Drive

At the end of the film Michael Clayton, just after George Clooney's Michael Clayton character has gotten Tilda Swinton's character to make a statement, with the police eavesdropping, that would get her and her boss played by Ken Howard, sent to prison, Clayton leaves the building. Upon hitting the street, he hails a taxi cab. He climbs in, shuts the door and says nothing. We then get this exchange:

Taxi Driver: So what are we doing?
Michael Clayton (peeling off some bills and handing them to the unseen driver): Give me $50 worth. Just Drive....

Just Drive. Haven't we heard that so many times before? We've had films about taxi drivers, and race car drivers. We've had actors whom we may not have been familiar with at the time of the film, who went on to become well known actors. Case in point - Robert Duvall as the cabbie who drove Steve McQueen's Detective Frank Bullitt around back in 1968. We've had car thieves like Nicholas Cage in Gone in 60 Seconds, and we've had untold, unnamed, and uncountable faceless wheel men who drove the getaway cars in a zillion criminal ventures that happened on screen. We've had a film about a chauffeur (Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy).

To make a long story short - we've had men, and women, driving something on screen, since there were films and since motorized vehicles like cars, boats, or even planes and trains started to show up in the movies.
Now we have a film called Drive. Ryan Gosling has the role of  the Driver. We never do get his actual name. He does stunt driving for the movies, works as a mechanic, and on the side he drives getaway cars in heists. He has no back-story. We know nothing about him other than that he's cool, calm, and studies maps of LA every day, the same way we read a newspaper on a regular basis.

The film opens with a heist, and our Driver has already told us and the guys he's driving for his rules:
If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down; I don't carry a gun... I drive.

 There we are once more. He just drives. He has a police radio scanner, so he can hear what the police are doing. So right away we need him to show his stuff. Only as the scene plays out, we can see that it is different - it is more of a cat and a mouse, than chase and race. The driver outsmarts the cops by hiding in alleys, garages, and even under an elevated highway to avoid detection by the eyes in the skies, ie - the police choppers.

So we know straightaway - he's good at what he does - he adjusts on the fly - and he's smart.

Later we will see some higher intensity auto chases. But what really escalates in the second half of the film is the man to man violence. I'll give you a verbal shortcut here rather than describing said violence. This is not a film for the squeamish.

Directed by the Danish helmsman Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive is set up as action film, and for sure it has action, and bloodshed, and villains galore. But what it has, and in spades, is Style; yes that's right - style with a capital 'S'. Refn is at once unique and yet you do notice, or at least consider, that the film may have borrowed from some notable film icons -

Last updated: 2011-09-26 19:40:10 by JustMeMike

Drive contains elements from some films you may have seen before, but at the same time it’s very unique in its own right.  It’s an extremely stylish movie that takes place in modern day, but would easily fit in with the film noir period of the 1940’s and 1950’s.  The main character is a quiet, soft-spoken man who may not have much to say but knows to take total control of any given situation.  We’re never even told what his name is.  He’s simply credited as “Driver”.
Ryan Gosling, in 1 of 5 films he’s starring in within a year, plays the driver.  He’s a stunt driver on movie sets by day; by night he’s a getaway driver for hire, helping criminals pull off robberies.  He appears to be a very focused, stone-cold mystery man who helps out the wrong side of the law.  But once he gets to know his neighbor (Carey Mulligan) and her child, we see there’s a good side to him.  Maybe he’s just been using his vast driving skills to the fullest extent in order to make a living; who knows how often there’s a new movie needing his stunt driving.  He clearly seems to enjoy his time spent with the new neighbors.  It’s a stark contrast to his moonlighting as a criminal accomplice, so it surely puts him at ease.  But when the neighbor’s husband returns from jail, things start to get hectic right there in their own building.
Gosling is perfect in the role as he goes from a mild-mannered man to a lethal threat in a matter of an instance.  It comes as a surprise when you do see him switch gears and show his dangerous side all of a sudden.  It’s hard to imagine any other actors playing this part so well.  While the film may seem slow at parts, it keeps you at the edge of your seat with its slow-building tension.  It bares a slight resemblance to another good film, The Professional, with the similar story of a low-key guy living an immoral life but who cares for his good neighbor.  This movie has its own ultra-cool style though – there’s sort of a 1980’s hardcore Miami Vice thing going on.  The driver wears a retro-looking jacket with a scorpion on it throughout the film, along with his special driving gloves that he squeezes his fist with to let you know that he’s angry.  I believe this was what the overrated Quentin Tarantino was going for with the Stuntman Mike character in his Death Proof film.  He failed with that one and I’m sure he probably wishes he made this movie.  
Drive also has one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a film.  It’s full of dark, moody electronic music that also contributes to the 1980’s feel to go along with its stylish look.  Just be warned, the film has some very violent, bloody sequences. Some may go into this thinking it’s a fun action movie, but it’s much more serious than that.  You can go rent that Transformers fluff for some carefree movie fun.  This is a hard-boiled thriller that makes you glad it’s not your life you’re watching.

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