It's happened to all of us: you see a movie from the 70's (or some other decade we'd like to forget) that starts out fairly interesting and then some visual aspect or snippet of dialogue jumps out at you and screams "I'm from the 70's!" and blows the rest of the movie for you. That really doesn't happen with 1978's The Driver. In fact, you almost feel like the movie is too contemporary; it's really a noir film ripped out of the late 40's/early 50's and dropped into the 70's. And for the most part, director Walter Hill pulls it off.
The Driver (Ryan O'Neal, in a cool, ice-in-the-veins performance) is sort of a freelance getaway driver for hire. Extremely detached, he lives the minimalistic life in spades: he lives in cheap hotels and appears to own only the clothes on his back. He doesn't even have much to say. (I read that his entire dialogue adds up to less than 350 words.) His standards are high and he won't work with just anyone. Maybe that's why he's never been caught.
Bruce Dern is The Detective, a guy who's seen it all, done it all, and knows it all, and isn't shy about telling you so. He's trying to catch The Driver (he calls him The Cowboy) while incidentally trying to train a new detective. Dern tells him at one point, "I'm not here to teach you. But you're here to learn."
Dern always has the ability to play smug, yet intelligent types who know they have the brass to get what they want and don't mind rubbing your face in the asphalt every once in awhile to remind you of it.
Isabele Adjani plays The Player, the most oblique character in the film. Who is she? Who's she really siding with? What's her angle?
The characters make the film. (They don't have names and appear in the credits as The Driver, The Detective, etc. How cool is that?) Aside from The Detective, dialogue is stripped down to a minimum. (And I believe this causes his character to suffer in a few scenes.) With so little dialogue, every action from the characters, every glance, every nuance is important. What they don't tell you is usually more important than what they do tell you. The Driver could almost work as a silent film; it's so visual, you don't really need very many words.
As for the visuals --- To call The Driver a car chase picture really doesn't do it justice. Sure, there's some great chase scenes, no doubt. This film was sort of at the tail end of the classic car chase scenes like Bullitt and The French Connection (which weren't car chase movies). They don't look as high-tech as today's car chases, but they're still impressive (although some of them go on a little too long).
On the DVD I saw, The Driver clocks in at 90 minutes with a bonus deleted three-minute introduction that was cut from the film. I think it was wisely cut; it explains too much too early, taking away a lot of the fun. Watch it only after you've seen the entire film.
I've read that a 135 minute version exists, presumably with more chase scenes. I don't see how added chase scenes would help. The movie works at the 90 minute pace for a reason. Recommended.
