Taglines: Where do you go when you are already on the edge?
Talented rookie race-car driver Jimmy Bly has started losing his focus and begins to slip in the race rankings. It’s no wonder, with the immense pressure being shoveled on him by his overly ambitious promoter brother as well as Bly’s romance with his arch rival’s girlfriend Sophia. With much riding on Bly, car owner Carl Henry brings former racing star Joe Tanto on board to help Bly. To drive Bly back to the top of the rankings, Tanto must first deal with the emotional scars left over from a tragic racing accident which nearly took his life.
Driven is a 2001 action drama film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote and produced. It centers on a young racing driver’s effort to win the Champ Car World Series auto racing championship. Prior to production, Stallone was seen at many Formula One races, but he was unable to procure enough information about the category due to the secrecy with which teams protect their cars, so he decided to base the film on Champ Car.
About the Story
Halfway through the (fictionalized) 2001 Champ Car season, rookie driver Jimmy Bly has already won 5 races. His brother/business manager Demille seems more concerned with working out endorsement deals and press engagements than racing, putting tremendous pressure upon Jimmy. His success has also drawn the ire of the reigning champion and series points leader Beau Brandenburg, who believes he’s not doing as well as he should because of his fiancée Sophia becoming “a distraction”. He breaks up the engagement and he regains his winning ways.
As Brandenburg returns to form, Bly’s paraplegic team owner Carl Henry is concerned that Bly is making more driving errors. He sees parallels to his former driver and Champ Car Champion, Joe Tanto, whom he convinces to come out of retirement to mentor Jimmy. Joe agrees and is brought in to replace Jimmy’s teammate, Memo Moreno. To complicate matters, Joe’s ex-wife Cathy Heguy is now married to Memo, the driver that Joe replaced. Despite all this, Joe and Memo are still friends.
Joe’s comeback race is extremely close, with Jimmy leading and Brandenburg a close second. Jimmy can’t seem to pull away from him so Carl orders Joe to pit and holds him there until the leaders are about to come by, despite Joe’s protests. At the last second, Joe leaves the pit just in time to block out Brandenburg, allowing Jimmy to win the race.
Jimmy’s brother / manager takes a dislike to Joe’s mentoring, implying that Joe should just act as a blocker. After the race, Joe urges Brandenburg to reconcile with Sophia because she has started an affair with Jimmy, which is causing him to further lose his form on the track, resulting in Jimmy crashing out in Japan.
Driven (2001)
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Kip Pardue, Stacy Edwards, Gina Gershon, Til Schweiger, Robert Sean Leonard, Jasmin Wagner, Verona Pooth
Screenplay by: Jan Skrentny, Neal Tabachnick, Sylvester Stallone
Production Design by: Charles Wood
Cinematography by: Mauro Fiore
Film Editing by: Steve Gilson, Stuart Levy
Costume Design by: Mary E. McLeod
Set Decoration by: Gordon Sim
Art Direction by: Nigel Churcher, Chris Cornwell
Music by: BT
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language and some intense crash sequences.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: April 27, 2001
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