Drive Symbolism

Drive is a neo-noir crime thriller film based off of a short novel written by James Sallis. With only a 157 pages, Sallis chooses to focus on action rather than detail which allows the reader to paint their own pictures of events. This translates to the director, Nicolas Winding Refn, enabling him to use his own inspirations and fill in the details within the film establishing him as the auteur. By implementing his style of a brooding and manic world, Refn puts his own spin on the story about a nameless driver protecting a girl named Irene and her son, Benicio, as criminals attempt to kill them. The utilization of a unique color scheme, song selections, and casting has transformed Drive into a rare film full of symbolisms.

An uncommon aspect

The opening track of the movie was “Nightcall” by musical artist Kavinsky. It starts with a wolf howl and then techno musics starts to play followed by a autotuned voice growling “There something inside you, It's hard to explain, They're talking about you boy, But you're still the same” (Kaminsky). ‘Nightcall’ starts off with a wolf howl as the camera is on the unnamed protagonist hinting at the audience that the protagonist is a lone wolf that is roaming the streets. As the techno “New Age” music begins to play it shows Refn’s influence and style because it’s one of his signature characteristic of music. The most important aspect of the songs are the lyrics. The lyrics foreshadows and describes the unnamed protagonist. Only after finishing the movie Drive, the audience realizes that the protagonist was showing psychopathic traits throughout the film, but had good intentions. The lyrics talks about how there is something inside of the protagonist referring to his psychopathic traits that are revealed as the story progresses. However, it also says “They're talking about you boy, But you're still the same” (Kaminsky). This is implying that although the protagonist has psychopathic traits, he has a good heart and has always had one. Another song selection by Refn was ‘A Real Hero (feat. Electric Youth)’ by College. This was played at the ending scene where the unnamed protagonist drives away

Refn was able to select actors and actresses that could express what he wanted to express as a director. This brings another dimension into the film that focuses solely on acting and being able to influence the audience effectively. In an interview conducted by Todd Gilchrist, Refn said “And I met with so many great Latin actresses, but for some reason, I couldn’t connect, I couldn’t feel, and I didn’t know why until Carey came into my life and I could see that I could fall in love and I wanted to protect her. And that’s why in the end…essentially I was making a movie about what I would do and the purity of love between my wife and myself. That was kind of my illusion – that in the end if I was to be this movie as a person, then I would be Driver, and my wife would be Irene, and my deepest, deepest consciousness was always rooted in that. That was the heart in my mind”(Refn). This illustrates that Refn was portraying himself as the Driver when he was casting the actors and actresses. By using his own emotions it brings about a realness to the film and the audience can feel somewhat relatable to the movie instead of being isolated. Furthermore, in another interview by Vice, Refn says “Silence is the loudest sound in the world. Without silence, there is no noise. It’s a bit like photography; the light reminds you of where the shadows are, and vice versa. I’ve always worked a lot with silence in my films. It forces the