuilds his life in Australia, after the death of his parents. After a point, the movie failed to move me for the father kept asking his son, “Do you want to destroy this family? Is that what you want?” when the lad wants to pursue music in the US on a scholarship. There was never any hint that he would not return to Australia, so it became difficult to digest as to why the father went on and on about him not being there for the family. The pianist rebels eventually and moves to London – the father disowns him for disobeying him. The pianist’s new professor encourages him (much like his old teacher and the author with whom he develops a friendship back in Australia), and he decides to play Rachmaninoff's work – his father was proud to have watched him learn this as a child. He has a mental breakdown post the concert, and is forbidden to play the piano anymore. Watch the movie to see the ‘happy’ ending when he meets an astrologer, marries her, and receives public acclaim again.

In the meantime, here’s something for you.



Roman Polanski’s The Pianist is about the life of Władysław Szpilman who survived the Nazi rule. This man gets separated from his family, is the only man to live in abandoned Warsaw, and is about to be killed by the Polish Army when he is dressed in a German coat – but he survives. I remember being impressed with the authenticity lent to the look, and how moved I was at the end of the movie. Adrien Brody became the youngest actor to win the Oscar for his performance.



Highly recommended.