Drive celebrated its 10th anniversary this past week. One of the most influential films of the last decade, and certainly Nicolas Winding Refn’s best and most accessible work, Drive is still relatively divisive for such an important and cult hit. When first released, it was either loved or reviled by most viewers, and to this day it still stirs those same strong feelings. Compared to the other Watch-Alongs we’ve done, this one is much more cerebral and sophisticated, so this might take a little more explanation and digging, but it’s well worth it.
5:06 – The opening scene oozes with style: the iconic neon tinged city lights of LA, with Ryan Gosling on the phone as we see his reflection in the glass window. The heist/driving scene is one of my favorite opening scenes of all time. In recent memory, only the Baby Driver opening scene can really match it, but they are totally different, Drive is less high octane, more elegance. Ryan Gosling chewing on a toothpick is just the cherry on top of his ultra cool performance. This is the most “men want to be him, women want to be with him” that I’ve seen and felt as an adult man.
7:30 – Gosling coolly and calmly navigates the streets and traffic, avoiding cops, using only a radio and the cover of darkness. Really, Drive is one of the best LA films ever. In this scene alone, he drives around Alameda, the Arts District, across the LA River, and ends up in DTLA at the Staples Center (and uses the Clippers game crowd to hide his exit). It all feels so real because it all makes sense.
10:17 – The title card pops up, as the first time the synth-pop hits, with the pink cursive font across the LA nightscape. That never gets old. Has there been a more influential stylish action film in the past decade, other than John Wick? In some ways the protagonist is more of a modern day Clint Eastwood, with his tough, silent, squinting, chiseled exterior, shrouded in mystery, except that he has a lot more softness and emotion beneath the surface. In an homage to Eastwood’s early westerns, he isn’t even given a name, so we’ll just call him Ryan Gosling here.
13:20 – Gosling is in the apartment elevator with his jacket slung over his shoulder, toothpick in his mouth. Irene (Carey Mulligan) walks in, and he asks her what floor she’s going to, and she says “fourth, thanks”. That’s the same floor he’s on! They both walk out together, silently, in one of the many long, dimly lit hallway shots of the film. The sexual tension is already so palpable I’m having trouble breathing. Also, have I ever wanted an article of clothing more than that white silk scorpion jacket? Gosling in this film is so handsome, silent, so physical, but his eyes are so expressive and his body has a coiled physicality, like a snake (or a scorpion) is always ready to strike.
17:31 – Irene and her son Benicio are at the supermarket but their car breaks down, so Ryan Gosling gives them a ride home. Her son seems to like him and puts on a Halloween mask. Gosling reciprocates, asking him: “hey, you want a toothpick?” Yes, why yes I would Ryan.
21:59 – Shannon (Bryan Cranston) is Gosling’s boss at the mechanic’s shop, but he wants to use Gosling’s talents as a driver in professional racing. He asks for funding from some local crime bosses, Nino (Ron Perlman) and Bernie (an against-type Albert Brooks). Cranston is great in this film as the sniveling, down-on-his-luck guy who’s constantly indebted to bad guys. It’s a huge reversal from his Breaking Bad role (Brooks is basically the Walter White of this movie).
26:21 – While Gosling drives Irene and Benicio home, and asks “hey, do you want to see something?” “A Real Hero” plays as they speed down the LA River. This is one of THE iconic scenes from the film, and for me personally it supplants Terminator 2 as the premier LA River movie scene. I think about it every time I drive by. The smiles on their faces, ending in the slo-mo shot of Gosling carrying the sleeping kid home. Crucially, this is the first and only moment of pure bliss and happiness in the movie.
39:01 – Standard Gabriel (Oscar Isaac), Irene’s husband, suddenly returns from prison and they throw a welcome back party. Isaac showing up and the mini standoff in the hallway is not just another terrific tense moment, but it’s also an example of the actors being almost too good for their roles. Today Isaac is one of the biggest stars and best working actors today, and he has an almost nothing role here, but he slays it. Also, what a name – Standard Gabriel.
49:21 – It turns out Standard owes protection money from prison, and he’s getting beaten up because he won’t do a job – robbing a pawnshop in the Valley – to pay it back. Gosling, of course, decides to help him out, and he gives the same spiel: the “I drive” monologue from the beginning of the movie. Honestly, I could listen to that on a constant loop for hours, so I’m not complaining.
51:38 – They set up the heist, and Gosling wants to make sure Standard’s debt is paid after this, and his family is safe. Christina Hendricks appears as Blanche, one of the crew, this at the height of her Mad Men popularity. What a cast. Isaac is spectacular throughout, whether it’s the subtle dominance he’s always trying to establish over Gosling, his desperation from the gangsters, or his love of his family in the little moments, especially with his son.
54:12 – Walking out of the pawn shop, Standard gets shot in the neck with a shotgun, and then twice more in the back. Blanche screams, and Gosling peels away, followed by another car in a thrilling but short car chase scene until Gosling can efficiently dispatch the other car. This was the first “holy shit” moment for me when I first watched this, I had no idea what was going to happen next.
58:25 – Gosling and Blanche are in the motel room, waiting things out with the duffel bag of cash, but they see the news report the killing but not the stolen money. Gosling immediately knows something is wrong and slowly pulls on his driving gloves as he starts to question Hendricks. I forgot how menacing this act was, and from here on out Gosling doesn’t smile anymore, and his few words becomes less Sundance Kid endearing, and starts being scary. He only has 116 lines of dialogue the entire film, so in the second half of the movie, every word that comes out feels immensely threatening, even though the tone or volume of his voice never changes.
