Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)

[TheDudeAbides]

god i hope they don't greenlight this sequel. The whole allure of the movie and driver was that he was mysterious, he was unknown, we didn't know what he was capable of; but, by the end of Refn's wonderful atmospheric film we knew everything that lied beneath that scorpion jacket.

Making Drive two would be about as awful as making Taxi Driver 2 or A Clockwork Orange 2.

Plus if Refn and Gosling aren't the two making it this movie will completely lose its edge and style and become nothing more than a Die Hard style action film

[colinr0380]

Did they ever make a sequel to Shane?

[godardslave]

I watched this and thought it was interesting.
Those who complain about how the film degenerates into violence are simply stating the obvious, but the point may be the emotional isolation of the driver means violence is the only path that makes sense in the situation he finds himself in.

[eerik]

Upcoming Japanese Blu-ray has exclusive interview with and audio commentary by Winding Refn. Keeps the hope for "Queen edition" alive.

[mfunk9786]

Damnit. That's a shame, I would love to have those features here in the U.S. - Refn is a hoot to listen to.

[lahaine]

Sequel in the works

Good lord, leave it alone

Sadly its hollywood we're speaking of here plus Drive was a bit of a hit Commercially and Critically and it has Ryan Gosling who probably os Hollwood's new A-list superstar. Its getting a sequel, i agree it should be left as a stand alone film as The Driver been a mysterious force of nature is what made the film special plus it was basically an art house film in the body of an action film. Refn and Gosling should leave well alone but money talks and if the price is right i see both of them doing it.

[mfunk9786]

I hardly think it'd be about the money. I doubt there's even going to be money in it, most multiplex-goers hated this film.

[ianungstad]

That link was for a sequel to the book and not the film. I doubt Nicolas would direct a sequel to Drive. As far as the film's box office performance...it was both good and bad. It grossed far more than most art house films do but the distributor Film District put the film into wide release and spent a lot on P+A. Bob Berney was forced out of the company after Film District lost their shirts on Drive, Rum Diary and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. They bet big on Drive and spent like it was going to do 50+ million. It only did about 30.

[mfunk9786]

Buddy of yours, eh?

[flyonthewall2983]

Refn: no to Driven adaptation, but the character might appear in another film.

[Yojimbo]

Finally caught up with this movie a couple of nights ago. I'd been reluctant to check it out partly because of the people who were raving about it (not referring to anybody on here), and partly because too many people who did rave about it were raving about the opening sequence, and the whole look of the film..
I'll post in more detail later but I think that opening pre-credits sequence perhaps is misleading with regard to film's ultimate intent, and also might have done the entire film a disservice, by drawing too much attention to itself.

For me the spirit of Melville pervades the film, - and not just 'Le samourai', - and Michael Mann's influence is largely confined to the opening sequence and the night-time shots of LA
Of course Walter Hill's 'Driver' is an influence, or, perhaps more, inspiration, but 'Drive' is a far superior film
(and I was a huge Walter Hill fan, through 'Southern Comfort')
I loved the first film in 'The Pusher' trilogy, and the extremely-underrated 'Fear X', - which James Remar stole from under John Turturro's nose, and I loved this
And, oddly enough, for a film which, purportedly is more about style than substance, I think it will even grow on me.

Its not Melville, but then he inhabits his own Universe.
But it ain't 'alf bad, Mum!

[flyonthewall2983]

Vinyl reissue of the soundtrack.

[flyonthewall2983]

I'm reposting this from the Thief thread because it has obvious relevance here, too.

The comparison to Drive has been on my mind since this was announced. I felt once I saw the first trailer for Refn's film that the supporting characters (specifically Cranston and Brooks) had similarities to a few in Thief. I didn't immediately feel that Driver had much in common with Frank until recently.

Potential spoilers for both films

There is a heavily stilted way both of these men go about finding their love interests in each film. Driver almost insinuates himself into Irene's life without overtly doing so, I think we might have even had a discussion about whether or not he caused her car not to start so he can fix it. It's justified because he sees himself as the star of his own movie, as indicated by the speech at the beginning that's repeated later on to a rude but more realistic response.

The way by which Frank wins over Tuesday Weld isn't as sneaky, but what is jilted is his idea of how to find love. Michael said in the commentary track that Frank never learned to properly court a girl because he spent the years young men usually do that in jail. And during that time, in his mind, Frank develops a very straight way of thinking how life goes as opposed to to how it really is.

