F1LOS'ofia: Relax and enjoy yourself

      What a bunch of nonsense! — said the voice...

      "Monday begins on Saturday," A. and B. Strugatsky

      I.

      Relax and enjoy! — this is what I should recommend right at the start of the film review titled F1 The Movie. You really should watch this film at least "for collector's sake." And I say this as someone who goes to the movies extremely rarely, no more than once or twice a year.

      I've probably mentioned this before in earlier texts dedicated to racing movies and drivers. People who have known me for a long time and well are aware that my attitude towards this art form is quite peculiar, very selective, and that I prefer to spend my free time, when and if it exists, on books and music. Speaking of music...

      In the early minutes of the film, the screen captured "Whole Lotta Love," an immortal classic by Led Zeppelin, and that was enough to hook me. That’s all about the music. From here on, it will be about cinema.

      II.

      Before I watched it, I thought about trying to be witty, to write a review divided into parts: one from the perspective of a "professional film critic," another from an "ardent Brad Pitt fan," from an average but quite "advanced" fan, etc.

      It might have created a spectrum of opinions that would allow evaluating director Joseph Kosinski & Co.'s work from different angles. But when I, driven by professional curiosity, watched the film a few days ago, I decided to abandon this initial idea. Probably partly because F1 The Movie caught my attention from the very first shots, and I watched it to the end with interest—by the way, two and a half hours.

      Near the end, there is a scene where a secondary female character exclaims, “Some nonsense!”

      To which the team leader of APXGP, for which driver Sonny Hayes now performs—played by Brad Pitt—replies: “Sonny lives like that!”

      Intentionally quoting this phrase out of context, because the key word here is "nonsense." It seems better not to provide the context to avoid revealing plot details, so I will only discuss my own impressions. And this quote quite accurately conveys them.

      And here’s another phrase, also not mine, but from a very serious critic I heard on the air of a respected radio station: “An utterly cynical commercial piece.”

      I wouldn’t argue with such an assessment, although I suspect that this critic probably doesn’t understand much about Formula 1, and her knowledge in this area is limited to what she saw in this very film.

      But we, the audience, are advanced fans, deeply passionate about Formula 1 and knowing the laws that govern the racing world and its inhabitants, so what the filmmakers created will likely seem like sheer nonsense, although not devoid of some charm.

      III.

      If you remember, the first viewers of the film were the championship drivers, for whom a special screening was arranged during the Monaco Grand Prix days. And if you look carefully at their faces when they share their impressions, and listen to their tones, it begins to seem that they weren’t entirely sincere in their praise of F1 The Movie.

      In my opinion, Carlos Sainz was closest to the truth, saying something like: “This film probably won’t appeal to us, racing maniacs. There’s a lot of things in the movie that simply don’t happen... But this film will bring great benefits to our sport.”

      Now let me briefly diverge from the main topic and make a small historical aside about world cinema. Remember "Armageddon" starring Bruce Willis, one of the highest-grossing blockbusters of 1998? Incidentally, its producer was also Jerry Bruckheimer, same as in our case, but that’s another story.

      Undoubtedly, "Armageddon" belongs to the "unscientific fiction" genre, but that doesn’t diminish its merits, even if the writers honestly threw in things that simply don’t exist and can’t exist. Astronomers (which I’ll return to later) and cosmonauts, I believe, weren’t offended—they likely followed the heroes’ adventures with interest.

      Or consider the James Bond films: Agent 007’s adventures have nothing to do with the work of global intelligence agencies, even though they revolve around MI6, the real British military intelligence unit. But it’s cinema—mainly wonderful cinema—so what questions can there be about a film about Formula 1? In this case, the sport acts as a backdrop for the action, with a story that’s crafted according to straightforward commercial Hollywood formulas. But the filming is superb!

      IV.

      Returning to where I started: if you relax and get into the right mood, I can confidently say you will enjoy it. Personally, I laughed out loud at times, and at others, my eyes welled up with emotion—not only for the characters on screen.

      You see, I perceive this film as someone who, professionally, has visited many of those tracks we see on screen more than once, and has conversed repeatedly with many drivers and other paddock characters who appear in the frames. By the way, at Silverstone and Abu Dhabi, I spent the most time over my 20-plus years working in motorsport journalism, and those locations feature some key scenes from the film.

      Seeing familiar places, familiar faces—all that’s very cool! Especially since everything related to racing is shot really brilliantly. Maybe no one has filmed anything so powerfully and expressively before—some scenes, especially the most successful ones, are particularly impressive. Although the film definitely pays homage to the legendary "Grand Prix" directed by John Frankenheimer in 1966, which is also interesting and well-made in its own right.

      And for someone who doesn’t understand much about Formula 1, the film can really be quite striking. After all, it has already earned over $300 million worldwide, roughly matching its budget, and that’s only in two weeks.

      But we know better: if you take the most dazzling moments of the season—or even several seasons—and don’t limit yourself to Formula 1 but include impressive episodes from other popular racing series, you could create a two-hour video collage that’s impossible to turn away from. Because real motorsport is still more exciting than cinema. Yet, cinema offers something different.

      V.

      Various kinds of nonsense that make up F1 The Movie are mostly taken with a smile, although sometimes one might exclaim, "No, that’s going too far!” But we agreed: watch, relax, maybe with a glass of something in hand—by the way, the characters in the film allow themselves that too.

      As for what was irritating: certain moments of translation into Russian personally raise questions for me, although I know that editors with "a concept" worked on it and did their best. For example, if on F1News.ru you hardly ever see the word "bolid," because it’s actually an astronomy term (as I promised to return to), then in the film, it’s all over the place. I guarantee that in the original English, the word "bolide" wasn’t there—it's not used in Formula 1. Lewis Hamilton—who also appears in the frames from time to time—would not have committed such unnatural liberties.

      However, among the anecdotes and jokes in the film, there are probably some that could baffle any translator or editor, even those with expert knowledge, so I look forward to seeing F1 The Movie in its original language. You see how it caught my attention—I am ready to spend another 156 minutes to enjoy it again—of course, after relaxing first.

      VI.

      Everyone is aware of the news that has just shaken the world of Formula 1: the resignation of Christian Horner from his position as head of Red Bull Racing. He has dedicated twenty years to this team. Such sensations only confirm the thesis that real life is more exciting than any movie.

      Reading this news, I suddenly realized that the ending of the film, tied to one of the storylines, remarkably reflected this side of Formula 1—its dark, behind-the-scenes side, where intrigue is spun, dramas unfold, and conflicts of interest occur that are completely unrelated to what happens on the track. But this race il se backstage is closely connected with all processes and significantly influences the sport.

      And that’s exactly what Sonny Hayes hates so much.