How Drive Gives a Head Stomp to the Film Noir Genre
How Drive Gives a Head Stomp to the Film Noir Genre
Genres in film undergo changes throughout their histories. All genres inevitably create sub-genres. These evolutionary shifts in genre come about when everything prior is seen through a new lens, generally one created by a director. The genre of film noir is no exception to this. The shift from film noir in neo-noir is one of great importance. Much of the thematic nature represented in the film noir canon is still represented in neo-noir; however, the way directors explore them has changed drastically, almost always giving a glimpse of how things are perceived in a modern context. For example, one of the first films to be considered neo-noir was Chinatown, which upped the violence and dark themes into a context considerably influenced by the Vietnam War. In a similar fashion, director Nicolas Winding Refn upped the neo-noir genre even higher with his 2011 film Drive. Using a slower, methodical style from the 1960s and 1970s that wasn’t being seen around the film’s release, with a palette not too far removed from the 1980s, Refn created a neo-noir film that both demythologizes and forces the film noir genre to go through evolution for the 21st century.
This deconstruction of the genre can be seen in multiple ways throughout the film, even in something as simple as how much the film revolves around a plot. Films in the film noir canon generally revolved around a sprawling narrative that took twists and turns until the film arrived at its eventual conclusion. For example, 1947’s Out of the Past held a convoluted narrative that involved a flashback, which took up a large portion of the film’s runtime. Of course, the film also contained its fair share of character betrayals and reversals, as many of the films in the genre had before and after. However, Drive ignores the complexity of films prior, in favor of something more minimal. While Out of the Past was largely about characters’ backstory and plot points happening prior to the film’s current timeline, Drive attempts to explain its protagonist’s backstory, but actually resolves the thread by not doing so. A character in the film, Shannon, gives a brief explanation of their first encounter, but he stops short of giving a full explanation. It is as if the film is saying the past does not matter, but rather only what is happening to the characters in the present moment.
This idea of only the present mattering is given further evidence with Shannon’s very own backstory. Shannon walks around with a busted leg, which is explained with a simple transaction of dialogue between Shannon and local gangster Nico. The latter walks up and asks, “How’s the fuckin’ leg?” Shannon replies with, “I paid my debt,” and with that the film moves forward. There’s no time wasted on speeches of exposition to catch the viewer up on current events; there are no lengthy flashbacks to the past; there are only small moments of character. Furthermore, the simplistic nature of the film can even be seen in the naming of its lead protagonist, or rather the lack thereof. Drive never gives a name; instead, the film resorts to him being mentioned as “the Kid,” or, “the Driver.” The film isn’t worried about getting absorbed in a complex web of narrative, because really the film is all about style.
The original films to be considered film noir came out of a post-World War II period, in an era upon which American public held a “desire for a more honest and harsh view” of the country (Schrader 54). Furthermore, the films’ styles were crafted by German expressionism. These films were almost more about the setting than they were the actors portraying any characters. Originally, shadows in films would be cast upon the actors; however, “in film noir, the central character is likely to be standing in the shadow” (Schrader 57). The films became more about mood than they were anything else. Drive is no exception to this idea. For a film with a bankable lead actor, it might come as a surprise that Ryan Gosling has an absolute minimal amount of dialogue in the film. However, it would only be a surprise for someone that does not understand what Refn is going for in the film. Original film noir motion pictures, such as Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon, were filled with characters incessantly quipping at one another, although generally such dialogue came from the lead protagonist. The film noir pictures in the past largely ran on dialogue to get their ideas across. In fact, the main flashback in Out of the Past can be considered nothing but a character talking, because, technically, it is a flashback being told by the protagonist to a character in the present. The incessant use of language in film noirs is partially because more than a few originated out of hard-boiled fiction novels. However, Drive does not subscribe to that talkative school of thought. Rather, it is a film more about the events happening around the characters; it is more about what characters do not say; it is about what characters say with their actions; it is about a tone.
The average film noir from years past was filled with darkness, in terms of its lighting, plot, and themes. A prime example of this is in the 1944 film Double Indemnity. The film’s plot involved its protagonist, Walter Neff, conspiring with a woman to kill her husband and collect the insurance. The film involves betrayals and mistrust that culminates in a climax which occurs in a near pitch black space. The lighting is such that the viewer can hardly see whom is speaking to whom, let alone who has the gun and fires the last round. And while the film does not show its lead protagonist dying, it can easily be read as ending with his death, regardless if it happens off-screen. However, once more, this is far from how Drive handles the world of noir, because from the first frames of the film, it is evident that the film is not the standard noir full of dark shadows. The opening credits begin to appear on a black screen in a neon color of hot magenta. Furthermore, when the credits continue after the opening scene, the title card falls on top of a darkly lit shot of the Driver as he drives around, alone, in Los Angeles. The importance is that the contrast of the colors goes beyond an aesthetic choice, as the clash of warm color on something dark also acts as a metaphor for the internal struggle that the Driver strives to be a real human being and a real hero. This specific use of color is something that would never have occurred in the original film noir canon, because, as Kathrina Glitre discusses in her essay “Under the Neon Rainbow: Colour and Neo-Noir,” the chiaroscurist lighting, and subsequent “hard contrast created by such low-key lighting also connotes a sense of ‘toughness’, well-suited to the hard-boiled narratives” (12). This stretch past the aesthetics of the past also manages to move into the musical landscape of the film as well. If ever one of the original film noirs had an accompanying score, it was universally something menacing — as one would expect with such a dark genre. However, unlike the standard score of strings found in the films of the past, the score and licensed music featured in Drive are more reminiscent of those found in the 1980s; they are nearly all tracks laid out with a foundation of synths, which pushes the sound of the film as something much more modern yet still holds the retro nature of a prior decade. It is a move by Refn to further establish the palette of the film, which boldly goes against its roots in film noir.
