Touches You

To me, this movie is perfection.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Not hard to follow, just lacking plot, Rush captured a way of life more than it followed a sequence of events. What struck me about this film was how realistic it was to the seventies rural drug culture, and how casual it was, with the kingpin being untouchable. The attitudes are dead on.The Eric Clapton soundtrack was an ingenious idea that again was dead on for the period, but disappointing in its unoriginality.I still can't figure out the worst love scene in cinematic history or why was that was included, but men seem to like this movie a lot and never mention that.The ending was good but anticlimactic as the surprise was ruined by foreshadowing in the opening scene. Again, I just don't understand why they did it that way.But I do get the gist of this film and it's an interesting socio- political comment.

24 years later, Rush is intensely interesting.... and is remarkable for being a piece of movie history where history was revealed, careers were started, real life relationships ended, and lawsuits were flying everywhere.Jennifer Jason Leigh had a long career going before this, but prior to Rush, her only real critical success had been the super edgy and brutal but unknown Last Exit to Brooklyn. The very private Jason Patric had gotten lucky with Solar Babies and Lost Boys.... but really neither of them were flying artistically yet.... Rush changed that. Top flight performances from both marked them as first stop actors for real acting work in the decades since.Kim Rozencraft's novel about her Texas undercover work in the early 70's is mostly represented well here except for the extraordinarily ugly real life ending of Kim's breakups, prison time, and eventually lawsuits over the movie for the real life Jim and Kristen. Rush very faithfully recreates blue collar Southern Rock / Texas mood of the 70's along with drug culture and lax police oversight and case making. The actors do a great job of depicting a cop couple doing a months long torturous circling of the drain while in love. They have obvious great chemistry as resulted in Jason Patric leaving Julia Roberts for Jennifer Jason Leigh in real life. To reflect back, that was as if in 2013 Brad Pitt left Angelina for Daniella Kertesz in World War Z... it was the biggest story in the world at the time.Rush has some stunning scenes. Dancing together while Freddy Fender sings 'Last Teardrop Falls'. The defining moment of the movie being the table scene where coffee cups fly and Walker gets turned.Great movie and now a true classic that I wish they would release on Blu Ray.

SPOILERS THROUGH:I read the book "Rush" as well and found both the book and the film to be very good. The supporting cast was incredible. And The performances from the two leads are as good as it gets and about as good as Leigh and Patrick get. If one were to doubt the acting ability of either of these two people, they'd need only to see this film. Both of them immerse themselves in their roles and the fact that they are performers playing a part, really does disappear. It was two excellent casting choices, casting these two as the police officers. The movie itself is moody, grim, and, at times brutal, but it always stays interesting. I loved the southern feel of the film and think the atmospheric cinematography was spot on. Rush is really thought provoking and the performances from Patrick and Leigh, being really much more then merely good, were both academy award worthy. They also had an incredibly strong amount of on screen chemistry and that chemistry adds a lot to this film.Rush is a very difficult film to watch because of the subject matter. This is both an anti drug film and a crime film and so there's not exactly a lot of sweetness and light but the film is very well made and the supporting performers deserve a lot of kudos as well. Because of just how stark and grim the film is, with less talented people it may have become to difficult to watch but this movie is performance driven and always keeps one watching.The story and characters are complex, and watching this one does kind of forget it's a movie as the film plays like a volcano about to erupt and a lot of different feelings are felt when watching this. There were a lot of films being made around this time about drugs and though this isn't my favorite, it is one of the most complex and well acted.The main negatives are the slow moving nature of the film, the extreme talky quality and the mood of the film in general which is so gloomy it's tough to get through at times. There's a lot of violence, a lot of drug use and a lot of people getting hurt or killed. The story however, as grim as it is, is also fascinating and it's almost impossible not to get hooked in. The ending is full of questions and a bit more ambiguous then I would have liked(it also differs from the book). Rush isn't going to be for everybody but I liked the film and loved the performances from everyone. I'd give this a 7.5 of 10.

I thought this film was absolutely brilliant. I would recommend it to anyone. It was so gritty and real to life. Sadly, for those of you who read the book first, you may be disappointed in the ending, but hey, what else could happen in filmland eh!However, I have been trying to get a copy of it on DVD without any success at all. Does anyone have a copy they want to sell, or know where I can get hold of one? If so, mail me direct!BFB