Big Driver (2014)

Big Driver (2014) 

Content Warning:
The film that I am reviewing deals with the subject of sexual assault, so there will be discussion of that in this review, so if that is a subject that causes you discomfort or triggers strong emotional or even PTSD based responses then please for your own well-being do not read further, nor should you watch this film, and if you choose to, then be forewarned so that you can prepare for the topics that will be discussed.   You my dear reader, matter to me, and I want you to be safe.  I am a survivor of this kind of abuse, so I understand how triggering this subject can be if you are too, so please only read on if you are comfortable.  I love and appreciate you my dear reader, you mater, and you are valid. 

The Lifetime television channel seems to have earned a reputation as a "man-hating" channel with films that seem to focus on women as victims to crimes committed by men, and they getting their justice or revenge on the men who hurt them.   So it makes sense that one of Stephen King's most disturbing short stories would find its way to becoming a film for the Lifetime channel.  King isn't known for writing "rape-revenge" genre stories, so when he did, that story ended up being very powerful and disturbing, with his short story Big Driver in his collection called Full Dark No Stars, which might include some of his most brutal disturbing stories.   The rape-revenge genre has a long history and includes films like I Spit On Your Grave, Last House On The Left, and the Hills Have Eyes, and they might be some of the most uncomfortable films of the exploitation-horror genre.   2014's Big Driver, doesn't dwell on what some might view as the glorification of rape (though whether or not the genre glorifies that aspect of the films or not is heavily debatable), the film is more focused on the revenge aspect of the story.  Being that it is a made for television film, it doesn't show nudity, and doesn't need to get into graphic detail of it, nor does it draw it out longer than it needs to like was the case of I Spit On Your Grave.  It focuses on it long enough for the viewer to understand the traumatic and brutal nature, but not long enough to appear as to glorify the event.   What this film is though, is very very violent, not just in what happens to Tess, the main character of the story, but also in the revenge that she gets on her attacker and those who enabled her attacker to get her.  

Big Driver tells the story of Tess Thorne, a mystery writer who lives in Connecticut who is invited to northern Massachusetts for a speaking engagement at a local library for their book club.   When she leaves, Ramona the organizer for the event, suggests that she takes some backroads to get home, to avoid the freeway, and programs the route into her GPS (who Tess calls Tom and talks to like he is a person).   On the way home she runs over some debris in the road, resulting in a flat tire.  A very very large man in a big pickup truck stops to "help" her, and he ends up brutally raping her, and he believes that he has killed her and drags her into a large culvert in a drainage ditch.    When she recovers and crawls out to get help, she discovers three other corpses in various stages of decomposition in the culvert.  When she is able to finally get home, she starts to plan her revenge.  She then gets a call from a bartender at a bar near her attack called the Stagger Inn, and the bartender Betsy, lets her know that her car is at the bar.  She learns the identity of her attacker from Betsy, and goes starts to plan how she will get revenge for what he did to her, and she believes that going to the hospital or to the cops isn't an option, because she is scared that because of her being mystery writer, that writes about those kinds of things, would make people accuse her of "asking for it".  She she must find the brave to get her own justice, so with the help of  Doreen (the fictional main character in her novels) she devises a plan to exact her revenge.

Big Driver was directed by Mikael Solomon with a screenplay by Richard Christian Matheson.   The film is based on Stephen King's short story of the same name from his 2010 collection Full Dark No Stars.  Though the film takes place in Massachusetts and Connecticut, it is filmed in Nova Scotia.  The film was produced by Ostar Productions, and aired on the Lifetime Channel On Oct 18the 2014.  The film has received mixed to negative reviews from the critics, and holds about a 50% rating on film review sites like Rotten Tomatoes.   I do feel like the film however is much better, and more powerful than it is given credit for.

Big Driver stars Maria Bello as Tess Thorne, Olympia Dukakis as Doreen, Joan Jett as Betsy Neal, Ann Dowd as Ramona Norville, Will Harris as Lester "Big Driver" Norville, and Jennifer Kydd as Patsy (Tess' nextdoor neighbor and close friend).  The film is well cast, and I appreciate that Tess is not a sexualised character as is often the case in the rape-revenge genre, the film focuses on her as a strong badass woman and not as a sex object.   I feel like that puts her power not solely in her sexuality, but instead in her intelligence, which in turn makes the film feel less "exploitative" and gives it more credibility and power.   I like Joan Jett as Betsy who is a hardass bartender woman, but when she sees how badly beaten up Tess is, she opens up to her about how she understands, because she too is a survivor of abuse.  I like that because often the "hardass" characters aren't shown as vulnerable, which makes her character more human, and more relatable, and it should make the viewer think twice about the hardass biker woman, or that tough as nails bartender at some back road dive bar, because often times people are more than just what they appear on the surface.   Stephen King is great at writing characters, they are real and complex humans, and the filmmakers were true to that in this film.   

Though Big Driver hasn't been well loved by the critics, I feel like the film should be given another chance.  I as a survivor of pretty brutal sexual abuse, feel like this film, and the short story that it was based on are really powerful and really well done.  I feel like the film not only captures the pain and the trauma of it, but it is cathartic, in the revenge plot, in this film we get to join Tess as she does what some of us only dream that we could do to the people who attacked us.   I understand what it was like to feel like you could never tell anyone what would happen, and that you would get blamed for it, because when I finally opened up about what happened to me, that is exactly what I was told, that it was my fault, and that I should get over it.   So to watch a film like Big Driver that actually handles the subject in a respectful way, and then get to live out the fantasy of being able to stop the pain by hurting those who hurt you, was a very liberating and cathartic experience.   I love this film, and it might be one of my favourite "rape-revenge" genre films, it is well written, and for a made for television film it was really well made, and high quality.   If you haven't seen Big Driver, I highly recommend it, but I do also warn you, it is a heavy film to watch, it is uncomfortable, and deals with some pretty sensitive issues, so be aware of that when you watch it, not just for yourself, but for anyone else who might be watching it with you.   

Note:  A&E who owns both Lifetime, and History Channel (who are a venture of Walt Disney Co., Hearst Corp, has taken down videos of the trailer for this film on youtube, citing copyright violations.  So I could only find German and other language trailers, and out of respect for A&E who have made it clear that they don't want the trailer shared without their consent, I am not posting a trailer for this film.  However if you want to do some digging on your own I am sure you can dig up a trailer to view for yourself, also Youtube does have the full film available, however I recommend actually purchasing a copy and not watching it for free online.