DRIVE your way to a review of the film, Drive, with Ryan Gosling and Carrey Mulligan (who is somewhat wasted as the love interest to be protected). Talk a little bit about the controlled nature of Gosling's performance. He's set up a number of contrasts within his character. What are they and are they effective? Once he let's go, do you believe him and can you see him as an integrated, multifaceted, yet contradictory character? How might you play the character differently (hard question)? Finally, where did he come from and where is he going? What about the theme song, A Real Human Being, A Real Hero. Yes, obvious, but is it effective and does the film succeed in creating one? Clearly, his heroism is more than just violence in defense of the woman and child. Wherein does his heroism really lie?
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Ryan Gosling's character in Drive is an extremely mysterious and contradictory one. Right away we see that he leads a double life: the movie opens with his phone call laying out all the rules of his transportation job for the robbery. Here we see him very in control and dominant in the situation. Later on, he becomes the quiet character, which has been described as "the silent hero." However, I find his portrayal as a heroic character very confusing because we don't normally associate a bank robbery accomplice with a hero.
Yet, once he "let's go" his role as a multifaceted character is believable for a number of reasons. One, we have not really gotten to know him in his role as the "normal" and quiet guy. He says very little, frequently just sitting and staring at people. There is not much to indicate what his thoughts exactly are, and therefore the audience is kept distant from his seemingly more vulnerable side. We can, however, tell that he is fascinated by the woman and her child, yet his overall intentions are still a bit unclear. In the beginning of the film there is nothing that suggests he is as an overly violent character: just one who makes sure he is in control of the situation and everything he does.
Overall, this multifaceted and contradictory character is believable because neither side is portrayed as the dominant one. We are never given too much of one, we are never "let in" enough to really get to know one side of him.
How I would play the character differently is therefore too hard for me to comment on because it is difficult for me to understand this character and his motivations.
I do, however, reject the notion that he is "A Real Human Being, A Real Hero" because too little of his emotions are revealed and, once again, as his motivations remain unclear it is hard to describe him as heroic. On the other hand, the situation in which they are in is so involved with criminals that it is impossible to have a purely good-hearted hero make a difference. Ryan Gosling's character understands this "dark world" if you will, and therefore is able to play the hero where otherwise there would be none. So in a way, he does assume a heroic role in this film, although it defies the stereotype of what we normally expect to see in such characters.
In the movie “Drive” directed by Nicolas Winding Refn is a movie about a man who is unnamed in the movie (Ryan Gosling) who is a Hollywood stunt driver yet a wheelman by night. In the movie he is a stoic, yet silent figure. A the beginning and throughout the movie he rarely speaks but when he does it is either to protect Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), or help them in someway. Ryan Gosling plays his character with great skill and expertise. I don’t think that I have the skill set to play this character because he is a mixture of violence and peacefulness, as he doesn’t look like he would harm anything but then he does in order to protect himself or Irene and her child. I think that while Irene’s husband is in prison he feels that as a neighbor he has some responsibility for protect and looking after her, this soon turns to love and he pursues her in a vague sense of the word. Then when her husband returns he is almost shunned away but he returns as he feels she is in danger because of the husband, who is in debt and is beaten up. The people who attacked the husband told him that next time it’s his kid and his wife that will be next. So, he returns to his wheelman ways and helps the husband get some cash but the husband is killed and the movie then spirals into violence and action.
Ryan Gosling, in 'Drive', portrays the stereotypical "silent type" guy. He is not much of a talker and keeps a confident poise while living a complicated lifestyle both in crime and entertainment. He comes off as hard and emotionless at first, but then you see parts of his softer side when he develops an interest in Carey Mulligan's character and her son. To me, this part seems out of his character to me. I would have expected him to remain apathetic. Of course afterwards we see him snap when he gets himself into a tough situation with his love interest's husband. Something goes wrong and the husband ends up dead, and Ryan Gosling's character failed to go through with the mission they had. This was an unexpected outcome to me as he was portrayed as a man who could accomplish anything, but then failed to keep someone alive so that their family could remain safe. It is evident that he is familiar with this scene however, as he was willing to help out with a bank robbery and killed several people after the failure. We can also see in the beginning of the film that he was involved in another bank robbery, and possibly many others in his past. This automatically makes you wonder wether he really is a hero. It is unclear so far where he is going with himself as he does not express much of his thoughts; the only emotion he has majorly expressed is anger. The theme song, 'A Real Human Being, A Real Hero' seems a little exaggerated to me, at least so far. I do not see him as a hero, but it is hinted that he has good intentions as he was trying to help out Carrey Mulligan's character's family. Even though he is involved in criminal activities, it is possible that he may act as a hero later on though not in the stereotypical way that heroes are normally portrayed.
