A getaway driver becomes the latest assignment for a tenacious detective.A getaway driver becomes the latest assignment for a tenacious detective.A getaway driver becomes the latest assignment for a tenacious detective.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis film was originally written for Steve McQueen, but he turned it down. According to Walter Hill, "He didn't want to do anything that had to do with cars at that time. He felt he had already done that and it was pretty hard to argue with that." Hill had been assistant director on Bullitt (1968) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and wrote The Getaway (1972).
- GoofsWhen the Driver first takes off in the red truck, he's clearly working a floor-mounted gearshift (almost falling into the dashboard during one shift). Later, during the chase sequence, the close-up cuts to him working a column shifter, then back to a floor shifter in wider shots.
In addition, when the driver is chasing the silver car, there's a close-up shot of him shifting the column shifter, but he shifted it into the Park position.
- Quotes
The Detective: I respect a man that's good at what he does. I'll tell you something, I'm very good at what I do.
- Alternate versionsA version of The Driver seen on TV years ago included a pre-credit prologue, in which Bruce Dern's and Matt Clark's characters meet for the first time, and Ronee Blakley gives Isabelle Adjani her assignment as an alibi. The CBS/Fox home video version begins abruptly with the opening credits, omitting this prologue.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Automan: The Biggest Game in Town (1984)
- SoundtracksOne Fine Day
(uncredited)
Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King
performed by Julie Budd (uncredited)
Heard just prior to the first chase in the pool room
Featured review
"Get in"
Less is more: a superb existential thriller to rival Point Blank and car chases to equal The French Connection, along with a couple of outstanding performances from the leads.
Here, the underworld's most talented getaway driver (O'Neal) is obsessively pursued by a corrupt, power-mad cop (Dern), who'll stop at nothing to catch him - even if it means blackmailing a seedy gang of bank robbers to help lure him into a trap. Aiding The Driver (these are characters who don't need names) is the beautiful and enigmatic Player (Adjani), who helps double-cross The Detective.
Walter Hill once mused that all his movies, like those of fellow director John Carpenter, were really westerns in disguise; hence the cowboy hats, Winchester rifles and, er, cowboys in the case of The Long Riders - which crop up repeatedly in his pictures. (Although where that leaves Brewster's Millions is anybody's guess.) The Driver, originally devised as a vehicle for Steve McQueen, is no exception: if O'Neal's country music-loving driver is referred to as 'The Cowboy', Dern, who once received death threats for killing John Wayne on screen, plays his twitching, preening nemesis like every crooked sheriff from Rio Lobo to Unforgiven.
Everybody is A Man (or Woman) With No Name - archetypes defined by their roles ('The Player', 'The Connection'), existing purely to drive the plot forward. O'Neal plays the eponymous anti-hero as half-man, half-automobile, speaking only when absolutely necessary - "Get in", "Go home" - expending just the right amount of energy to get the job done, as evinced by three of the most incredible car chases in cinema. (Hill's previous work as assistant director on Bullitt obviously stood him in good stead here).
As with Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, or Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai, which The Driver most resembles, nothing is wasted. "How do we know you're that good?" asks a doubtful crime baron, on procuring The Driver's services. O'Neal's unspoken reply providing rare light relief, as with casual insouciance and surgical precision, he reduces the dismayed owner's Mercedes to jigsaw pieces against an underground car park's concrete pillars to display his credentials.
Like a manic mechanic, Hill similarly strips the story - part-action thriller, part-existential noir - back to its essence, siphoning off dialogue, back story, character development and love interest, until only the Zen flesh and bones remain.
Here, the underworld's most talented getaway driver (O'Neal) is obsessively pursued by a corrupt, power-mad cop (Dern), who'll stop at nothing to catch him - even if it means blackmailing a seedy gang of bank robbers to help lure him into a trap. Aiding The Driver (these are characters who don't need names) is the beautiful and enigmatic Player (Adjani), who helps double-cross The Detective.
Walter Hill once mused that all his movies, like those of fellow director John Carpenter, were really westerns in disguise; hence the cowboy hats, Winchester rifles and, er, cowboys in the case of The Long Riders - which crop up repeatedly in his pictures. (Although where that leaves Brewster's Millions is anybody's guess.) The Driver, originally devised as a vehicle for Steve McQueen, is no exception: if O'Neal's country music-loving driver is referred to as 'The Cowboy', Dern, who once received death threats for killing John Wayne on screen, plays his twitching, preening nemesis like every crooked sheriff from Rio Lobo to Unforgiven.
Everybody is A Man (or Woman) With No Name - archetypes defined by their roles ('The Player', 'The Connection'), existing purely to drive the plot forward. O'Neal plays the eponymous anti-hero as half-man, half-automobile, speaking only when absolutely necessary - "Get in", "Go home" - expending just the right amount of energy to get the job done, as evinced by three of the most incredible car chases in cinema. (Hill's previous work as assistant director on Bullitt obviously stood him in good stead here).
As with Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, or Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai, which The Driver most resembles, nothing is wasted. "How do we know you're that good?" asks a doubtful crime baron, on procuring The Driver's services. O'Neal's unspoken reply providing rare light relief, as with casual insouciance and surgical precision, he reduces the dismayed owner's Mercedes to jigsaw pieces against an underground car park's concrete pillars to display his credentials.
Like a manic mechanic, Hill similarly strips the story - part-action thriller, part-existential noir - back to its essence, siphoning off dialogue, back story, character development and love interest, until only the Zen flesh and bones remain.
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- Ali_John_Catterall
- Nov 3, 2009
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Driver
- Filming locations
- Torchy's Bar - 218 1/2 West Fifth Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA(Exterior bar scenes as detectives exit.)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $4,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $1,091
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