Drive

 

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was the reason why I was drawn into watching the film in the first place. During my later years of high school my media teacher had played one of the opening scenes of drive that included a long shot of the city at night with the song Nightcall by Kavinsky. The song had drawn me in as the melody had everything to do with the eighties style, deep and slow electric beats that just reminded me of that Miami vice cocaine genre vibe, it still remains at the top of my favorite playlist on my iPhone.

Aside from my liking of this particular song, most if not all of the music in the film contains this eighties vibe to it, this includes diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The film is rarely soundtrack dominated, music is very rarely played for example within the opening scene where Ryan Gosling’s character introduces his profession to the audience within the car he is playing the audio to a basketball game instead of music, although this contributes to narrative as he used this to time the end of the game in order to hide within the exiting crowd of the stadium.

 Narrative

As the film name suggests the film is about cars that give the impression of a fast paced narrative, I had felt that this wasn’t the case as the film was as slow as Ryan Gosling’s character. The only fast paced sequences in this film where the three car sequences which didn’t involve that much thrill or action and was incredibility un-climactic. The narrative follows a style that introduces Gosling as this get away driver that creates a relationship with Carey Mulligan’s character and her son who are his neighbors. After getting into a somewhat romantic relationship Mulligan’s lover is out of prison and owes protection money to the mafia, in order to get this Gosling becomes the getaway driver for a heist on a pawn shop that goes wrong. The ending of the film follows Gosling killing off the mafia leaders in order to protect Mulligan. The final scene becomes a somewhat Mexican standoff situation that results in the death of the mafia leader and although the narrative makes the audience believe Gosling is going to perish due to his injury he just gets up and drives off into the sunset. What makes this ending so un-climactic is the fact you don’t even get to see the fight between the two characters, the camera only shows the shadows of the figures fighting.

Characters

 Ryan Gosling’s character first of all has not been given a real identity within the film, he is regarded as the driver in this case and has not been given a name. His character is very slow and cold and maintains an attitude of a shut-in and someone who is socially awkward. In some cases he fits the role of a driver perfectly, someone who keeps his circle closed due to his criminal profession although his attitude is purely one of the reasons why the film was so anti climactic. The film does not give the audience any time to learn about the characters and as most of the character in this film has little screen time or are just cold there is very little character development in the film, as if the actor casted were playing dolls. The characters seem incredibly boring apart from the mafia bosses which had personalities that are pretty much taken from other films or are not anything new.

 Overall

My favorite part of the film has to be the soundtrack as it was something that had stuck with me for years even though I hadn’t even seen the film. The characters were very average and bought nothing new to the table for me and in combination with the slow story it denied any action packed representation I had of the film prior to the screening. Although its positives were the several small action scenes it wasn’t enough to carry the weight of the rest of the film. It by all means is not a bad film, it was not my cup of tea and was not what I expected it to be. On a last note I would describe the film as slow and cold as Ryan Gosling’s character.