[domino harvey]

[flyonthewall2983]

BBC to air one-time showing of the movie with new soundtrack.

[colinr0380]

I wonder if it will be similar to what the BBC did with a screening of the 30s King Kong a number of years ago, where you could watch the film with its soundtrack or use the BBC's digital services to watch a re-scored version by DJ Rob da Bank (which naturally climaxed with the Pixies' Monkey Gone To Heaven as he topples off the Empire State Building! A little too on the nose, but appropriate all the same!). It is apparently taking place on 30th October.

While it looks as if this is going to be bringing artists in to re-score the film, this news did remind me of the excellent score to the Hotline Miami videogame, which was obviously heavily influenced in its content and soundtrack by Drive (I particularly like Miami, Hydrogen and the woozy Flatline from the score, although Release is great too, feeling like a great homage to Blade Runner-era Vangelis!)

[colinr0380]

The re-scoring of the film was an interesting experiment, although it drove home to me just how iconic the score to the film itself is: there's nothing as audaciously weird-yet-perfectly appropriate in the re-scoring to match the re-use of Goodbye Uncle Tom's Oh My Love song in a key scene of Drive. Strangely the re-scoring also underlined the way that the original film has moments, especially in the post-heist chase, when there is no music at all, just the sound of the engines and tyres squealing. Which is musical in itself! Having that particular scene overlaid with a thumping action beat somehow made the sequence play more ordinarily.

Strangely the thing that struck me most on re-watching the film wasn't really the new score but suddenly noticing that the way that the scene of the Driver kneeling down in the garage to study and/or mourn the dead body of Shannon plays out very similar to the way that Julian kneels before the body of his mother in Only God Forgives. There is some sort of interesting parallel there of being stuck under the thumb of flawed, somewhat exploitational surrogate parental figures. Though of course Shannon is portrayed more as a kindly but useless bumbler compared to Crystal's laser-focused abusive matriarch.

Spoiler

And the Driver doesn't go as far as to cut open Shannon's body and shove his hand inside, unlike Julian with Crystal!

[Mr Sausage]

Though of course Shannon is portrayed more as a kindly but useless bumbler compared to Crystal's laser-focused abusive matriarch.

Not to mention incestuous!

I actually got the sense that the Driver looks out for and indulges Shannon's scheming out of affection, rather than being under his thumb.

[colinr0380]

A fantasic Every Frame A Painting video on 'quadrants and composition' in cinema, using Drive to illustrate its point.

[flyonthewall2983]

The Second Sight UHD is quite good, nothing revelatory but it did bring me back to what it was like seeing it on the big screen. Sometimes this is my favorite movie of the 10’s but I’d need to put it in contrast to other work I admire as much if not more in this case.

[mfunk9786]

The Second Sight UHD is quite good, nothing revelatory but it did bring me back to what it was like seeing it on the big screen. Sometimes this is my favorite movie of the 10’s but I’d need to put it in contrast to other work I admire as much if not more in this case.

Was my experience with this disc and revisiting this film. Every time I think I'm going to go back to Refn's two films with Gosling and sneer at younger me for ever thinking they were worthwhile, they become richer. Not sure I can plausibly continue on thinking they're shallow flukes that I was just over-dazzled by. Two great films.

[therewillbeblus]

The Second Sight UHD is quite good, nothing revelatory but it did bring me back to what it was like seeing it on the big screen.

I watched my UHD last week too and this was my exact thought. I’ll happily retire my worn-out blu for it

The film has dwindled considerably in my esteem over time. It’s one of the few movies I can recall seeing on opening night and then catching the first matinee showing less than 12 hours later, unable to shake the electric sensations from the night before. From there, I’d revisit it alone at some point near the start of each new romantic relationship to help work through the honeymoon feelings in my own therapeutic way. Now it’s lost a lot of that power and I admire it as an exercise in pure style signifying emotion too potent to be expressed directly. I suppose this isn’t exactly reframed criteria- though the emphasis for engagement is placed more on the style than the emotion underneath these days. But, as that, it’s still perfect

[domino harvey]

I think about this every time I’m somehow prompted to remember this film’s existence:

[therewillbeblus]

I think about this every time I’m somehow prompted to remember this film’s existence:

Okay, that killed me

[flyonthewall2983]

Soundtrack is still a banger too. Both the songs and Cliff Martinez’s score hold up just as well as anything else. This may have been discussed before but I guess Angelo Badalamenti did an unused score, as his name was in some of the early press materials I believe.