The history of the Formula 1 World Auto Racing Championship includes many gambling confrontations, but the duel between James Hunt and Nicky Lauda undoubtedly belongs to the category of textbooks. The sports and historical drama film “Race” (2013) is dedicated to this event. The narrative of the picture is based on real-life events of the 1976 racing season. The work of director Ron Howard was highly appreciated by art critics, received exceptionally favorable reviews and an IMDb rating of 8.10 points. The project has 2 nominations for the Golden Globes, a BAFTA Award and 4 nominations for the Saturn Award.
Project authors
Charismatic actors were involved in the production of the movie Race. But their skill would not contribute to the tremendous success of the tape without a professional team of creators. The authors of the project were director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan. In the career of a visionary, there are many films that stand out from other film-makers, for example, Mind Games, Apollo 13 and Frost vs. Nixon. The film "Race" occupies a worthy place in this model series. The tape has an inner core, brilliant characters, hard-coded questions and no less stringent answers to them.
The main cognitive dissonance caused by “Race” is due to the fact that the film was not written by a Hollywood playwright speculating on human emotions, but by British Peter Morgan, a subtle intellectual. His name adorns the credits of The Last King of Scotland, Queen and Frost vs. Nixon. According to the film playwright, he wrote the script for the future, not counting on an early adaptation, but the scriptwriter did not dare to dream of a producer and remove the spectacular large-budget blockbuster.
Design and result
Peter Morgan's idea came down to a detailed demonstration of psychological drama in a duel between two strongest male characters: the prudent, cold and restrained Nicky Lauda and the careless, cheerful and risky James Hunt.
The director from the scenario conflict of the worldviews of the key characters turned out to be almost a melodrama, the main audience of which is young girls who are passionate about not racing, but racing drivers. Not without reason in the film “Race” (2013) the actors are involved outwardly attractive. The picture demonstrates their beauty and sex appeal at the beginning of timekeeping. In one of the frames you can admire the half-naked Chris Hemsworth, who plays the role of James Hunt, before participating in the sports drama better known for the movie “Thor”. By the way, it is worth noting that in the mythological blockbuster to the actor, the monumental divine equanimity succeeded better than the cheeky English dendism in The Race. To get the coveted role in the project, Howard Chris lost 15 kg in a short time, until that moment he was diligently gaining weight and his weight was 98 kg.
Daniel Bruhl
While Chris Hemsworth was demonstrating his excellent physique, Daniel Brühl, the performer of the role of Nicky Lauda, patiently pronounced his cues through specially prepared tooth pads that were supposed to imitate the hero’s malocclusion. Despite some problems with pronunciation, Daniel perfectly copes with his task by fully conveying the stubbornness of his character, who, almost burnt alive, after six weeks, gritted his teeth in pain, again went to the race track. The performer perfectly conveys the quarrelsomeness of Lauda, who at the beginning of his career breaks off relations with his father - the head of the bank, and constantly conflicts with Ferrari representatives, demanding to make a normal racing car.
By the way, in the movie “Race” (2013), actors Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl have a striking resemblance to their characters. But the portrait similarity was achieved by caste specialists not only in the case of performers of key roles, actresses who played the main female roles are also similar to their real prototypes.
No stereotypes
According to all the laws of the genre in the film “Race” (2013), the actors and roles are perfectly matched to each other. However, there should also be a clear division into antagonist and protagonist, but visionary Ron Howard decided to ignore stereotypes. In cinema there is no bad and good, there is no right and wrong. There are two main characters, brilliant race car drivers, which by and large are united by only one thing - a passion for arrivals and sports excitement. The director tried to evenly distribute the sympathy of the audience between them.
For some, Hunt became the ideal in cinema, for others, Lauda. This is facilitated by the casting of the cast. Chris Hemsworth, who played in an unusually thoughtful project for himself, looks cheerful and lively. The image of Hunt worked out responsibly and thoroughly. At times the more serious performer Bruhl is restrained in his game, sometimes it seems that his character may get lost against the background of a noticeable and charismatic Hemsworth. But this feeling, having successfully fit into the confrontation of heroes, only deepens their antagonism.
Female characters
If in the film “Race” (2013) male actors play the leading part, then female characters periodically beautifully enter the history of rivalry and also quickly evaporate from it, multiplying the difference between the hunter Hunt and the workaholic Lauda.
The role of the wife of James Hunt, Susie Miller, was played by the beautiful Olivia Wilde. The American actress has an impressive track record in which the films Alpha Dog, Neighbor, Tron: Legacy, and the series Lonely Hearts, The Donnelly Brothers, and House Doctor.
The image of Marlene Knaus, the wife of Nicky Lauda, was embodied in the film by actress Alexandra Maria Lara. Among the last acting work of the performer, the role in the latest blockbuster "Geostorm" (2017).
The seducer Gemma reincarnated Natalie Dormer. The British actress is known for the films "Ghost Forest", "Casanova", "Counselor". But she gained worldwide popularity after participating in the series "The Tudors", "Game of Thrones" and "Elementary."
Episodic roles
Bernie Ecclestone himself appeared in the movie in an episodic role , he can be seen at the finish line of the US Grand Prix in 1975. The actors “Julian Rind-Tutt” and Stephen Mangen were also seen in the movie “Race” (2013), the key performers of the awesome British television film “The Green Wing”.