Walter Hill month: The Driver

A review by Brooks Rich

I have wanted to review this film since the first week of the blog. Maybe the most obscure film I've ever discussed on this blog, consider this a very forgotten Friday on a Thursday. The reason I have waited so long to talk about is that it's not streaming anywhere and can only be seen through a DVD or Blu-ray release. I waited to see if maybe it would hit a streaming site .... but, no luck. Let's discuss this sadly obscure crime film from 1978 that is my favorite Walter Hill film and one of my all time favorite crime films.

Ryan o’Neal is the Driver, a wheelman in Los Angeles who is the best in the business. Bruce Dern is the Detective, a cop hell bent on catching the Driver, no matter what. He'll even step outside of the law just to catch this guy. The film chronicles their cat and mouse game, with every other character caught in the middle.

I have discussed Ryan 'o' Neal before when I covered the excellent Paper Moon. See that review here: https://www.cinemabasementblog.com/2019/09/forgotten-film-friday-on-saturday-paper.html.

I don't want to focus on O’Neal’s fall from grace or how he became a Hollywood tragedy. The Driver is one of his best roles and he plays the titular character as both a likable antihero and a hardened criminal. The Driver is a rat bastard, but we can't help but root for him like he's a character from a '40s or '50s era film noir.

On the other side is Bruce Dern's detective character. This guy sees himself as upholding the law, but we all know he'd do far worse than O’Neal has done just to catch his man. The Detective hides behind a badge, and in some way that makes him more corrupt than the Driver.

Fans of the 2011 film Drive should seek this film out as soon as possible. There is no way Nicolas Winding Refn didn't take some degree of inspiration from this film. If you do track The Driver down on DVD or Blu-Ray, it would pair well with Drive. Personally I prefer The Driver as I like the aesthetic of the '70s and the attitude of crime films back then, and Drive nearly perfectly replicates it. I just like The Driver better.

The Driver has shades of classic film noir, but it has that cynicism that came with the Neo-noir of the '70s. There are no good guys. Everyone is corrupt and looking out for themselves. This is a film for true cinephiles though I think some people who seek it out will find a hidden gem from the '70s that sadly fell into obscurity. Why did this film falter and bury Walter Hill in obscurity where Mean Streets and Taxi Driver made Martin Scorsese a star? Sometimes that's just how film works.

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