Drive Review - Emma Hersh

It is clear that Drive will be one of the best movies ever by just watching the first 10 minutes of the film. Immediately the audience is greated by a dark Los Angeles skyline as the camera soars over the city, a shot that frequently appears, and by a man in a scorpion jacket. As more about his character is revealed it becomes clearer that the scorpion represents how he will never really let anyone through his hard shell and is always defensive and protective of his true identity. He also never carries a gun on him and only uses what is readily available to him (much like a scorpion because they only use their tail sting). He turned out to be a very compelling and intense character to follow and watch as he moved with such swagger and hardly talked, as he met the girl (Irene) he became even more interesting because there was now a romance to be invested in. One of the cutest scenes was where her son came in with a mask on, Driver just said very flatly, "Scary. Want a toothpick?" This opened him up in a new way and as a result made him more involved in that family which lead to different choices that character happened to make. 

It may be because I have a soft spot for romances, but the best story happening was the one with Irene and Driver because she caused him to move out of his comfort zone in a few ways, but also gave him someone to protect. That said, the most important relationship in the movie was that between Driver and the little kid because all of a sudden everything that Driver was doing was for the safety of the kid. A scene where there was obviously a lot of character growth was where Driver and the kid where sitting on the couch together right after the incident with Standard in the parking garage. The kid was traumatized about what he had seen and was also given a small gold bullet, at that moment Driver knew that the kid's safety was one of the most important things to him because it would protect the family. It was where Drive really shifted gears to more of a gangster movie than a love story because Driver had a new purpose and decided to interject into the family's issues and help Standard out. 

This scene also brought a new theme to the table: the lengths someone would go to to protect what they love. This was incredibly apparent in the elevator scene (without a doubt the best scene in the entire film) where Driver knew what he had to do to protect Irene and the kid. He first went in for what seemed like a two-minute-long good-bye kiss with holy music playing in the background followed by a brutal head smashing of the bad guy with a piece. It was completely nuts, and after that, Irene definitely didn't talk to him anymore, so their entire relationship was down the drain, yet there was a full sense of closure. After that, Driver was probably a bit freer to do all of his work because he could still use his passion for completing the deed of finding where the money went to, but I honestly was a little confused about the mafia the whole time and didn't really understand the whole role they played because it seemed like all they really wanted was for Standard to bring them their million bucks and to kill some people. That was definitely they only aspect of the movie that I was entirely detached from. 

The kill scenes were all super epic because each time Driver had to kill someone we saw him from an extremely low angle which made him look so empowered over these people who would usually have the power over him. For example in the elevator scene, in the scene with the hammer in the strip club and where he kills the final gangster who stabs him. He also managed to stay somewhat anonymous in his work by never giving away his real name which meant that people looking for him could only find him through where he worked or where he lived, which he also kept very private. Every shot he was in was planned so that something new was revealed about his character even though he hardly talked, there was something that brought to life in his actions and the few words he did say. Another aspect of the film that brought his character to life was the bizarrely fitting 80's female vocal pop songs as a soundtrack to his actions. The words were so reflective of what he was doing, thinking and saying that it was almost difficult to consentrate on what he was really doing at times. It was definitely not the soundtrack I would have picked for the film, yet it seemed to work so beautifully as a contrast that it didn't really matter that it didn't fit the crazy murderous theme that was so prevalent. 

I have not stopped talking about this film since we first started watching it and I don't think I'll be able to stop for a while either. Everything about this film was just about perfect, from the soundtrack and the score, to the romance and his personal relationships, from the intense kill scenes to the car chases. The title Drive acts not only as a motif where Driver is actually driving, but also as a theme of what drives certain people to do certain things.