Drive: revisited…

When Nicolas Refn’s film Drive came out last September we were obviously interested straight away.

What’s not to like about putting the words ‘existential’ and ‘car’ together?

Any close reader of this blog will understand that imbuing meaning into cars is what we’re all about.

But it’s easy to disappear, of course, in a void of pretence – and to project your own fantasies of what cars mean to you – when writing about these things.

We saw the film at the movies and was pretty unimpressed. Not sure whether we expected a full on action extravaganza crossed with a Euro art-house flick – an impossible mix that would have been bound to fail.

However it happened, we were left somehow wanting more.

We had a feeling that the problem might have something to do with time and place and context – and so, we watched it again recently.

What arises on second viewing is a much more powerful, resonant movie. We found that we remembered many of the lines and the scenes hit by hit – and the most important thing that arises is ‘the driver’ and his relationship to the cars that are his vehicles through his many moral minefields.

The video below (taken from the DVD extras, I believe), brings out how deeply tuned into the steel the lead actor Ryan Gosling became during the production of the movie – and I reckon there’s something visceral and real about a bloke’s relationship with his motor that resonates.

Never know, it may turn out to be a classic after all.

And that movie poster is a bit special too.