1:01:54 – After Blanche fesses up that they were planning to rip them off, Gosling tells her to take him to the guy behind the job, a guy named Cook. She goes to the bathroom to get ready, but just one minute later, Gosling has blood all over his face and there are three dead bodies in the motel room. This is the History of Violence type moment when you realize that oh shit, Gosling has had a prior life that we know nothing about, but he knows how to handle himself.
1:04:48 – Gosling finds Cook, and in the hallway he pulls out a hammer from his pocket. What a great Old Boy reference. But Refn takes it one step further and then pulls out the same bullet that the mobsters threatened Benicio with, and places it on Cook’s head like a nail. Yikes. This transformation is one of the most underrated parts of the film – how Refn makes Gosling, such a boyishly handsome charmer, into a believable man on fire. Unlike most similar vengeance movies, he doesn’t even outwardly change anything – his hair, his clothes, his car, his voice, everything stays the same. It’s just that the sense of mystery surrounding Gosling gets pulled back just a tad. We never actually get his backstory, which only heightens the sense of foreboding and the unknown.
1:10:01 – Gosling goes back to Irene’s apartment and, in another hallway scene, tells her everything that he and Standard did and offers her the money. She slaps him, hard. He responds, softly: “I just thought you could get out of her if you wanted. I could come with you. I could look out for you.” This breaks me every time. After the slap, he can’t even look her in the eyes as he talks to her, but this is the one real true moment of vulnerability that we see from him, the one time he vocalizes what he wants, what he can barely dare to hope for.
1:10:27 – Before Irene responds, the elevator opens up and they both step in. There is a man already inside there. What happens in the next two and a half minutes is the most influential elevator scene in the last decade outside of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The low angles, the slow motion, the lighting, as Gosling wordlessly pulls Irene back to protect her from what’s coming. There isn’t a single word spoken but there is the full range of emotion here: suspicion, dread, realization, love, letting go, and the full embrace of violence. It is all at once romantic and terrifying: it starts with a kiss, the only one of the whole movie, and ends with Gosling stomping on the goon’s head with his heel like a crushed melon.
1:12:58 – The elevator doors open, and Irene backs out, horrified. Gosling turns around and looks like he’s going to be sick, not because of the blood but because Irene has seen this side of him. They stare at each other until the doors close. This is the last that he’ll see of Irene and he knows it, and the third act becomes fully about revenge – redemption is out of the question now.
1:15:08 – Gosling approaches Shannon, who fucked everything up by telling Bernie and Nino about Gosling. He warns Shannon to leave town and never come back. Interspersed between this dialogue are the close up profile shots of Gosling’s face as he’s driving through LA at night. We don’t see his hands on the wheel, we don’t see the cityscape, all we see are the lights reflecting on Gosling’s face from white to blue to red. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more told from just a close up shot without any change of expression. Refn can sometimes be indulgent, but it’s clear he loves Gosling’s face just as much as the audience does.
1:15:41 – Bernie and Nino are talking about what to do, and Cook chimes in. Bernie turns to him and growls “shut the fuck up. You fucking monkey.” I never in a million years would have dreamed that Brooks could play such a chilling gangster. Thirty seconds after delivering that line, I’m almost not surprised when Bernie then kills Cook with a literal fork and knife.
1:20:54 – Bernie goes to Shannon’s garage while Shannon is packing up to leave. He shakes his hand and slices a razor down his forearm. I’ve seen this movie countless times but never noticed how creative the use of weaponry is: hammers, shoes, utensils, shaving blades.
1:24:25 – Gosling walks up to Nino’s Pizzeria with his mask on, and the song playing in the background. This was one of the famous scenes in the trailer, another uber stylish, visually striking shot from Refn.
1:27:45 – Gosling runs Nino’s car off the cliff and then proceeds to drown him in the ocean. It’s incredible how propulsive the last act of this film is, after such a slow burn throughout. Gosling as the driver is ruthless and efficient, Perlman brings such great gravitas to his role as the slightly more unhinged gangster with a chip on his shoulder. One down, one to go – just Bernie left.
1:28:05 – Gosling calls Bernie, telling him “Do you know the story about the scorpion and the frog? Your friend Nino didn’t make it across the river.” I can see some people really rolling their eyes at this, but I love this shit, the symbolism, the true nature of the scorpion that’s been tantalizing the audience all along. Gosling is in full revenge mode and there’s not turning back, he’s giving in to himself.
1:31:51 – Gosling meets Bernie at the Great Wall, a Chinese restaurant. Bernie makes him an offer: bring the money and the girl is safe. But, he says, Gosling will not be. What’s with Bernie and Chinese food? That’s all he ever eats in this movie. Anyway, this exchange is so businesslike, it’s on-brand for Bernie but also a bit of a subversion of our own expectations – we thought the big boss showdown would be the biggest and bloodiest of all. Of course, there is a violence, but it’s relatively muted – a stabbing but we only see their shadows do it in the bright sun.
1:35:08 – A long, lingering shot on Gosling’s face as he sits silently in his car, dripping with blood, then he shakily turns the engine on, and drives off, leaving the cash and Bernie’s body in the parking lot. Irene knocks on his apartment door, but no one answers. “A Real Hero” plays again, recalling that carefree happy moment before all this. Irene is safe, Gosling drives off, badly injured, and it’s unclear if he survives, but this story is complete, and he’s resolved what he set out to do.
Drive is such an impressionistic film, artistic while managing to be wildly entertaining. It’s got everything – romance, action, thrills, suspense. It is like an independent version of a superhero movie. It’s hard to believe that Drive has been out for ten years already, but the film will surely be enjoyed, frame by laconic frame, for many years to come.
