From real to ‘reel’ racing

Reel racing is set to deliver a potentially satisfying motorsport film but too much emphasis is being put on days gone by

Good movies about motor sports are something of a rarity. Especially when you consider the downright cringeworthy ‘Driven’. The 2001 film came about after Sylvester Stallone’s efforts to do an F1 themed movie. It can be said F1 dodged a bullet considering how all the racing movie cliches of soap-opera storylines involving a hot-shot rookie, ruthless champion and pensive women were applied to the world of the popular Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Indycar series.

To this day, 1966’s Grand Prix and 1971’s Le Mans stand out as the example of diluting those usual racing movie cliches with dialogue that not only educated about the respective racing disciplines but also entertained.

Of course, there is little in F1 today that resembles the way it was portrayed in John Frankenheimer’s three hour labour of love that was loosely based on the three-way fight for the drivers’ world championship of 1964.

It is a bit of a disappointment that F1’s first big-budget Hollywood treatment since Grand Prix has only moved forward by 10 years. However, it is a good start, as by 1976 (the year in which the film is set) the influence of sponsors – and aerodynamics, on the technical side – had made F1 a little closer to the way it is now.

Directed by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13), Rush followed the real-life rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt during their fight for the drivers’ title in 1976.

Howard’s previous involvement with films based on true events bodes well for racing freaks who would like to see as detailed a depiction as possible. However, Howard’s embellishments of John Nash’s experience with paranoid schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind also suggests that F1’s history buffs could end up being irked by Rush if similar liberties are taken for dramatic purposes.

Off-late there have been announcements that should both excite and worry motorsport fans who would like to see their sport of choice done justice to on the big screen.

News has emerged of two Hollywood heavyweights; Robert De Niro (you need an introduction to him?) and director Michael Mann – who directed De Niro and fellow Italian-American thespian Al Pacino – being involved in two different biopics about Enzo Ferrari; arguably the most important motorsport personality of them all.

And his importance is not just because the most successful F1 team of all time bears his name, but because the Italian, known as ‘Il Commentodore’ links what is now a household buzzword (F1) to Grand Prix racing that has been in existence since the start of the 20th century.

Though his 59-year involvement with the Scuderia, the Italian was a first hand witness to GP racing evolving from a technical, commercial and even safety point of view. Not to mention being the boss of some of the greatest drivers of all time; one of whom was fellow Italian Tazio Nuvolari, who Ferrari referred to as the greatest racing driver “of the past, present and future”.

Although it must be said that aside from the exhaustive levels of research required to do Ferrari’s story justice on screen, living in and romantically looking at the past does little to promote a sport and educate people on it and does more to make people wear rose-tinted glasses. So while a good movie of a motorsport icon is welcomed, one waits with bated breath for this generation’s Grand Prix and Le Mans.