L.A. is enormous. Whether you’re going to the beach, work, city, mountains or suburbs, people in Los Angeles use their cars as their main method of transportation. Due to this, a stigma has encompassed L.A. for a number of years that driving is the most brutal and painstaking part of the city. This has been portrayed in many texts and films derived from Los Angeles because of the massive role it has played in its upbringing.
Sunset Boulevard and Drive both portray essential parts of the driving scene in Los Angeles. In Drive, the Driver Ryan Gosling is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who gets paid as a getaway driver for criminals. During the day, he is a stunt driver, completely different from his criminal tasks at night. This movie portrays an interesting form of symbolism that drivers in Los Angeles might have. For example, during heavy traffic in the famous evening rush hour, a person might be furious and angry at the road and at other times take a drive in a fast race car for an adrenaline rush and for pure fun. Drive shows this contrast of feelings when navigating through Los Angeles. Similarly in Sunset Boulevard this contrast is also made. Joe Gillis driving away from a person trying to resell his car. Joe has a connection to his car and finds comfort in driving it just like Ryan Gosling. This is a reality that most people exhibit in the city of Los Angeles. People spending this amount of time driving in their cars seem to form a bond with their vehicle. We see this spread out in films sixty years apart from each other.
Driving in Los Angeles plays a huge role in its culture. The cars we drive in this city become a huge part of our lives and this has come through in the comparison between these two films.
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