Journalists and reviewers have called Drive “a classic Los Angeles heist-gone-wrong story”, film noir and “tribute to the genre of car films” in the vein of movies like Bullitt (1968). It combines comic gore, B-movie aesthetics, and Hollywood spectacle, resulting in “a bizarre concoction…reminiscent of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive…Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, and [with] angst-laden love scenes that would not be out of place in a Scandinavian drama”. Other comparisons have been to the works of Walter Hill, John Carpenter and Michael Mann. According to Refn, Drive is dedicated to filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky and includes “a bit of Jodorowsky existentialism.
Drive has been called a tough, hard-edged neo-noir art house feature, extremely violent and very stylish, with European art and grindhouse influences. According to Refn, Drive turns into a superhero film during the elevator scene because that is when The Driver kills the reprobates. Drive also references 1970s and 1980s cult hits such as To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). Other influences can be seen in the neon-bright opening credits and the retro song picks – “a mix of tension-ratcheting synthesizer tones and catchy club anthems that collectively give the film its consistent tone.” Drive’s title sequence is hot-pink.
Refn’s main inspiration for Drive came from Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and his goal was to make a movie that was structured like a fairy tale: condensed in its storytelling and with archetypal characters. Refn sees The Driver as a knight who roams around the countryside searching for people to save. Refn was also inspired by films such as Point Blank (1969), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), and The Driver (1978). Jean-Pierre Melville’s crime productions influenced the cinematography. Refn wanted electronic music for the film. He gave composer Cliff Martinez a sampling of songs he liked and asked Martinez to emulate the sound, resulting in “a kind of retro, 80ish, synthesizer europop”. Editor Matt Newman suggested Drive’s opening credits song – “Nightcall” by French electronic musician Kavinsky.
The film’s main character, The Driver, has been compared to the Man With No Name, a character Clint Eastwood portrayed in the Sergio Leone westerns, because he rarely speaks. The Driver’s meager dialogue is not designed to present him as tough, but to soften him. Refn chose to give The Driver very little dialogue and instead have him drive around listening to pop music, taking control when it counts. One reviewer noted that what The Driver lacks in psychology, he makes up through action and stylish costuming. The Driver’s wardrobe was inspired by the band KISS and Kenneth Anger’s 1964 experimental film Scorpio Rising. He wears a satin jacket with a logo of a golden