BEFORE: Day 3 of my mostly-Hemsworth week, as Chris Hemsworth carries over again from "The Huntsman: Winter's War" - I think you can probably guess where I'm heading with this, based on what film opened up last Friday. I'll get there tomorrow.
I've still got 31 films to watch before the end of the year, but in one way this is sort of the last film, in that it was the last film added to my chain, to stretch things out so that I'd have exactly the right number of films to get me to the end. I got this one to fill up the DVD with "In the Heart of the Sea" (both films with Chris Hemsworth, directed by Ron Howard) but it also slotted nicely here between two other Chris Hemsworth films and helped me JUST make my goal of 300 films for the year.
THE PLOT: The merciless 1970s rivalry between Formula One racing rivals James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
AFTER: I'm keenly aware that Germans are one of the last few ethnic groups that you can safely make fun of these days - I'm of mostly German descent, more than 50% anyway, so I get a pass, but I think most people can joke about being German without getting into trouble. Germans like to drink beer, Germans are overweight, Germans are overly rational, emotionless and super well-organized. Who's going to argue with all of that, especially when those last few stereotypes also seem a little bit like compliments? (I think you can still make fun of Brits and Aussies without encountering much resistance, basically the white ethnic groups, if you want to poke fun, go for it.)
So to me the Niki Lauda character here is much more interesting than James Hunt, who's supposed to be the focus of the movie. But he drinks too much, sleeps around too much, and is generally reckless with his money and his safety - in other words, a typical bad-boy race-car driver in the devil-may-care 1970's. Back before safe sex was even a thing, back before drunk driving was even illegal, you see what I'm getting at? It was the 1970's and famous people were basically allowed to do whatever the heck they wanted.
So along comes Niki Lauda, the German (technically, Austrian, but come on, same thing...) who basically buys his way on to a racing team, and then uses the science of aerodynamics to make his car a few seconds faster than the others, and then he got even more attention by rubbing people the wrong way, and not drinking too much and sleeping around. What kind of a freak was he? Ah, the German kind of freak. I understand this guy. When he does fall in love he presents his case quite logically to the woman as to why he would make a better boyfriend than the other racers, and when he does propose, it's less along the lines of "I love you with all my heart" and more like, "Hey, we're working well together, so why not?" Ah, another German romantic. Who else would refer to his own wedding as a "family obligation"?
And when you take the emotion out of the equation, you're basically left with the rational (for him, anyway) need to win just to prove he's better than anybody else. That's what drove Hitler, too, the belief that Germany was the best country in the world, and countries like France and Poland should be honored to be invaded and become part of the German empire. Why wouldn't they want that? Hitler also had very logical (if incredibly misguided) reasons why the Aryan race was the best, and all the others were inferior, and that's where all the trouble started. But I digress.
Niki Lauda's also an interesting character because he's everything that James Hunt isn't, and thus grew this intense rivalry between two very different people who pushed each other toward winning races. And when Lauda became badly burned in the German Grand Prix, it's implied that the accident happened because most of the drivers voted to race in the rain, while Lauda campaigned to cancel the race. Of course, canceling the race would have benefited him in the points system, because he was leading in points on the annual circuit, and it would have been one less chance for Hunt and the other racers to catch up with him.
There's a lot I don't undertstand about car racing, mainly because I'm just not a car guy, but I also never understand how they keep track of which car is in the lead while some of them are taking pit stops. (Don't the cars who pit get passed by other cars going around the track, so how could anyone possibly maintain their lead with all that stopping and starting?) But I do understand that each driver gets a certain amount of points based on where they finish in each race, and so there's a winner for each race, and a grand champion overall once all the races are completed. (I also don't understand the difference between Formula 3 and Formula 1, so any explanation that the film could have offered would have been appreciated)
Laura comes back after recovering from his burns, and he not only blames Hunt for his accident, but also credits him with giving him the motivation to recover. So there's that classic German rationalization again - Germans can endure just about anything as long as they can figure out the proper angle to justify it.
Also starring Daniel Brühl (last seen in "Burnt"), Olivia Wilde (last seen in "Her"), Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino (last seen in "World War Z"), David Calder (last seen in "The World Is Not Enough"), Natalie Dormer (last seen in "The Counsellor"), Stephen Mangan, Christian McKay (last seen in "The Theory of Everything"), Alistair Petrie (last seen in "Rogue One"), Julian Rhind-Tutt (last seen in "Lucy"), Colin Stinton (last seen in "The Machinist"), Jamie de Courcey, Augusto Dallara, Josephine de la Baume, Patrick Balade, Tom Wlaschiha, Cristian Solimeno, James Norton, with archive footage of the real James Hunt and Niki Lauda.
RATING: 6 out of 10 skid marks
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