“It’s rare, but sometimes, there’s this moment in the car where everything goes quiet, my heartbeat slows, it’s peaceful, and I can see everything, and no one, no one can touch me. And I am chasing that moment every time I get in the car. I don’t know when I’ll find it again, but, man, I want to. I want to. ‘Cause in that moment, I’m flying.”
The first think I noticed when the writer/director John Kosinski-led F1 arrived here in UHD Blu-ray from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment was that they had changed the film’s name. when it was available for screenings, it was simply called F1. I guess someone in marketing thought the name was somewhat confusing so they decided to add “The Movie” to the title. I guess this was in case any of you out there got confused and was not aware you were watching a movie instead of an actual race somewhere. I’ll never claim to understand exactly what studio marketing people really do for a living that doesn’t involve a set of darts and a target with various “ideas” spread out in the landing area. This is strictly a rumor that I heard, but apparently we were just a centimeter away from the film being called F1: That Thing You Watch On Your Phone. Of course, I have always suspected that the studio powers that be might have my picture up on that dart board. But don’t worry; there’s little chance one of these things will be named after me. Whatever it happens to be called this week, F1 or F1: The Movie is out right now, and this gives you a chance to bring Formula One racing right into your home theater experience. How does that car commercial go? Zoom Zoom.
“When you look in a mirror, you see this rough-and-tumble old-school cowboy. Doesn’t take orders, goes his own way, huh? A lone wolf. Well, I have news for you: Formula One is a team sport. It always was.”
We meet driver Sonny Hayes, played by Brad Pitt, as he is in the middle of an endurance race at the famous Daytona Speedway here in sunny Florida. It’s a relay kind of race where two drivers take shifts for a 24-hour race. After some dramatic moments, Sonny and his team have pulled out the victory. You expect that’s just the beginning, yeah? It is, but not for this kind of racing. Sonny likes to move on to something else once he’s climbed that particular sport’s Mount Everest. He doesn’t stay idle long.
Sonny gets a visit from his old friend Ruben, played by Javier Bardem. Ruben was once a driver, but now he’s a one-percenter, and he owns a Formula 1 race team. The problem is that he has yet to win a race, now in his third year on the circuit. To keep things competitive, the board has a rule that if you fail to secure a single win after three years, you are forced to sell your team. Ruben is down to his final nine races. If he can’t catch the checkered flag, he’s out. He lost his star driver, and all he has is a promising rookie driver, Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris. The kid’s cocky, to be sure, but Ruben needs an ace, and he’s hoping Sonny will take the position. Sonny used to drive Formula 1, but a bad accident and controversy pretty much drove him from the sport. That might be why he doesn’t like to stick around too often in the same game. He doesn’t really want the job, but it’s a chance at redemption he can’t refuse. This is the point in the film where you cue Al Pacino to tell us that just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in.
What we get now is a montage of the first seven of these races. Sonny gets into a heated rival with Pearce and that almost ends in tragedy. Sonny stands in for us as together we meet the key members of the team that include Kate McKenna, played by Kerry Condon, who is the first woman to be a racing team’s chief engineer. She designs and improves the cars. She also stands in for Pitt’s love interest, but I think that’s a mistake. I would have liked it better if she stuck to the groundbreaking role and not become the stock character of the lead’s love interest. There’s plenty of passion and heart here so that we don’t need the trite and predictable romance going on here. Kosinski cheapens his story here, and McKenna is a strong character played by a dynamic actor who didn’t need to fall into Brad Pitt’s arms to stand out. So the better chemistry falls to the relationship between the two headstrong drivers and the dangers that relationship presents.
“Hope is not a strategy.”
There are some other potent characters here. Callie Cook makes the most of an underused part here as the woman on the pit crew. No, not that Pitt crew. She makes a vital mistake early in the film and works hard to overcome it. It doesn’t help that we know there’s is someone on the inside who doesn’t want Ruben to win that race in time. No spoiler here. I would look to the guy who betrayed Caesar. For non-Rome fans, that’s Tobies Menzies, who played Brutus in the stellar HBO series. No spoiler here. You’re in on the lowdown pretty much from the start. In fact one of the unintentional laughs in the film is his fake cheering and dropping a word by mistake to let on he’s not really cheering the team on. Some very over-the-top oops moments. I don’t think it works, and it just feels awkward and too much of an eyewink, if you catch my drift. Don’t get me wrong; I love the guy and that series, but he’s not exactly playing against type here, and it’s a bit unfair to his performance here.
