RACE FOR GLORY movie poster | ©2024 Lionsgate

Rating: R
Stars: Riccardo Scamarcio, Volker Bruch, Katie Clarkson-Hill, Esther Garrel, Giorgio Montanini, Gianmaria Martini, Haley Bennett, Daniel Brühl
Writers: Filippo Bologna & Stefano Mordini & Riccardo Scamarcio, story by Riccardo Scamarcio
Director: Stefano Mordini
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release Date: January 5, 2024

National pride expresses itself in a multitude of ways. One of these (which has its own multiplicity) is the international sports triumph story. How well films about these succeed depend on how much the filmmakers can make their chosen subject resonate with viewers who may not necessarily be fans of that specific sport.

RACE FOR GLORY: AUDI VS. LANCIA (originally titled 2 WIN) opens with the informational crawl: “Between 1970 and 1987, automakers invested millions of dollars in rallying, making prototypes that could then be turned into cars for the mass market. Winning a rally meant selling thousands of cars to fans. The duel between Lancia and Audi gripped the imagination of millions of spectators. In the world of rallying, 1983 is often referred to as the championship in which history was made. Many remember it as the year of David versus Goliath.”

The crawl goes on to add the standard “inspired by true events.”

This explains what we’ll be watching. According to the onscreen interviewer within RACE FOR GLORY, the World Rally Championship has become the Number One TV sport. The drivers are stars, but the team managers are often unknown.

The interviewer is sitting down with Italy’s Lancia team manager Cesare Fiorio (Riccardo Scamarcio). He likes what he calls the “democratic” nature of rallying, where cars speed through rural mountain roads and towns, as opposed to track-bound racing.

The Lancia company just lost to Germany’s Audi in 1982. Fiorio is determined to win in 1983, even though Audi has four-wheel drive and Lancia has two-wheel drive.

We get the usual range of problems, from reluctant drivers to design issues to weather conditions to accidents, along with financial pressure.

Director Stefano Mordini, who wrote the screenplay with Filippo Bologna & actor Scamarcio from Scamarcio’s story, makes sure that RACE FOR GLORY is consistently scenic.

While the end credits inform us in two places that “this film cannot be considered a faithful description of the facts,” we still have questions about if or how this race can be safe for onlookers, since there are no barriers between the roads and the spectators.

A matter that is raised directly is what it is about racing that’s worth risking death. Neither Fiorio, who is asked this, nor the film itself seem to have an answer that’s going to make sense to anybody who doesn’t already agree with the sentiment. That’s fine, but we don’t get much vicarious thrill from observing the races.

RACE FOR GLORY makes intellectual sense in terms of bringing us back often to the notion that the publicity from a win is essential to selling cars to the public. However, since Fiorio is not invested emotionally in this, and his favored driver Walter Röhrl (Volker Bruch) cares even less, we’re left wondering what’s in this for us as bystanders.

Scamarcio has soul and conviction as Fiorio, Bruch is charismatic, and Daniel Brühl is convincingly exasperated as Fiorio’s German opposite number.

RACE FOR GLORY is mostly in English, though there are scenes in Italian, German and/or French, without clear delineation as to which language is being used when.

The film feels old-fashioned, harking back to the days when sports films weren’t expected to have subtext or appeal to a wider viewership. RACE FOR GLORY isn’t bad, it’s just aimed at the niche audience that will really care about the details offered here without desiring more.

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Article: Movie Review: RACE FOR GLORY: AUDI VS. LANCIA

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