The first time I watched Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978), I couldn’t get into Ryan O’Neal’s performance as the lead. I felt he was too milquetoast or lightweight to play the mysterious professional wheelman, available for hire to crews for heists and robberies. I kept thinking about Hill’s first choice, Steve McQueen, and how much better he would have been. Yet, watching The Driver for the second time, I was more into O’Neal’s presence, particularly how he and the make-up people ensured that he’s continually got bags under his eyes, emphasising his exhaustion and stress. His silent loner is a perfect counter balance to Bruce Dern’s unhinged performance as The Detective after him, breaking every law he can in this contest between the two of them (I also kept laughing everytime Dern called his partner an “asshole”). Isabell Adjani is glamorous and mysterious as The Player, the gambler who is the witness to The Driver’s last job – though she isn’t given much to do. Obviously Drive and Baby Driver ripped off The Driver in terms of iconography and style – though Hill was also ripping off Le Samourai and repurposing Jean Pierre Melville’s existentialism and mood for a car chase flick. Great driving and stunt work in downtown Los Angeles pre-Michael Mann – the chases use the French Connection style car-POV hurtling through traffic but I also dug how Hill would let parts of the sequences play out in distant shots, usually unaccompanied by score, the sound of revving engines is the only music needed. On this go around, I was also struck by how Will plays it like a neo-noir western with the characters calling each other out and meeting in showdowns with clunky revolvers. I’m a bit firmer on my opinion: The Driver is great and classic Walter Hill. Recommended.
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