Cast is really the top dog here. Kosinski and others will tell you it’s the racing stuff. That’s very well done, and the film shot on location at these various famous race tracks around thew world. For authenticity the film is the best racing movie I have seen. Yes, it laps the Tom Cruise and Tony Scott racing film Days Of Thunder. It was originally proposed as a sequel to that film, and that plan isn’t exactly dead. There are a couple of Easter eggs to be found here that let us know this film does indeed exist in the same universe as Thunder. There is already more than a little buzz out there for a film that will combine these characters. Cruise is still solid gold at the box office, and Brad Pitt’s no slouch either, so I expect that buzz to take on some form of reality. It will be quite easy because many of the film crew members here were on that film, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. How about you?
Racing junkies will get all the thrills and you will satisfy your need for speed. I will tell you that the production design here puts you in those cars and at the very least trackside. A lot of effort and innovation went into creating the technology to bring this film right into your lap. This 4K disc is the best way you’re going to find to maximize all of that effort.
Video
F1: The Movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The ultra-high-definition 2160p image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with an average bitrate of 65-70 mbps. The ultra high definition takes full advantage of that cutting edge production design. You get all of the detail and depth that you need to immerse yourself in this experience. The movie was shot in 4K with a 4K intermediate, and that makes so much difference here. I am telling you that you’ve never come this close to being on the racetrack with the drivers. Even when you’re out of body and watching the action as a whole, this beats anything ESPN broadcasts on the real races. Colors pop, particularly with these often brightly-colored cars and location. But our team drives black and gold cars, and that’s where black levels take you to as place far beyond authenticity. White levels are just as grand. The white racing clothes offer texture and subtle dirty marks and patches. The HQ is completely white to the point that it must be blinding to work there, but there’s no harshness to be found, and that means no shimmering or off-color fades at the edges. This is a system show-off release … nearly perfect.
Audio
The Dolby Atmos audio presentation defaults to 7.1. This is anything but a quiet world. Once I caught myself confusing director John Kosinski with A Quiet Place’s John Krasinski. If you’ve ever been there, you won’t ever again. This film is everything but quiet. The surrounds are about as aggressive as they get. But you’re never overwhelmed by it all. There’s terrific separation throughout so that dialog cuts through but never deprives you of the zoom zoom. I love Hans Zimmer, and he’s in top form here with the score. Subs are at the top of their game, and this film will have your system pushing its limits as much as these cars on the road. Here’s where you find out if you’ve made an equipment mistake.
Special Features
There is only a single disc UHD Blu-ray here, so all of the extras arrive with the film.
Inside F!: The Movie Table Read: (5:08) This is actually not the table read, but the arrival of cast and crew to do the table read. We get some insights on cast and crew’s first impression when seeing the script.
Anatomy Of A crash: (6:27) A look at several attempts of launching a car into the air along with plenty of behind-the-scenes looks at to how a crash is brought to life.
Getting Up To Speed: (5:02) This one shows the training the two driver leads went through to prepare for the film. That meant actually learning how to drive these cars for real.
Making It To Silverstone: (5:08) The tracks were filmed on location at the actual tracks, and we get a nice look at how they had to work and blend in when real races were going on.
Lewis Hamilton: Producer: (5:18) The driver joined as a consultant and producer on the shoot. Here he talks about his job.
APXGP And F1 – How It Was Filmed: (5:44) The cast and crew hang out with real drivers.
APXGP Sets And Locations Around The World: (7:26) More focus on working at the tracks and with the race happening has they filmed.
Sound Of Speed: (5:01) A look at the sound design with Hans Zimmer.
Final Thoughts:
You should not be watching this on your phone. It should be a crime, and any attempt to do so should see you dragged from your home in chains and forced to watch Event Horizon on a 32-story screen. Some movies are experienced, and this falls right into that collection. Nothing short of the UHD 4K release will give you everything you have coming in a film of this nature. Until such laws catch up with the technology, I’m going to have to trust you will not abuse this film by watching it on your phone. Put that away. I’m talking to you. The dusty blond guy in the blue shirt. Don’t make me come over there. Yes. You. “What’s your name?”
