The Driver (1978)

 

Four Stars

The key to understanding the characters in some of Hawks’ or Melville’s films is understanding their profession or their application of expertise. In Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978), the characters are their professions. What they do on the screen is their arc. It’s genre film-making stripped so completely bare that the people on the screen don’t even have names. This coldness and abstraction is undoubtedly alienating to some viewers, but I find it beyond cool and totally compelling. Hill’s screenplay for The Driver introduces the three principles by their occupations – The Driver, The Detective, and The Player. He also includes a succinct paragraph giving you the hook for each one: The Driver is the best wheelman in the city, The Detective asks a lot of questions, The Player doesn’t own anything, and they all live alone. 

You don’t get a lot more in the film. Ryan O’Neal and Isabelle Adjani – The Driver and The Player respectively – are virtually expressionless and don’t talk much. Their actions unfold according to their respective natures which they reveal deliberately throughout the running time. Bruce Dern is the largest screen presence, manic and rangy, but that restlessness comes with the territory of being The Detective. What The Driver lacks in dialogue, it makes up in action. The car sequences are masterful. Played without music and nearly wordless, relying on pure physicality. The engine sounds, the tires screeching, sirens wailing, and the headlights gleaming. The action surrounding the chase set pieces are also characteristically light on dialogue, but expertly reveal the mechanics of how these jobs are arranged and executed. There’s very little in the way of fetishizing the tools of the trade: guns, masks, cars, etc. During an interrogation by the Detective the Driver admits to not even owning his own vehicle. Still, it’s apparent what the Driver does value, precision and professionalism. That’s what the film values as well. It would be a mistake to refer to The Driver as a simple movie, what it is is precise, spartan, maybe even brutal.

Twilight Time Movies released a Blu-ray disc of The Driver that is sadly OOP and going for big bucks on the secondary market. The DVD that’s currently available is totally watchable, though, and cheap enough that it’s worth snagging a copy. Hopefully we’ll see a wider release of The Driver with some solid bonus features and (naturally) I’d jump at the chance to see it in the theater.