Track 3 Revisited: "Drive" Drives A Fan To Epic Actions

A few weeks ago I talked about the movie drive and the feeling that I was the main character when I left the theater.  More recently in my first paper I talked about how the people on the screen have the power in the viewer/subject relationship.  Here is a interesting and kinda of funny story that supports my opinion that the subject has the power.  Recently Tiger Woods was playing in a tournament in California.  He was lining up a birdie putt on the 16th hole and as he was about to putt out a hot dog comes flying out of the gallery and lands on the green.  The man who threw the hot dog immediately laid down and waited to be arrested.  The only thing more bizarre than throwing hot dog onto the green was the throwers reasoning.  When he was asked the thrower said his reason for throwing it was that he had just seen the movie Drive and wanted to do something "Courageous and Epic." Now I don't know how epic throwing a hot dog at a golfer that is far from the top of his game at a tournament that wasn't even being televised is but I'm sure it will be something always remembered by Woods.
Here's an article from fox news describing the reasoning, and a video from deadspin of the actual incident.
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/10/12/california-man-explains-why-threw-hot-dog-at-tiger-woods/
http://deadspin.com/5848262/the-tiger-woods-hot-dog-assault-was-caught-on-tape

Track 4. Listen While You Watch The Throne

Another topic that was brought to mind this week while discussing viewer and spectatorship was the persona that todays rappers and hip-hop artists create for themselves, and more specifically Jay-Z and Kanye West.  In August the two of them released their long awaited collaboration album "Watch The Throne."  The album itself is incredible, with production from Kanye as well as a literal who's who of todays best producers.  Also unlike many of todays hip hop albums that are littered with guest appearances from other rappers who usually deliver mediocre verses at best, all rapping on this album is provided from Jay and Ye.  After the release of the album I read an interesting review/critique of the album on Grantland.com by Hua Hsu titled Watch the Throne: Let them Eat Cake.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6844020/let-eat-cake
The article brings up the point of the subject matter of the album.  Much of the album is about how wealthy and cultured Jay and Kanye are with lines like "whole lotta watches I need eight arms/ one neck but got eight charms" and the boasting of "Sorry I'm in pajamas but I just got of the PJ" (PJ=Private Jet) However at the same time while they want to flaunt their wealth and how cultured and famous they are they also want to be culturally conscious "398 soldiers died in Iraq/ 509 died in Chicago" Sometimes these two things contradict themselves in their lyrics, they want to be seen as rich and hard and from the streets but also someone that cares about the streets.  The song "Cant Stop Me Now" ends with "Black cards/ black cars/ whole lotta money in the black bag/ black strap you know what thats for"(black strap= a belt for holding a gun) but then follow that up with a song called "Murder to Excellence" where the first half of the song is about how many people have been killed because of violence in their home towns of Chicago and New York.  But then no more than 2 minutes later the song switches and Jay drops the line "They say my black card bears the mark of the beast" and "Sheep skin coat/ I silence the lambs" This theme of rappers wanting to show there from the streets while still wanting to distance themselves by showing how the money they have made has taken them away from the streets is nothing new. (see: Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, and The Game) Me personally I don't really care that much since it is nothing new and have become so accustomed to hearing it but I definitely get the point that Hua Hsu is trying to make.

Heres the first video from the album, and yes if you are wondering that is a Maybach that they are chopping up, selling price $350,000.

Track 3. Drive the Driver

This week we are looking at the concept of the viewer and spectatorship.  Our reading by Laura Mulvey "The Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" brought up the idea of what makes narratives in cinema so fulfilling to watch.  She brings up the idea of projection, and how when it is just you in a dark theater that you as a viewer project yourself onto the character on the screen.  This idea of projection is one that I very much agree with, because everyone wants to be the hero, everyone wants to save the day.  Just recently I went and saw the movie "Drive."  The movie centers around a driver (he never says or is called by his name) who is a stunt driver in hollywood that moonlights as a getaway driver for crooks and criminals.  He starts out as a quiet, calm, and cool driver that never shows much personality or emotion. But after he volunteers to help with a robbery that goes completely wrong, the badass him comes out, how badass you ask, just listen for the crunching in the elevator scene.  After watching this movie I walked out of the theater and because I had become so interested and invested in this character for the entire drive home I felt like the driver...as I swerved through traffic at 70 mph.  Two things I think attributed to this, one was that he was never given a name, you never thought oh that Johnny or Maverick, this character was just driver, or "The Kid" as his boss called him.  Because he had no name you're more able to project yourself onto this nameless character.  The second thing that makes it easy to project yourself onto this character was that he was so emotionless that you never really knew who he was and for the first half of the movie you're trying to figure him out and you try to project your own back story onto him, doing this only makes you become more involved with this character.  I highly recommend seeing the movie, however it can be very polarizing with its minimal dialogue and slow moving at first plot. It also has a great soundtrack, check the song that plays during the climax of the movie while he looks in the diner.

"Drive" Trailer