Drive.

"If I drive for 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."


Drive is a film that focuses on a man who is a movie stunt driver by day, and a getaway driver by night. He gets drawn into a failed heist, and tries to find a way out while looking after his love interest.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, this film takes a relatively basic storyline and revolutionizes it through his incredibly talented direction and shooting style.

One of the things that helps set the tone of the film is the soundtrack, which has an 80's-esque synth sound to it. When matched with the sharp visuals, Drive is a film with a lush, controlled atmosphere.

The remainder of this blog post may contain spoilers. If you haven't yet seen Drive, then I don't recommend reading on.

A unique aspect of Drive is its small amount of dialogue. Refn not only uses montages to effectively tell the story, but also places long pauses in conversations between characters. This not only remains true to Driver's character, but also keeps the audience on edge to maintain the film's tone.







The violence in Drive is highly stylized, yet gory and realistic enough to still be believable and disturbing. Refn uses it effectively as a tool to create tension in the film.

There is one scene in particular that I would like talk about: the elevator scene.

In this scene, Driver and his love interest Irene enter an elevator, where a man happens to be in alone. Driver spots the man's gun, knowing that he was sent to kill them. Driver then gently pushes Irene to the back of the elevator and kisses her. Refn shoots this in slow motion, and even has the light get harsher in the elevator at this moment. Driver then gruesomely kills the hitman. This scene shows great contrast between a beautiful image: Driver saying goodbye to the woman he loves, knowing that he probably won't come back, and a morbid one: Driver stomping the man's head in.