7Psychoanalytic Analysis
The 2011 film Drive revolves around the mysterious Driver (Ryan Gosling), a movie stuntman in modern Los Angeles whose choice to moonlight as a getaway car driver for some local crooks eventually attracts the attention of more dangerous individuals. The Driver dreams of leaving his questionable occupations for the glories of the Formula 1 racetrack, but he does nothing to change his circumstances until he meets a single mother named Irene (Carey Mulligan). When a powerful crime lord threatens to kill Irene and her son over her ex‐husband’s debts, the Driver attempts to protect them, initially by trying to raise funds through a heist, and later by systematically killing everyone involved in the crime lord’s local syndicate. The film ends with the mortally wounded Driver cruising out of Los Angeles after killing the last of the men who threatened Irene. While his fate is certainly sealed and he will never see Irene again, he appears to take some solace in the knowledge that she and her son are finally safe from harm.
The film’s title is a double entendre. On the one hand, it clearly refers to the Driver’s legal and extra‐legal occupational talents, as well as his original means of escaping an unfulfilling life. On the other, drive is also a ...
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