This film is presented to the audience in an art form way beyond the usual norms. The film is a great representation of actions speaking greater than words. It is such a rarity when you can find a film that combines action with art making it a great experience for both the female and male audience. Nicolas Winding Reth, is the Director that combines car chases, mobsters, and armed robberies in an action-packed sequence, but makes himself four steps ahead of the audience. He keeps his audience dancing around the film wanting to know what will happen next. Reth does a great job scoping and zooming in those moments, pacing around forcing the audience to fragment each moment making us unprepared for what is to come.
“If I drive 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” The film begins giving the audience a sneak peak of what the driver is all about. Reth creates a thrilling beginning in order to give the character in the screenplay a meaning or description. That description is what the audience will follow through the thrilling sequence of shots where the driver carries his composure as he helps the robbers get away from police. This scene helps us believe that the driver is an expert at driving as he keeps his composure as the adrenaline starts to kick in. Reth does a great job making the character, the driver, an adrenaline junky like the common, action films like Fast and Furious, Gone in Sixty Seconds, etc. Throughout the film the main character ends up meeting a woman and her child where he ends up fantasying on the idea of becoming their guardian. His masculinity will carry on over through the film as he continues to guard this family as if it was his own. In the essay by Rogers and Kiss they mention the plot set as they say, “Drive is a film of distinct dichotomies”
Drive is a product brought upon a division between two things that are being opposed throughout the film. A hero or a superhuman, is the music that plays as the driver is driving under the bridge with the girl and her son. The British pop song is a dichotomy between the driver being a hero or a monster. The film shoots the scene at a high angel with a various amount of shot known as an aerial shot. As they drive the sequence is followed by a medium shot as we see the girl looking at the driver as if she were showing some sign of romance. We as an audience at this particular moment, infer that they will fall in love given the fact that they were enjoying their low-key date. This is the strategy Reth uses to allow the audience to feel in control, but like mentioned before, he is always steps ahead. We are soon introduced to the girl’s husband coming home from jail. Going back to the essay by Kiss and rogers, “Proved to be popular with both art-house and mainstream cinema audiences” they give an insight view of the strategy Reth alters. In mainstream cinema, we are used to the romance and falling in love when a character spends a long scene time together. Reth alters it by the introduction of the girl’s husband put into play, making the audience feel awkward and sympathy for the driver. Throughout the same sequence where they drive under the bridge the director includes several mirror shots to allow the audience to see the eyes of the driver. Director uses this tactic to allow the audience to see the characters eyes in order to create a type of feel for the character. Giving that in the film the driver only has 133 sentences in total stated by Kiss and Rogers. The audience would have to based and infer their emotions towards the driver through his actions in the beginning scenes. The director choses to do a close up every single time the driver drives through each part of the city in order for the audience to see his facial expressions. When he is not driving he’s often in neutral as he goes through he’s daily life with such dull actions. The director choses long shots when he’s not driving in order for the audience to see his posture and actions as he interacts with his daily activities.
In the elevator scene towards the end of the film the director sets up the sequence perfect and almost mocking romance films. In the scene we see the driver, the girl and the hitman all compacted in a small space which is the elevator. As the elevator descends the director uses 180-degree angle shot as they hitman and the driver stare at each other. The angle shot helps create a suspense as they look at each other creating a sense of tension building up in both the characters and the audience. The descending of the elevator is symbolic in this film because it is a metaphor of the driver’s fallout. As the driver looks at the hitman he notices the gun on his waist. The director zooms into the hitman’s waist creating a close shot in order to let the driver know who he was. The gun is an instrumental prop used to kill and hurt the masculine body. As the driver sees the gun the scene is followed by a slow-motion movement where the driver pushes the girl back to protect her. This reconstructs the chivalry masculinity the director wants to play out by the driver as he tries to push the girl away from danger. The driver wants to be seen as a hero despite the fact that he got her husband killed. The lighting then darkens and spots a key light only between the driver and the girl making the hitman disappear in the shadows due to the hard lighting. The lighting is focused on the driver and girl because it allows insight on to what the driver is thinking about. The driver goes in for a kiss of the girl. As he shows his love for her, he also knows he is about to risk his life for her and her family. The driver faces pure masculinity as he tries to be the hero for the girl. As the elevator hits the ground floor it puts everything back to reality as he faces the hitman in a brutal take down. Reth represents the male body very bloody and violent as he shows the driver stopping on the hitman’s head crushing his face, spreading blood all over his jacket and his face. The jacket holds a metaphorical meaning because throughout the film he wears it
