Movie Moments: Essay #1
Drive (Opening/Car Chase)
Cinema is a visual medium, storytellers have existed since time began. From cave paintings depicting the hunter savaging the hunted to Shakespeare’s works being performed to live audiences. Cinema is a show of images & words, not just the latter. We do not enjoy this medium because we’re told everything, we enjoy it because we’re shown everything.
Contemporary cinema has become a hunting ground for aspiring filmmakers, from all corners of the globe they come. Social media & technological advancements have given filmmaking new edge & personality. Complex storylines & introspective characters who bewilder & entrance us. These dynamic new means give us the chance to experience what we have never experienced before.
But, today, I’m here to talk about a film that does not need aspirations of originality or newness. Nicholas Winding Refn’s film, Drive, is a homage to the simplistic & narrative driven stories of a time gone by. The characters are archetypes that have existed for longer than the art form itself, we have our hero, our villains, our mentors & our supports. The story is straight forward & digestible, there is no elaborate McGuffin that makes us question the films validity & trueness.
This film is good old-fashioned filmmaking with engaging characters, visually captivating moments & style which holds up to the films that came before & those that it will undoubtedly inspire.
Our protagonist, simply called “The Driver” (his name is never revealed), opens the film. The character is an enigma & this is complimented perfectly by the minimal set design (dark lighting, hotel room esque furniture & no distinguishable features). The driver is played by the increasingly talented Ryan Gosling, an actor who with each role has proven his worth within the mainstream and the niche alike. His almost robot-like dialogue is not wooden or uninteresting, it is the sign of a character who is so focused at the task in hand that any other interaction or feeling is irrelevant. His knowledge of the city & its roads is telling of his character & give us, the audience, the impression he is a master of his craft.
As the scene shifts to a garage, we’re introduced to another character, Shannon. This character is played by the infamous Bryan Cranston, the man who brought to life Walter White of Breaking Bad, one of televisions greatest creations. Shannon is clearly a mechanic & appears helpful & supportive of our protagonist. His role of the mentor character is quickly established & as the audience, we can tell he will play a key role in the narrative.
From then on, as the driver is given his vehicle, we descend into the streets of Los Angeles. An establishing shot lets us know of the environment we’re entering, bustling & neon lit with a heavy presence of the police (sirens can be heard over the soundtrack audio). Our protagonist calculatingly makes his way to the destination, his job, to pick up two thieves and transport them to their criminal activity.
The lack of dialogue spoken between the characters sets the level of intimacy there is between the driver and his night time activity. This is a man who does not wish to be any more involved in their activities than he has to be, he gets in, waits patiently, then gets out. As they arrive at the destination, the two criminals exit the vehicle and begin their nefarious task. Driver sets his watch onto the steering wheel, methodically times it for 5 minutes & waits patiently whilst he listens to a basketball game through the car radio. The silence is only broken by the diegetic sound (radio, police scanner) & this in turn gives the audience no room to breathe in case of missing something important.
The camera constantly feels like a passenger within the vehicle. It pans around as characters leave the car & focuses hard on the facial expressions that Driver presents as he keeps his eyes permanently fixed on the road. Unlike most car chase sequences in cinema, there is no escape from the vehicle. The audience is trapped inside, forced as an accomplice to the crime taking place & thus feeling as invested in this sequence as the characters themselves. Driver gives nothing away, even as one of the crooks returns and begins to panic. Awaiting his accomplice to return to the car, Driver does not let on. They have 5 minutes to complete the job or he runs.
As the action kicks up, the two men are back in the car & Driver begins the getaway. Even still the music & the sound design is incredibly minimal and scarce. The importance of the scene is the environment that the characters are in and not the cinematic world that, we the audience, are in. Our characters drive cautiously through the streets, the police scanner rife with the events that have just taken place. Driver remains calm & journey’s on to the final location. The audience feels like the two criminals, along for the ride, hoping that the plan will go down without a hitch.
Suddenly, the car is spotted & through this the film becomes a true chase sequence. The editing is concise and fast paced. We do not get constant whip pans, Paul Greengrass-esque cutting, we get simple cut to editing that highlights both the protagonist’s vehicle and the swarming powers that are surveying outside. The camera is steady & focused. The action & momentum is never left in favour of spectacle.
As the chase comes to a head as Driver is chased from behind by a red & blue, his plan comes full circle. They arrive at the very stadium that the basketball game that has been playing in the background is. The sounds of cheers & applaud drowns out the cars, the streets & even the music at moments. This is the moment the audience realises what has happened. As Driver parks up into a very busy parking lot, the criminals are left speechless. Much like us, we’ve been led on a journey which gave a surprise conclusion.
As Driver exit’s the vehicle, he removes his jacket & inverts it into a different one, puts on a team baseball cap and casually walks from the stadium as the police all converge. He becomes a stranger in the night, a faceless entity to all those around him. We watch as he disappears into the shadows of the night.
I said before, cinema is a visual medium & that is true in every sense with this film. Refn chooses visual invention over dialogue that merely documents the narrative. A film with little dialogue, especially from the protagonist, Drive provides the audience with 1970’s/80’s noir thriller elements with a contemporary distinction that echo’s something truly masterful.
Drive is my favourite piece of cinema. I adore this film & everything about it, I especially wanted this to be my first “Movie Moments” essay. It brings everything that I love about cinema to life & the opening scene is one of filmmaking’s greatest visual moments
