Wed 30 Nov 2016
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE DRIVER (1978).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[7] Comments
THE DRIVER. EMI Films/20th Century Fox, 1978. Ryan O’Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, Ronee Blakley. Written and directed by Walter Hill.
Ryan O’Neal plays it cool – really cool – as the eponymous Driver in Walter Hill’s genre bending contemporary Western/crime drama. Although on the surface, The Driver is just another action movie replete with urban car chases, the movie is a multi-layered, yet subtle, re-imagining of the Western film subgenre in which a renegade lawman becomes consumed with bringing an outlaw to justice.
Enter Bruce Dern, who is known for his seemingly effortless ability to portray unhinged characters. He portrays the Detective who relentlessly pursues the Driver, a skillful, ascetic getaway driver who has been involved in some high profile robberies in Los Angeles. Dern is actually quite effective in this role, and he chews the scenery throughout the film. There’s a goldmine of subtle dialogue sprinkled throughout the movie, much of it the Detective’s acerbic interactions with his colleagues and suspects alike.
That brings us to the Player (Isabelle Adjani), a gambler who the Detective suspects isn’t exactly truthful about what she witnesses during a casino robbery. Much like O’Neal, Adjani plays it cool with an understated performance that somehow makes the movie even stronger than it would have been had she showed more emotion. The Player is not afraid in getting caught up in the cat-and-mouse game between the Driver and the Detective. She may be mysterious and vulnerable, but she isn’t going to be so easily intimidated by either the cops or the criminals.
What the movie lacks in character development – seen most obviously in the lack of personal names for the main characters – it more than makes up for in skillfully filmed car chases, most of which take place without any music. Indeed, there is no fanfare to drown out the sounds of revving engines and squeaking tires. All of which serve to remind the viewer that, despite the fact that the narrative could just have easily been reworked for a gritty Western, that this is a car chase film par excellence.
November 30th, 2016 at 8:56 pm
As I understand it, the film was originally designed with Steve McQueen in mind as The Driver. That may have helped at the box office — the movie did not do well — but seeing McQueen as one more cool guy behind the steering wheel of a car may easily have been one more time too many.
IMDb states that Ryan O’Neal has 350 words of dialogue in the entire movie. I didn’t count them, but that sounds about right.
December 1st, 2016 at 8:05 am
I’ve never been a big Ryan O’Neal fan, but I am a Walter Hill fan and this one was a lot of fun.
December 1st, 2016 at 11:36 am
Not only was the film a box office dud, but it got panned by the critics, almost universally. Here, for example, is what Vincent Canby of the New York Times had to say, in part:
“The movie, which opens today at neighborhood theaters, was written and directed by Walter Hill, who once wrote and directed a good movie, ‘Hard Times,’ with Charles Bronson. This one is not good. It is Awful Movie. It is Pretentious Movie. It is Silly Movie. It talks just like this.”
And yet today, on IMDb, it has a users’ rating of 7.2 out of 10. I don’t think it succeeds in everything it tries to do, but I also don’t think Vincent Canby was anywhere close to being on target.
December 1st, 2016 at 3:12 pm
” I … don’t think Vincent Canby was anywhere close to being on target.”
That’s the problem with – and for – reviewers. They’re good at judging and assessing the usual things they see regularly, but if they’re presented with something unexpected they’ve got problems as they’ve got to give a verdict on the spot without much time to think.
December 1st, 2016 at 5:46 pm
I didn’t mean to pick on Mr Canby in particular. He wasn’t the only one to write negative things about THE DRIVER. His review just happened to be the handiest. I’ve been reviewing books and movies for maybe 40 years, and I know I’ve missed the target several (many?) times myself!
December 1st, 2016 at 10:28 pm
For me O’Neal is the weak link in a potentially great film. Rather than cool I found him distracted. With McQueen … That would be different.
December 2nd, 2016 at 12:36 am
I’ve always thought that this was one of O’Neal’s best screen appearances. I remember going to see it at a second run theater here in Portland after reading one of the local film reviewers point how underrated it was, and was really worth catching.
Many people also try to draw a comparison between The Driver and the recent film Drive. But though the two may have a similar main character,and there are cars, that is all. If anything, The Driver is more like an extended Chuck Jones Road Runner cartoon. With the cop always trying to catch the driver. Where as Drive is a modern reworking of a lot of classic elements of film noir. The main character with a shady past trying to make a better life of himself and a woman he falls in love with. Only to be drawn down by the black forces around him.
Whenever I come across either film at the library, I usually take them home to rewatch.