Race for Glory: Audi vs. Lancia

Not a well told story. Poorly written and poorly directed. If you don't know the story go and save yourself an hour and a half and watch Jeremy Clarkson's documentary on Youtube which is way more exciting than this movie which to be honest doesn't make much sense half the time.

Sometimes sports movies are overdramatic and corny especially made in Hollywood but this time I was actually was missing Hollywood and all the cheesines

At least the movie looks good and if you're a rally or a racing fan in general then you might want to check this one out just for them glorious Group B cars. But set your expectations low.

Race for Glory would've been amazing but I was truly disappointed at the final result. How could anyone take such an amazing story like the Lancia vs Audi rivalry and just gloss over the important bits like they were in a rush?

If you don't believe me when I say the story was glossed over, just see the first few minutes of the movie. It literally starts with a worded message of how Audi dominated the 1982 WRC season with its all-wheel drive Sport quattro. That's it. There was no build up for the main protagonist the movie sides with: Lancia. No mentions of Lancia's dominance from the 1970s before Audi. That's just lazy. If we were to side with Lancia in this film, you can't just not include their reputation from before like it doesn't have anything to do with the movie. It certainly does.

Also, I really hated how the movie treats Audi. There was a lack of screen time for Audi or even Daniel Bruhl's (Roland Gumpert) character. The only times when Bruhl was on screen was when Riccardo Scamarcio (Cesare Fiorio) was there to rial up tension between the two. That's the only rivalry we get. There's certainly way better ways to capture rivalries like this; for instance, Rush. What Rush did with the Hunt vs Lauda rivalry was amazing. They actually filmed both sides of the story, not just stick with one character and roll with it.

Lastly, pacing. You go from one race and then the next, you're back to interpersonal drama. For a racing movie like this, it's an insult. Again, another thing Rush did well was allocate a good bit of time to show the racing action. This movie with its hour and 40 minute run time seems to hurry the exciting bits of rallying so that we get more drama between Fiorio and his team.

Suffice to say, Race for Glory's adaptation of the actual story was lackluster. If I wanted to know what happened, I would've watched a documentary or even Jeremy Clarkson explain it in less time. And even if you weren't a fan of rallying, the film just doesn't cut it to give the audience the thrill of what made WRC legendary as it was back then. Yeah, some of the scenes of racing seemed alright, but it just wasn't enough to keep me glued to my seat.

Equals total fiction. And yes, at the end of the film the filmmakers admit as much, but as someone who is intimately familiar with the events surrounding the creation and racing of the Legendary Lancia 037, this film does it a grave disservice.

There is neither enough tension in the film, enough bystanders (indeed, WRC events are packed to the brim with spectators coming from all over the world) or enough of the cars themselves but more importantly, there simply isn't enough detail about the courses.

The history of the '83 WRC is rather glossed over in favour of interpersonal drama which was carried off in a rather hamfisted way.

The director and writing team had so much nailbiting material to work with and their results were just....mediocre. Watch the documentaries on YouTube instead.

I'm a motor racing enthusiast and I know the story that inspired the movie. Many real events were brought in, but in a very superficial way. And other events were introduced in the wrong way. I won't give away any spoilers, the movie is good overall. I think that if you're not such a fan of the WRC you'll love the movie. For those of us who are fans, the movie is a bit embarrassing. After watching the video, I recommend that you research the real story, which is much more exciting. TheRUB channel has a 20-minute video that explains what the 1983 season was all about.

I still think it's a good movie, but the adaptation of the story wasn't precise enough to satisfy true WRC fans.

I'm surprised of the negative reactions to this film... I guess some of you haven't seen "Lamborghini - The Man Behind the Legend"! (spoiler: don't)

As someone who remembers when this WRC season happened and followed it, I also had the advantage of being able to watch Race for Glory in the original Italian. The acting is so-so, some of the dialogue clichéd, but the racing scenes are in my opinion better than average.

One surprise was, despite a glaring misstep with the homologation officers counting Beta Montecarlos instead of Rally 037s and not even noticing, there was some attention to detail, such as Fiorio driving around in a period-correct high spec Lancia Gamma and the FIAT politics at the time. There's even a cameo many will not notice: in the fleeting scene where you see the "Avvocato" Gianni Agnelli face on, the uncredited actor is actually Agnelli's grandson Lapo Elkann.

The movie is not so much about racing as of the figure of Cesare Fiorio. Seen in this context, it's a pretty good movie that even my wife enjoyed. Just remember, it's not a documentary and doesn't intend to be.