the movie Drive talk about a driver how came to California, he work for Hollywood movies, not a star but just a driver in the car chasing movies, he work for some criminals in robbing, he gave them 5 minutes, if the are late, he leave them and like nothing happened, I thing the reason for the 5 minutes is because if it was more it will be enough for the police to came. The theme song it just to give the movie more attention.
While exploring the vast difference peaks in Ryan Gosling's personality, it was clear to see how largely they differ. Even from the first scene... as action packed as it is, we still do not come to meet his "dark side" which shockingly makes itself visible during the conflict arising points of the movie. The reason it is so shocking is because all we expect from him during the whole movie is to drive clients, while he remains his cool, toned down, silent, and slightly awkward character, but suddenly after he goes all rage mode on the girl we start to see his unexpected dark side which is certainly very unpleasant. The mere reason that this movie was such a shocker poses the statement about how can one man change so much in character. Ryan Gosling played this character perfectly, his facial expressions, his silence, and his emotions all led to us fully connecting with his character, making the sudden change in character so powerful, it had critics on their feet cheering. If i were to play him, i would most likely try to do the same as Gosling, i would not replicate exactly what he does, meaning i would make the character my own, but at the same time, the awkwardness, the silence, and the emotions would all be delivered to the best of my ability. I really liked this movie simply because of the reason that several others did. It was not your typical action movie, because everything was so unexpected and gave you such a shock about how such a innocent looking character could turn so rough, all so suddenly. In scenes like the elevator, where he kisses the girl and then beats the crap out of the hitman, really displayed a good example of sudden change in character. His emotional side, passionately kissed the girl, soft music played and we were all in a happy state, but then, as much i expected it, he turns around and breaks the guys head, stomping on his skull until he is one with the ground, now that is a huge peak, a major point of contrast, a distinct point of difference. My rating on this movie would be a 9/10 and i hope we watch similar movies in this class because it really does a great job on educating us on different view points in cinema, increasing our creativity and imagination, something that many classes lack to do.
Drive, a movie starring Ryan Gosling and Carrey Mulligan explores the different types of heroes in society. Ryan Gosling’s character, who was only referred to as “the kid”, is introduced as a silent, mysterious, and detached person, likely without any family. As the movie progresses, we see multiple sides to him. Though he remains silent for a good portion of the movie, leaving us unsure of what his true character really is, we discover that there is more to him than meets the eye. His aspirations to protect Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her child allow us to see his vulnerable side, as he will do anything to protect them, even by endangering his life.
Because Ryan Gosling’s character says so little and shows little emotion, it is difficult to analyze what is going on in his mind. It is only when the bank robbery goes wrong that we really see emotion. When his fierce and violent side finally emerges, we see that he is actually a multifaceted, contradictory character, as he is calm and mysterious one moment and dark and menacing the next, which was quite effective in making him a believable character. All along we expected there to be more to him than the quiet mysterious man who showed little emotion, so it wasn’t too surprising to be introduced to his scary side. I believe that Ryan Gosling played his character with great expertise, as his calm façade seemed to peel away to show the strong man inside. It would be difficult to change anything to this character because he is so intriguing just the way he is; the way he was played. If anything, I would liked to have seen him show more emotion regarding the woman and child, as I believe he only showed his dark side when he was protecting them. More loving emotion towards them would have clarified why he cared so much and would only have made him seem more like a real hero.
The theme song of Drive, A Real Human Being, A Real Hero, points out what Gosling’s character really was about. The stereotypical action hero we see in most Hollywood movies isn’t real and very believable; a real hero is deeper than that. He was a real hero by trying to protect those he loved by whatever means possible. The song delivers the message of the movie: that a true hero will stop at nothing to protect his family from others and from himself, no matter how much it hurts. And this is what the character did. He did what he knew was best for those he loved, and he left, never to speak to them again.
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