Further noticeable changed roots from film noir are those that stem from noir being commonly known as well versed in themes of existentialism. The films had protagonists that more often than not struggled to know his/her place in the world, to grapple with the concept of having a moral code. These concepts of existentialism weren’t exclusive to the film noir genre and inevitably found their way into neo-noir, in everything from Chinatown to Blade Runner, and of course into Drive. That said, in order to truly appreciate the demythologization, it is important to recognize the mythologization that must occur first, because there is one film noir in particular which closely resembles the themes present in Drive, and that is the aforementioned Out of the Past. Both films feature the common trope of the Tragic Hero. Each of these two films features a protagonist that is trying to better himself, only to find themselves ultimately doomed. In Out of the Past, the protagonist, Jeff Bailey, is a man that has moved on from his prior life handling shady business as private investigator, only to find himself trapped back in the webs; whereas, in Drive, the protagonist is a man attempting to better himself and leave the world of crime behind.
Yet neither of the protagonists are particularly bad people, or more so, they could not be considered villains regardless of if they have done “bad” things. The trappings of Jeff Bailey and the Driver, per noir archetype, come about because of their involvement with women. Both men see an escape from their current situations through their respective love interests Thus when the walls begin to close in again once more, Jeff and the Driver continue to fight against the nature of their ways over the course of each film. As James F. Maxfield discusses in his essay “ Out of the Past: The Private Eye as Tragic Hero,” “Jeff Bailey struggles against his fate until the very end; and this struggle, though it does not save him, gives him a dignity almost completely lacking in a defeated noir protagonist like Walter Neff” (55). This quote also fits in well with the Driver, up to a point, because where the demythologization truly begins is in Drive ‘s ending. While Jeff Bailey meets an ultimate demise, the Driver is able to succeed in what he set out to do: He becomes the hero he desired to be. The Driver does not die like Jeff Bailey does, because Refn goes against the seemingly inevitable conclusions of the Tragic Hero archetype, and ultimately rebels against the conventional gloomy nature of the film noir genre.
This rebellion against the original nature of the genre is further established with Drive’s use of violence throughout the film. In original noir films, moments of violence were generally tame, or could often happen off screen. However, as Andrew Dickos discusses the shifts in violence in the epilogue to his book Street with No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir, he writes, “The neo-noir is generally more violent, and more graphically violent at that, than the classic film noir ever was” (238). This is most certainly true for Drive. Whereas the most harmful thing an audience member could see in Out of the Past was a barrage of bloodless gunshots, Drive holds a remarkable amount of bloodshed that could only be possible in the 21st century. However, the bloodshed in the film is not a constant thread, but rather a tactic Refn uses at key moments in the film to punctuate on the emotional heat of the moment. Dickos later continues by discussing how “maiming and killing are rarely intelligent and expedient actions, but detours taken out of necessity” (240). This is something the Driver is forced to learn in his archetype of being a Tragic Hero, as he is forced to realize that he has no other option but to fight his way out.
With a standout film like Drive that demythologizes and subsequently evolves the genre, it was only a matter of time that others would take elements and use them in their art. It was not just film that absorbed the changes Refn made with the noir genre; the medium of video games also managed to learn and use what Refn had done. In 2012, Hotline Miami was released, and the influence of Drive was undeniable, even if the developers had not confirmed it. The game featured the same neon inspired aesthetic of the 1980s, a minimalist story, synth-heavy score, and bursts of heavy violence to explore the psychology of its protagonist. The game even went so far as to keep the lack of naming for the protagonist, although he has been commonly referred to as “Jacket” in interviews with the developers. By taking the basic nature of film noir and giving it a 21st-century neo-noir spin, Nicolas Winding Refn created a film that has already begun to reshape how the world thinks about and uses the film noir genre. Drive denies the full-on brute nature of noir’s dark and distant beginnings in favor of something much warmer, and in many ways what one might consider as “cool.”
Works Cited
Dickos, Andrew. Street with no Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2002. Print.
Glitre, Kathrina. “Under the Neon Rainbow: Colour and Neo-Noir.” Neo-Noir. Eds. Mark Bould, Kathrina Glitre, and Greg Tuck. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 11–27. Print.
Maxfield, James F. “Out of the Past: The Private Eye as Tragic Hero.” the Fatal Woman: Sources of Male Anxiety in American Film Noir, 1941–1991. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Press, 1996. 54–65. Print.
Schrader, Paul. “Notes on Film Noir.” Film Noir Reader. Eds. Alain Silver and James Ursini. Plompton Plains, New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 1996. 53–63. Print.
Originally published at http://www.tumblr.com on December 6, 2014.
