Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong but not fully developed Christian, moral worldview where the main race car driving hero kneels to pray silently before races, there are references to a racing “miracle” during the big race and references to pulling a “Hail Mary,” and movie promotes friendship, teamwork, a strong mother-son relationship, the importance of fathers (both the veteran hero and his rival teammate learn both their fathers died when they were young and the veteran still has a photo of him with his father as a young boy), doing the right thing is extolled at least twice, sacrifice wins the day and solves the major plot problem, and veteran racing hero pursues the feeling of ecstasy and peace that sometimes comes when driving a race car (the movie depicts it almost in a spiritual sense as if it brings the character closer to God, though, of course, the hero’s pursuit would be better if it were focused on Jesus), but there are some pagan, hedonistic and selfish motivations in the characters, though the movie has a very strong pro-capitalist or pro-business viewpoint (the veteran hero is trying to help his friend save his Formula 1 racing company, and teamwork and hard work are mentioned and depicted as very important to accomplishing that goal, such values are, of course, American values that also have a biblical tradition), plus two major female characters in the race car company have a feminist goal of being just as respected as the men in that male-dominated field, and there’s an apparent image of a Muslim mosque when the movie shifts to the final Formula 1 race of the annual season, which occurs in Abu Dhabi;

Foul Language:

About 43 obscenities (including one “f” word), one strong profanity (which perhaps can be considered somewhat borderline), where someone exclaims “Sweet Baby Jesus,” three GD profanities, four light profanities, and one of a racing team’s advisor/coach jokingly uses an obscene gesture against another team’s advisor/coach later in a race after the second guy had mouthed an “f” word at him earlier;

Violence:

Violence includes a few intense car crashes, including one where a car bursts into flames, and another driver pulls the driver out of his fiery car (the injured driver just burned his right hand, so he must sit out of the F1 racing circuit for three races to recover), past footage of a Formula 1 race shows a driver lying unconscious in the road, ,any intense car racing scenes, some lesser examples of crashes and spinouts and tires hitting tires during races, and team rivals have shoving match in one scene;

Sex:

No depicted lewd sex, but fornication is implied when an unmarried couple kisses passionately and then wake up in bed next to one another (the man has a nightmare about a major racing crash and sits up and gets out of bed while the woman is still sleeping in the bed), and race car driver’s manager wants them to find a girl when they visit a disco bar;

Nudity:

Upper male nudity as driver work out or walk around in a two or three scenes, and young driver goes to a disco with his manager and there are girls in some slightly skimpy clothes or dresses;

Alcohol Use:

Some brief alcohol use, especially in a disco scene;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Someone smokes a cigarette but no illicit drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Strong miscellaneous immorality overall such as corrupt businessman forges some papers against the racing car company in the movie so he can buy the company at a lower price after the big race, but his plans are foiled, and the hero is a nomad who’s had one marriage annulled and two divorces over period of 30 years (the story is that the crash that ended his Formula 1 racing career left him adrift and brought out his worst qualities until he found some peace as a nomad going from race to race while living in a van), it’s said that the hero once had a gambling problem, and he still likes to place an occasional informal bet, and when the hero’s friend gives him a chance to race the second half of the Formula 1 circuit again the hero is not above breaking the rules occasionally (though he at first does it on the racetrack to make the other drivers respect him and his teammate).

F1 THE MOVIE stars Brad Pitt as a veteran race car driver who clashes with a young racing phenom when an old friend of Pitt’s character, played by Javier Badem, asks his friend to help train the younger man in Formula 1 racing, 30 years after the veteran driver had a huge wreck that ended his own promising career in that pinnacle of international racing. F1 THE MOVIE has some of the best, most exciting racing scenes ever filmed, tells a compelling redemptive story with engaging characters where teamwork and sacrifice win the day, and includes some positive Christian references, but it has lots of light to medium foul language, plus five strong obscenities and profanities, an implied bedroom scene and some other, more concerns.

The movie begins with veteran race car driver, Sonny Hayes, meeting his old friend, Ruben Cervantes, who now owns a Formula 1 racing team. Thirty years ago, Sonny was a Formula 1 rookie phenom. However, he was a little reckless and suffered a major crash that wrecked his career. So, now Sonny is a racing nomad who lives in a van and goes from race to race.

