THE DRIVER (1978) - Movie Review

Director: Walter Hill
Starring: Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Writer: Walter Hill
Runtime: 91 min
Rated: R
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), 4K Ultra HD (Amazon)

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Synopsis:

Writer-director Walter Hill's 1978 study of professionalism and obsession stars Ryan O'Neal as the ultimate getaway driver a sleek crook who's never been caught and Bruce Dern as the cop who's determined to make the collar. Isabelle Adjani glamorously co-stars as the woman in the case along with a full range of 1970s character actors. The gritty/glittering city-scapes are by Philip Lathrop and the spare moody score (available here as an isolated track) by the one and only Michael Small. Enjoy the extensive Julie Kirgo liner notes and film art packaged with the Blu-ray.

Review:

Walter Hill's 1978 classic thriller "The Driver" is a deceptively simple masterpiece, a tour de force of minimalist filmmaking that has since inspired filmmakers like Michael Mann, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Edgar Wright to create amazing movies like "Thief" (1981), "Drive" (2011) and "Baby Driver" (2017). It also served as inspiration for the 1999 video game "Driver" which spawned a long-running franchise.

With characters named The Driver, The Detective and The Player, the movie sets up a simple premise and peppers it with intense car chases, gritty urban atmosphere and performances with plenty of attitude. Hill keeps the movie fast-paced and lean, maneuvering through the plot with effectiveness worthy of the titular protagonist, all in a relatively short running time. He avoids contriving the cops-and-robbers/cat-and-mouse game between Ryan O'Neal's Driver and Bruce Dern's Detective, giving each character just enough room to build interesting personalities without tons of exposition or backstory.

O'Neal is a total badass, cool as a cucumber and fiercely intense. Dern is the perfect foil to O'Neal's taciturn wheelman, constantly talking and imbuing the character with a sleaziness that's fun to watch. He's not quite a villain, but he's not a nice person either, capable of sacrificing anyone or anything to win the game. Isabelle Adjani is seductively marvelous as The Player, a gambler who joins the Driver in his game against the Detective. The beauty of this story comes from the fact that all the characters are basically players in a high-stakes game, essentially gamblers, playing the hand they are dealt in a game of life and death, risking everything to get everything.

And finally, let's get to the action. Incredibly shot and executed, the car chases in this movie are stunning and among the finest ever committed to celluloid. Forget the kitsch of the "Fast & Furious" CGI-fest. Here is the real deal. Raw, intense, edge-of-your-seat set pieces shot on real streets, with real cars, and real stuntmen, expertly heightened by stylized cinematography, editing and sound design. A feast for the eyes and ears.

It's not hard to see why so many filmmakers love "The Driver". It's the ultimate masterclass in creating a movie in which all the elements are finely tuned and firing on all cylinders. It's a definitive "must-see".

SCORE: 10/10