“The open road”—it’s a phrase that calls to mind a sense of freedom, adventure, and new possibilities that make driving one of our most liberating activities. In
Drive, Iain Borden explores the way driving allows us to encounter landscapes and cities around the world. He takes particular notice of how driving is portrayed in film from America to Europe to Asia and from Hollywood to the avant-garde, covering over a century of history and referencing hundreds of movies.
From the dusty landscapes of
The Grapes of Wrath to the city streets of
The Italian Job; from the aesthetic delights of
Rain Man and
Traffic to the existential musings of
Thelma and Louise and
Vanishing Point;from the freeway pleasures of
Radio On and
London Orbital to the high-speed dangers of
Crash,
Bullitt, and
C’était un Rendezvous; this book shows how driving with different speeds, cars, roads, and cities provides experiences and challenges beyond compare. Borden concludes that as an integral part of modern life, car driving is something to be celebrated and even encouraged, making
Drive a timely riposte to anti-car attitudes, and those blind to the richness of life behind the wheel.