Ruben offers Sonny $5,000 to be the second driver on Ruben’s Formula 1 team. Ruben also wants Sonny to help train the main driver, a young black racing phenom named Joshua Pearce, who’s still a little green or inexperienced. Riben also gives Sonny a first class plane ticket to the next grand prix race near the village of Silverstone in England. Ruben’s Apex Grand Prix team hasn’t won a race all season, and the board of directors is about to sell the company if the team can’t turn things around. Sonny seems reluctant, however, to take Ruben up on his offer.

The time for the preliminaries at Silverstone is about to start. Ruben thinks Sonny has decided not to come. However, a big smile appears on his face when Sonny suddenly arrives, grinning sheepishly, and informs Ruben he went to the wrong entrance.

Things don’t go well at first, though. Joshua rubs Sonny the wrong way when Joshua gets angry at a female on the pit crew who makes a mistake. Also, during the Silverstone race, Sonny won’t let Joshua pass him when Sonny manages to running ahead of Joshua. Sonny thinks Joshua is being a bit rude and acting entitled to passing Sonny. It also irks Joshua when Sonny ruins the race for them by deliberately bumping tires with the other drivers, and both his and Sonny’s car spin out of the race. The rest of the team isn’t too happy about it either. However, Sonny informs them that one of the reasons they’re not doing so well so far is because the other drivers don’t respect them. Thus, there’s a reason for Sonny’s apparently reckless behavior.

Things get even worse when Sonny advises the team to let Joshua keep waiting to change tires toward the end of another race so that, when he does change tires, Joshua will have fresher tires than the other drivers. At that point in the race, it’s started to rain. Using the team’s com system, Sonny advises Joshua to run fast on a straightaway but slow down on an upcoming curve. Joshua doesn’t listen and doesn’t slow down, and crashes. His car catches fire, and Sonny has to get out and run to Joshua’s car to pull him out of the burning car.

Happily, Joshua only burns his right hand slightly, but it means he’ll have to sit out the next three races on the circuit. However, Joshua’s loving mother, who travels with Joshua wherever he goes, isn’t happy. Joshua didn’t tell her that he ignored Sonny’s warnings about the curve. So, she’s extremely upset and reads Sonny the riot act. Sonny doesn’t tell her what really happened, though.

Naturally, without the fireworks between Sonny and Joshua, the team starts to do better when it gets a temporary replacement. So, when Joshua finally returns to the team, the question becomes, Can Sonny and Joshua bury the hatchet and finally become a team that can win?

Other twists occur, of course, to add more jeopardy to the story and its conflicts. Also, the movie finally reveals why Sonny never tried to return to the Formula 1 circuit and why he can’t quit racing.

F1 THE MOVIE has some of the most riveting racing scenes ever made. It tells a compelling redemptive story with engaging characters where teamwork and sacrifice win the day. The movie also promotes friendship, a strong mother-son relationship and the importance of fathers. It also has positive Christian references. For example, Bard Pitt’s racing hero, Sonny, prays silently before each race. The movie also has references to a “miracle” happening during one race and references to throwing a Hail Mary pass in football, an idiom that the racing team uses during one of its strategy sessions. In addition, the movie reveals that Brad Pitt’s character keeps racing, despite his age, because he’s pursuing the moment of ecstasy and peace that sometimes comes when a racing driver has become one with his machine on the track during a race. The movie depicts that moment in a spiritual sense, as if the driver is becoming closer to God. Of course, in reality, the hero’s pursuit would be better if it were focused overtly on Jesus.

F1 THE MOVIE also has a strong pro-capitalist or pro-business viewpoint. Brad Pitt’s character is trying to help his friend, Ruben, keep his racing company. The movie clearly shows that hard work and teamwork are crucial to making that happen.

Sadly, however, the movie also has lots of light to medium foul language, plus five strong obscenities and profanities. There’s also an implied bedroom scene between Brad Pitt’s character and the team’s female technical director, played by Kerry Condon. So, MOVIEGUDIE® advises extreme caution for F1 THE MOVIE. The movie would get a bigger audience if it eliminated more than half, or most, of the foul language.