The Driver (1978)

Although it doesn't have the most considerate pacing, which is problematic with a film that has almost no score, anything else about it is stunning and surely would improve greatly in impact if seen together with an audience on the big screen. Ryan O'Neal emits a sad coolness as the lonely wolf with this single-minded approach. Being THE driver he isn't driven by anything, he's the one who calls the shots. He's a brilliant, focused driver and he might as well be a successful race car driver, but he's utterly disillusioned and dying isn't one of his worries, not because he knows he's invincible but because life chew him up and spat him out again. Basically he's your typical spaghetti western anti-hero who switched his colt and horse for a car.

Bruce Dern's cop character is his perfect counterpart. Other than "the driver" he is a driven one who is just as good, experienced and focused at what he does as the lone "cowboy" is. Being on the right side of the law he is the bad one morally. The driver follows his own code of honor of live and let live while the cop pushes people around and bends the law as much as possible to get what he wants.

The plot develops wonderfully, you always understand what the character motivations are which is what's most important, and the car chases are motivated as well. Oh, and what car chases they are. It's not so much because of how imaginative the stunts are - it's nitty gritty and pretty real - but it's because of how it was filmed. You get the feeling that what you see is real and not a result of post production. Often times the camera is on the backseat looking at what's going on behind the car, which isn't an approach you see too often in movies. At other times the camera looks over the driver's shoulder which really puts you into the situation. My favorite might be the camera mounted on the car looking into the car, Ryan O'Neal, while determined, looks even more sad while on the job. The long shots which usually also are longer takes than the average are themselves not the most exciting sequences but provide much realism which is what makes the scenes as a whole work.

Most stunningly I didn't get a feeling that the filmmakers tricked in order to conceal stunt drivers behind the wheel. I didn't spot any stunt drivers, it really seemed like Ryan O'Neal was behind that wheel the whole time. All this together with the cold atmosphere coming from the minimalist but totally sufficient character development (the film doesn't try to be cool, it just is) makes this one of the great unassuming films.

Fmovies: This is a thinking mans movie, which dare I say is why it seems to have a low rating! (at least far lower than I expected). If you watch this just for the car chases, then may I suggest you go and watch The Blues Brothers. The car chases in this film are simply the icing on the cake. Watch it for the characters, their lives, the atmosphere. All time classic.

How underrated is Walter Hill?! 'The Driver' is one of his least known movies to a mainstream audience, but one of his best loved among fans. It's one of the greatest action movies I've ever seen, with car chases as exciting as any filmed before or since. The characters are all archetypes and named after their roles. There's no traditional character development here, but the actors and the action get the point across. Ryan O'Neal plays a getaway driver, the best in his field. Bruce Dern is the cop obsessed with catching him. He's willing to do anything to do so, even setting him up. I'm a major fan of Dern. I think he's one of the most interesting Hollywood actors and 'The Driver' is yet another great performance from him an a career filled with them ('The Wild Angels', 'Bloody Mama', 'Silent Running', 'Coming Home',etc.etc.) And Ryan O'Neal, an actor I've never warmed to, is surprisingly effective is a role originally intended for Steve McQueen. Plus you get Isabelle Adjani ('The Tenant'), always a pleasure to watch. I'd put 'The Driver' up there with the original versions of 'Vanishing Point', 'The Getaway' and 'Gone In 60 Seconds' as the most underrated action thrillers of the 1970s. Why it has yet to be remade is a mystery, but hoping it isn't as it will undoubtedly suck. Hollywood just seems to have lost the ability to make these kinds of movies. 'The Driver' is expertly directed by Walter Hill, who also scripted. Also check out 'The Warriors' and 'Southern Comfort' for the best of Hill. He's a hell of a film maker and rarely gets the attention he deserves.

The Driver fmovies. Less is more: a superb existential thriller to rival Point Blank and car chases to equal The French Connection, along with a couple of outstanding performances from the leads.

Here, the underworld's most talented getaway driver (O'Neal) is obsessively pursued by a corrupt, power-mad cop (Dern), who'll stop at nothing to catch him - even if it means blackmailing a seedy gang of bank robbers to help lure him into a trap. Aiding The Driver (these are characters who don't need names) is the beautiful and enigmatic Player (Adjani), who helps double-cross The Detective.

Walter Hill once mused that all his movies, like those of fellow director John Carpenter, were really westerns in disguise; hence the cowboy hats, Winchester rifles and, er, cowboys in the case of The Long Riders - which crop up repeatedly in his pictures. (Although where that leaves Brewster's Millions is anybody's guess.) The Driver, originally devised as a vehicle for Steve McQueen, is no exception: if O'Neal's country music-loving driver is referred to as 'The Cowboy', Dern, who once received death threats for killing John Wayne on screen, plays his twitching, preening nemesis like every crooked sheriff from Rio Lobo to Unforgiven.

Everybody is A Man (or Woman) With No Name - archetypes defined by their roles ('The Player', 'The Connection'), existing purely to drive the plot forward. O'Neal plays the eponymous anti-hero as half-man, half-automobile, speaking only when absolutely necessary - "Get in", "Go home" - expending just the right amount of energy to get the job done, as evinced by three of the most incredible car chases in cinema. (Hill's previous work as assistant director on Bullitt obviously stood him in good stead here).

As with Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, or Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai, which The Driver most resembles, nothing is wasted. "How do we know you're that good?" asks a doubtful crime baron, on procuring The Driver's services. O'Neal's unspoken reply providing rare light relief, as with casual insouciance and surgical precision, he reduces the dismayed owner's Mercedes to jigsaw pieces against an underground car park's concrete pillars to display his credentials.

Like a manic mechanic, Hill similarly strips the story - part-action thriller, part-existential noir - back to its essence, siphoning off dialogue, back story, character development and love interest, until only the Zen flesh and bones remain.

This is a film with not a lot of dialogue, plus the characters are ambiguous; but if want a stylish film with some great car chases, you have to watch this film. Ryan O'Neal is The Driver; a laconic and mysterious guy who is a great getaway driver. He has a great skill behind the wheel; which he shows to a gang who wants to hire him; quite humoursly, has he trashes their car in a car park.

The detective on his tail is Bruce Dern. This guy just seems to live to catch the 'Cowboy'. He knows O'Neal is the Cowboy, but can he catch him? The cat and mouse race intrigues throughout, has Dern tries all he can to lay a trap to catch the Cowboy.

The pulchritudinous Isabelle Adjani is also a pawn in the tale. If you like mysterious thrillers with minimal narrative, check out The Driver; you won't be disappointed.

THE DRIVER (4+ outta 5 stars) Classic, no-nonsense, action-chase movie about a professional getaway driver (Ryan O'Neal) and the obsessed cop (Bruce Dern) who is determined to see him behind bars. Terrific chase scenes highlight this unjustly-neglected modern day film noir. No one plays nutty, obsessed characters quite like Bruce Dern. Ryan O'Neal as the bad guy/hero shows even less emotion than he did in Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon"... he's often accused of non-acting but I think his low-key, taciturn performance here is mesmerizing. He may as well be driving down to the corner store for a carton of milk rather than eluding a dozen speeding police cars. Isabelle Adjani doesn't really have much to do in this movie but look beautiful... but I guess that's enough. There is not a lot of dialogue and not a lot of character development. The characters in this movie aren't even given names! They are merely listed as The Driver, The Detective, The Player, The Connection, etc. This is a real high point in the career of director Walter Hill. He may have had more financial success with "The Warriors" and "48 Hours" but I think this is his best, most fully realized action movie.