Driven (2001)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writers (WGA):

Jan Skrentny (story) &
Neal Tabachnick (story) ...

Release Date:

27 April 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

Get ready for the race of your life.

Plot:

A young hot shot driver is in the middle of a championship season and is coming apart at the seams. A former CART champion is called in to give him guidance.

Plot Keywords:

Romantic Rivalry | Teamwork | Car Crash | Automobile Racing | One Word Title

Awards:

1 win & 7 nominations

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	Joe Tanto
Burt Reynolds	...	Carl Henry
Kip Pardue	...	Jimmy Bly
Stacy Edwards	...	Lucretia Clan
Til Schweiger	...	Beau Brandenburg
Gina Gershon	...	Cathy Heguy
Estella Warren	...	Sophia Simone
Cristián de la Fuente	...	Memo Moreno
Brent Briscoe	...	Crusher
Robert Sean Leonard	...	Demille Bly
Verona Pooth	...	Nina (as Verona Feldbusch)
Jasmin Wagner	...	Ingrid
Chip Ganassi	...	Team Owner
John Della Penna	...	Team Manager
Dan Duran	...	Commentator #1

Also Known As:

À toute vitesse (Canada: French title)
Champs (USA) (working title)
Formula One (USA) (working title)
Into Thin Air (USA) (working title)
Ruutulippu (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language and some intense crash sequences.

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA | Canada | Australia

Language:

English | German | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #38169) | Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | Australia:M (TV rating) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Brazil:12 | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Chicago Motor Speedway - 3301 S. Laramie Avenue, Cicero, Illinois, USA

Company:

Franchise Pictures

Trivia:

The reporter in the Toronto press conference scene is played by Brian Jennings, the film's visual effects supervisor.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Clearly, the race in Germany was americanized for the movie. Commentators would not say "Welcome to Germany", but "Welcome to City, Germany". In addition, German TV does not announce temperatures in Fahrenheit, ever. And German weather maps show Germany, not half of Europe for their forecast. If they do, the countries are named in German, not English. In the movie, the temperatures are in Celsius and Fahrenheit and the weather map shows 'Poland', not Polen, 'Germany' and not Deutschland.

Quotes:

Carl Henry: What about the fear?
Joe Tanto: It's gone.
Carl Henry: The fear is never gone.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: Driven (#8.3)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Green Light Girl

Man, I wanted this movie to be good...

As a big auto racing fan, CART in particular, I awaited this movie since the mid-90's when it was discussed as a Formula One movie. However, Formula One wouldn't allow the access that it did for Grand Prix in 1966, so the director defaulted to the North American CART series. CART allowed unprecedented access to its venues, races, paddock, announcers, drivers, sponsors, etc. But this movie fails in that it is nothing more than an auto racing cliché. As a fan, it's hard to rebuff the blood sport aspect of the sport to those who are not fans. The crashes are incredibly unrealistic, some of the tracks are non-existent and the drivers are paper thin. The scene near the swimming pool with the blonde vixen doing some sort of goofy water aerobics is pathetic. The part where Jimmy Bly steals a car (that happens to be filled with fuel indoors and doesn't need an external starter to run) and drives it through the Chicago streets with Stalone in tow is just ridiculous. And to they get arrested or even prosecuted for this action? No, they just are forced to convey one of the stupidest dialogues in the history of racing movies.

The CART series is in serious trouble in real life. A movie about the excitement of the series, the strategy, the action and the pageantry of racing could have boosted the series back to national respectability. However, this movie just hinders its descent into oblivion with the Can-Am series. It could have been so much more.