This film is about the intense rivalry of James Hunt and Nikki Lauda for the world championship of the 1976 Formula One season. The characters are quite different. Hunt is good looking, superficially charming womanising playboy with a dilettante reckless attitude to motor racing. By contrast Lauda whose buck teeth give him the nickname of the rat, is dour, cerebral, disciplined, calculating and not much fun. Both men however are obsessed about motor racing and have rebelled against their rich parents by taking up the sport. There’s not only professional rivalry but also a seemingly personal dislike between the two men which provides some great scenes, not just dramatic conflict but also a lot of humour. At first I was rooting for Hunt then the film shows a dark side to him when facing adversity; he could be quite nasty wallowing in a drug and drink filled stupor. So in the mid part of the film I was neutral but after Lauda’s horrific crash I was rooting for him. At this point there seems to be a grudging respect between the two men. The actual motor racing scenes were visually quite exciting and I had the added advantage that knowing nothing about motor racing I didn’t know in advance the outcomes of the races being shown. Overall this is a very good film which I can recommend even to viewers to have no interest in motor racing. 4 stars.
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