What, me drive?

Went to see Drive, the new Ryan Gosling. Gosling plays a "Los Angeles wheelman," as stated in the Sept. 23 review in Entertainment Weekly (EW). As someone with limited driving skills just going to the film posed something of a threat. I don't mean the actual driving to the theater; well, that's always part of it. A film premise based on high speed driving really pinches my insecurities. But wait a minute-- the Danish director does not drive at all in real life! He just sidesteps the issue completely. Doesn't drive in his personal life but makes movies about surly, skillful drivers aiding and abetting masked desperadoes on the journey to and from their targeted businesses. Movie directors have always admired tough guys-- who drive insanely fast, beat people up, kill people, threaten, intimidate, rob, commit adultery with noir dames and a whole range of behaviors at odds with the Ten Commandments. But this Danish director does not have a driver's license-- and the Good Book makes little mention of the dangers inherent in using the interstate highway system. Of course, you likely get more people dying on the American highway than committing bank robberies or any of a slew or cinematic sins. Other notable directors without a driver's license include Alfred Hitchcock and Spike Lee. Detect a pattern there? Not sure. I sympathize with the Danish director and his fascination with good driving skills. As a passenger, Nicolas Winding Refn has the objectivity to see driving as the impressive skill it really is. But, take a closer look at that middle name-- Winding! That's a Winding of a middle name! And the opening scene of the film is a wingding of a scene. EW called the scene an "addictive getaway sequence." I agree and want to study the sequence-- but it won't become addictive until the movie is available on DVD or Youtube, correct? I like LA noir movies, Chinatown, from 1994 being the best ever. The Ryan Gosling vehicle vehicle lacks some of the finer points of Polanski's 1974 depiction of Thirties LA, character development and dialogue for starters. LA in the Thirties did not have near the number of skyscrapers and electric lights blazing you get now and so Driver constantly refers back vertical skyscraper shots. A note of supreme irony is the appearance of the name Frank Capra III as one of the film's producers. Frank Capra I was the anti-cynic, the anti-noir, a man of optimism and cheerful romance built upon the subtle use of dialogue. Capra the First must be spinning in the grave at the long, wordless gazes between Ryan Gosling's Driver and Irene, the waitress with the heart of gold played by Carey Mulligan. If words were sex these two two would be DOA on their honeymoon night. But back to Chinatown. Roman Polansk correctly anticipated the knife as weapon of choice for the 21st century noir. Polanski, playing a thug, slashed Jack Nicholson's nose, opening Jake Gittes a roomier nostril. Drive features the knife, stiletto, straight razor with much gusto. This new, old-fashioned tool of death, steel to the gut, eye, artery, has become the film artist's best method for dispensing with bad guys, an alternative to the first-person shooter of video games-- though a video game aesthetic thrives throughout the film. And now I've got to start worrying about shaving.