Drive: Journeys through Film, Cities and Landscapes [Paperback]

“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. InDrive, 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 ofThe Grapes of Wrathto the city streets ofThe Italian Job; from the aesthetic delights ofRain ManandTrafficto the existential musings ofThelma and LouiseandVanishing Point;from the freeway pleasures ofRadio OnandLondon Orbitalto the high-speed dangers ofCrash,Bullitt, andC’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, makingDrivea timely riposte to anti-car attitudes, and those blind to the richness of life behind the wheel.

Iain Bordenis professor of architecture and urban culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He is the author of many books, includingSkateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body.

Introduction
1. Cities
2. Journeys
3. Motopia
4. Altered States
Conclusion

References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index

 “To pick up this book is to be taken on a smooth, fast drive. The journey starts in the city, moves out to the open road and then, as the pace quickens, heads up the motorway before a final high-speed dash that might attract flashing blue lightslC¯