Drive is a love story that reinvents classic noir and Western archetypes into a slick modern thriller, showcasing Nicholas Winding Refn's take on male sensitivity. The Driver's struggle to escape his violent nature and pursue a normal family life is a central theme throughout the film.
The Driver and Irene actually say very little to each other, primarily because Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan felt that their scenes should be more focused on the mood and refused to say many of the scripted lines. Mulligan summarized making the film as "staring longingly at Ryan Gosling for hours each day."
The Driver has nothing but good intentions for Irene and her kid, but his only skills are driving and a capacity for pitiless violence. His need for heroism leads him to second guess Standard's suspicions about a pawn shop robbery and Standard is predictably betrayed and killed for it.
Refn's inspiration for Drive came partly from reading Grimms' Fairy Tales, and his goal was to make "a fairy tale that takes Los Angeles as the background," with The Driver as the hero.
But now, years later, he sets the record straight on a potential “Drive 2.” “No, there will never be a second 'Drive' movie,” the helmer told Inverse. When asked if it was because of the “perfect” ending he replied, “No, it ends too imperfectly. And that's why it works.”
The final image depicts a lifeless Driver sitting behind the wheel. All of a sudden, Driver blinks and moves into action as he fires up the ignition and drives away. Ultimately, the feeling behind Driver's survival is ambiguous.
Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011) is the golden scorpion stitched on to the back of the jacket worn by our nameless protagonist, the Driver. It is a reference to the allegory “The Scorpion and the Frog”, in which a scorpion rides the back of a frog across a river and stings him, dooming them both to drown.
Many of the owners were not willing to make further investment; growing land prices were also making it difficult to invest in and maintain the expense of a drive-in theater business.
Drive makes non-verbal communication its primary storytelling tool. Ryan Gosling will say 891 words in the entire film. He has 116 lines. That's an average of around 7 words per sentence.
He never speaks when behind the wheel of the car and remains silent in most social settings as well which adds to his somewhat awkward nature. But his limited dialogue was actually something Gosling requested.
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. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you're on your own.
Irene's husband Standard Gabriel (Oscar Issac) is in prison but is soon released. Apparently, he owes a bit of money to a gangster named Cook (James Biberi), who demands that he rob a pawnshop for $40,000.
"Drive" is a good thriller with the lead character without a name, recalling the style of Clint Eastwood in "High Plains Drifter" in the role of "The Stranger" – a man that speaks a few words only, violent when necessary that protects innocent and beloved people.
In total, he speaks just 116 lines in the entire film. Through the entire runtime of 100 minutes, that's barely a line a minute. It isn't just the total number of lines he speaks, it is also how he says them.
The scorpion jacket is not just an article of clothing; it's a symbol of the Driver's character development. As the story unfolds, the jacket witnesses his transformation from a stoic loner to a protector and avenger. It signifies his commitment to the few people he cares about and his willingness to take action.
"Ryan had been really inspired by these 1950s Korean souvenir jackets," Drive's costume designer Erin Benach told now defunct pop culture blog Grantland in 2011. "We started to think 'wow, that might look really cool'... So we built it piece by piece." Over a decade later, there's still plenty of miles in the tank.
The Driver survives before pulling out his own knife and fatally stabs Bernie to death. The Driver manages to drive away and abandons the money next to Bernie's corpse. Irene knocks at The Driver's apartment, but gets no response as she walks away.
It's similar to the movie but different in a few important ways, most notably its very clear that The Driver lives at the end of the novel. Bernie Rose tries to kill The Driver with a knife in a parking lot, but The Driver sees it before it happens, knees Bernie and drives the knife into his throat killing him.
James Sallis (born 21 December 1944 in Helena, Arkansas) is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.
While Drive is set in the present day, it has a 1980s atmosphere, underlined by the vehicles, music, and clothes, and by the architecture. The parts of the city seen in the Valley and near downtown Los Angeles are cheap stucco and mirrored glass; the film excludes buildings constructed more recently.
Driver, played by brilliantly by the memorable Ryan Gosling, is the frog; like how the frog is eventually drowned because of the scorpion's nature, Driver is eventually “drowned” because of the criminals he helps.
