‘F1: The Movie’: Brad Pitt, Lewis Hamilton & That Hail Mary

F1: The Movie, currently tearing it up in theaters, has a “Hail Mary” moment that brought my brain to a skidding halt. It’s not a big moment, but it is a Catholic one.

But first, what is this movie about, and what is Formula 1?

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What Is F1: The Movie About?

In short, this Apple Studios production (yes, it will eventually be on AppleTV+) is an old-fashioned underdog sports story. It centers on Formula 1 auto racing, the highest class of international racing for single-seater formula-one racing cars.

Formula 1 refers to the particular configuration of rules for the races and for the cars themselves. Drivers compete on a set yearly circuit, earning points toward being declared the overall champion.

Beyond that, I’ll let F1 explain itself:

You don’t need to be an F1 fan to enjoy the movie, since it makes use of press and race commentary to fill in a lot of backstory and narrate races as they happen.

The film includes real racing footage, footage with the actors driving alongside actual drivers on actual tracks, and plenty of off-track drama.

Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a professional racing driver whose F1 career ended in the ’90s. His old teammate (Javier Bardem), now the owner of a winless F1 team, calls on Sonny to help his talented but inexperienced rookie driver (Damon Idris) hone his skills.

Helping them in the quest for ultimate speed is car designer Kate (Kerry Condon), a former aerospace engineer.

Director Joseph Kosinski also helmed Top Gun: Maverick. He brings to this film what he and Tom Cruise did with that one: a minimum of CGI and a maximum of up-close-and-personal real-life action.

Pitt is also a producer, along with long-time action-movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer.

Take a look:

Is F1 Good?

If you like solid moviemaking without any agenda except enjoyment, high-octane action not birthed in a computer, and a story that offers few surprises but lots of humor and all the right emotional beats, then you’ll like F1: The Movie.

I’m not the first to say it’s Top Gun: Maverick but with cars, and that’s because it’s true. I’ve paid to see it twice (same with TG:M), and while I probably won’t pay to see it again, I’d watch it again.

It’s PG-13, but the language is sprinkled rather than ladled. As for sexual content, it’s brief and implied rather than shown, and all private parts are kept under covers.

Unless you count racing accidents, which are not graphic, there’s no violence.

I was also happy to see Kerry Condon as the female lead — and not just because she’s Irish and named Kate. She’s attractive but not a bombshell, and, at 42, she’s old enough to be realistic as her character.

Pitt is 61 but playing a man in his 50s (perfectly believable). So, while Kate is younger than Sonny, it’s not the too-often-absurd age gulf we usually see in movies with A-list leading men.

The Kate character is competent and driven but good-humored and sensible — a real grownup woman.

There is one young woman on the pit crew who frankly doesn’t seem at the right level of ability for a top F1 team. She also makes a bonehead mistake during a race that would likely get a real pit-crew member fired.

But, it’s the movies.

Now, About That Catholic Thing

There’s a moment in F1 when one of the team’s corporate board members (Tobias Menzies) is introduced to Sonny. He characterizes Sonny’s hiring as a “Hail Mary” moment, saying it’s an American football term. Sonny responds that it’s a religious term.

That caught my attention. When’s the last time someone casually tossing “Hail Mary” into a script bothered to note that it means more than a risky, desperate play? Not once in my recent memory.

BTW, they’re technically both right. In 1975, Catholic Dallas Cowboys QB Roger Staubach once threw an improbable ball that resulted in an equally improbable catch and score. He mentioned that he said a “Hail Mary” before he threw — and the term got associated with the play.

But that doesn’t mean that this moment wasn’t a bit unusual — but I think I know why it happened. I’m not a regular follower of F1, but I do know that one of top drivers is a Brit named Lewis Hamilton.

The Faith of Lewis Hamilton

Reportedly, Hamilton is pals with Tom Cruise, who offered the driver a role as a pilot in Top Gun: Maverick. But, owing to his schedule and lack of acting expertise, Hamilton had to say no.

But, when F1: The Movie came along, with Kosinski again directing, Hamilton was involved from the start. He’s both a technical advisor and a producer (Hamilton also has a cameo appearance).

And, as a little more research revealed, Hamilton is Catholic.

He does hold some beliefs on social issues that are at odds with Church teaching — and, considering his high-profile and active dating history, I doubt he lives like a monk — but he does seem to be sincere.

He also has a lot of tattoos. As Hamilton told Men’s Health over lunch:

He downs cutlery, bows his head and says grace silently, crossing himself once at the beginning and once at the end. He continues, “…Yes, it’s one thing to pose for shots, another to pose for them half-naked.”

By taking his shirt off, he reveals far more about himself than how well his training’s been going. “I love my ink,” Hamilton says. “They all have a meaning. I’m very strong in my faith, so I wanted to have some religious images. I’ve got Pietà, a Michelangelo sculpture of Mary holding Jesus after he came off the cross, on my shoulder. A sacred heart on my arm. Musical notes, because I love music. The compass on my chest is there because church is my compass.”

He continues, moving his hand over his arms, chest, back and shoulders: “Family is everything for me, so I have ‘family’ written on the top, across my shoulders. ‘Faith’, obviously. And I have ‘powerful beyond measure’ written on my chest – it’s a short bit I took out of a quote, from the writer Marianne Williamson.

“On my back I have the cross and angel wings: rise above it, no matter what life throws at you. And also, you know, Jesus rose from the grave.”

There are a couple of moments in F1: The Movie where Sonny pauses before getting in his car and appears to be mouthing words, perhaps praying. It’s not addressed in the film, but it very well could be — not that Hamilton has time for praying once the racing starts.

As he’s quoted in The Guardian:

“You don’t have time to pray,” he said of such incidents. “Anything can happen any day, but I feel God has his hand over me.”

It is a belief strengthened by regular prayer and attendance at church. “I go with a couple of my close friends,” he said. “We meet, we go for breakfast and then we go to church together. We leave most often feeling enlightened and empowered, it’s like a re-centering.”

Should You Go See F1: The Movie?

If you liked Top Gun: Maverick or the last two Mission: Impossible movies, I imagine you’ll like this one.

Brad Pitt is not quite at the stratospheric level of Tom Cruise as a king of blockbusters, but he has a talent for picking interesting movies. They’re not all winners, but I’ll at least investigate something if I know he’s in it.

Pitt’s got a great screen presence and, like Cruise, he knows what he’s good at. He’s prone to stretch the envelope more than Cruise, but, with his mixture of intensity and relaxed, good-natured masculinity, he’s right at home as Sonny Hayes.

F1: The Movie doesn’t break new storytelling ground, but not everything has to. It’s the kind of movie that’s not made often enough these days — a film geared to pleasing the audience, instead of the filmmaker’s personal quirks and causes.

Inching close to the $300M worldwide mark at the box office in only 10 days of release, F1: The Movie is solidly on track. My car-loving brothers would say that Grand Prix is the greatest racing movie ever made, but, in my view, F1 has earned its racing stripes.

Image: Apple Studios (top); Shutterstock (embed)

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