Art-house Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (14 July 2015)

Perhaps no movie ever has been so falsely advertised as Drive. People went to see this movie thinking they were getting into a Transporter type of movie, a dumb series of dumb action sequences after more series of dumb action sequences. What they got instead, was a real film.
Although Drive does have some great action sequences, it's not what really powers the movie, although they are pretty awesome. The movie follows the Driver, a silent character that is accurate in everything he does, and has a very cold like approach to not only his job, but everything in his life. We never see him smile during the first sequences of the film, and every action of his feels very robot-like. This works great, as it shows us how the character approaches his every day life. But then, he meets Irene, his neighbor who he creates a relationship with. When this happens, we can start to see that cold gaze the main character had, turn slowly into what could be a smile. He is happy to be with her and her son. They are the only brightness in his cold, dark world. I don't want to go into depth, but what pretty much happens is he does a job that affects some bad mobsters and they are looking to hurt Irene and her kid, so Driver does everything in his power to stop them to protect the people he loves.
There are some signs in the movie that help us understand the ending of the film. There is one scene where he is sitting watching cartoons with Irene's son and Driver asks him: "Is that the bad guy?" The kid answers yes, because he's a shark and ALL sharks are bad. Driver slowly contemplates and thinks, which indicates he knows he is a shark, but he doesn't want to be the bad guy. Also his scorpion jacket is cool and all, but there's a deeper meaning to it. When he is talking on the phone to one of the gangsters that are trying to kill him, he mentions the story of the scorpion and the frog, which is very interesting. The story goes like this: A scorpion asks a frog if it can swim and take the scorpion to the other side of a river. The frog refuses, saying that the scorpion will sting it. The scorpion insists, saying that if he indeed stings the frog, they will both sink and die. The frog agrees, but the scorpion eventually does sting it and they both drown. The frog asks the scorpion before they die: "why did you sting me?" and he just says "I'm sorry, I can't help it, it's in my nature". All of this fits into the movie, because it illustrates that the Driver (Scorpion) wants to be a better person, he wants to be with Irene and her son, but he can't escape his troubled life.
Driver lets the mobster stab him in the end, he kills him and leaves the money behind. He had all this sorted out. The song "Real Hero" starts playing and he drives off. The song symbolizes that he finally became the hero he always wanted to be, and not the bad guy.
Drive is a modern classic, a movie that is as near to perfection as I ever would want a movie to be. The soundtrack is amazing, the performances are great. The violence, the style and Oh my god that opening credits sequence. I love this movie.