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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gives new meaning to the term "slam bang",
By LGwriter "SharpWitGuy" (Astoria, N.Y. United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Driver, the (VHS Tape)
Walter Hill is the doyen of American action films, hands down. 1978's The Driver is one of his best; the focus here is on momentum, pure and simple. There are great car chases and the slam-bang stuff is there in buckets--especially a great scene inside a parking garage in which the title character played by Ryan O'Neal demolishes a vermilion Mercedes Benz by screeching around corners all over the place, showing just how good a driver he is to skeptical crooks who need him as their getaway man.A laconic flick to be sure, The Driver gives nobody names. Bruce Dern is the snartass cop who's after the driver and even recruits bank robbers to nab him. Natch, that doesn't work. You could even say this is the quintessential Hill flick (although I am very partial to Trespass), since dialogue is overshadowed by car chases and all the other stuff manipulative people (cops and criminals both) do to make their place in the world. What dialogue there is wastes no words, just like the plot wastes no time on what could be a possible romance (O'Neal and French lovely Isabelle Adjani), instead having the two of them partner up for a lot of dough--knowing glances, yeah, but no gooey stuff. Ronee Blakley is also here in a smaller role as another great looking go-between for the driver, but she's not on screen a lot, and there's never even the faintest hint of any hanky-panky between them. This is not only one of the best Hill flicks, but without question one of the best American action films ever made. The recent drivel, I mean, Driven, with Stallone deserves to crash and burn, while The Driver--tight as a drum and slick as greased lightning--is a red hot roadster of a film. See it when you need a serious revving up.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Drive, he said,
By D. Hartley (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Driver, the (VHS Tape)
It's too bad director Walter Hill will likely be remembered more for providing Eddie Murphy with his first big screen showcase (in "48 Hours") than for his overall contribution to the American action film genre. Hill's tough-as-nails 1978 noir "The Driver" is arguably both his least-known and best work. Ryan O'Neal is quite effective as a dour, sociopathic "wheelman" who hires himself out as a getaway driver for assorted criminal enterprises. Bruce Dern is at his sleazy best as the cynical but driven cop on his trail. O'Neal and Dern play this classic cat-and-mouse noir scneario to the hilt (similar to Pacino and DeNiro's relationsip in 1995's "Heat"). Isabelle Adjani's icy beauty well suits her role as O'Neal's fatalistic girlfriend. It's ironic that Ryan O'Neal's best films seem to be the ones where he doesn't have to recite much dialogue ("Barry Lyndon"). Supposedly the word count for O'Neal's lines in "The Driver" totals a scant 350 (!) according to a "factoid" that prefaced a recent cable airing. Well worth seeking out.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Post-Noir Pseudo-Existentialism With Great Car Chases,
By
This review is from: Driver, the (VHS Tape)
It gets three stars for (mostly) the car chases and the quality of menace that O'Neal manages to put into the two unaccented words "Go Home".You know you're in for someone's ego-trip attempt at The Great American Existentialist Film when the characters have no names, just labels -- "The Driver", "The Player", "The Cop", etc. It becomes more obvious when every other bit of dialog is a dry, "clever" bit of cynicism. And it's right there in your face when the major plot revelation in the film is that people don't always do what they "always do". It's far from awful -- Hill is a decent if overrated writer/director. I mean, he's working the same vein as Leone, Peckinpah and Siegel, just not in as rich a part of the ore. Well worth seeing for the transitory fun of the story and the incredible driving sequences -- comparable to the original "Gone in 60 Seconds" or "Vanishing Point" and superior to, say "Bullitt". But most people i've known who have kept the tape, kept it they can watch that Mercedes in the garage, the chase inside the warehouse or the other driving sequences, not to revel in the story.
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