The Driver

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The Driver
The Driver
Directed by	Walter Hill
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon
Written by	Walter Hill
Starring	Ryan O'Neal Bruce Dern Isabelle Adjani Ronee Blakley
Music by	Michael Small
Cinematography	Philip H. Lathrop
Editing by	Tina Hirsch Robert K. Lambert
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (North America) EMI Films (International)
Release date(s)	July 10, 1978
Running time	91 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Driver is a 1978 crime film directed by Walter Hill and starring Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, and Isabelle Adjani. The film is notable for its impressive car chases and no frills style of filmmaking.

1 Plot
2 Reception
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

The Driver (O’Neal) is a professional getaway driver who specializes in big time robbery jobs. He’s a man of few words, cool under pressure and the best at what he does. Hot on his trail is a police detective (Dern) determined to bring him down. “I’m gonna catch the cowboy that’s never been caught,” he tells the Driver early on. The detective becomes so obsessed with catching this guy that he sets up a bank job in order to entice, trap and ultimately arrest him.

[edit] Reception

Saying it's "probably advisable for film noir aficionados only," film critic Duncan Shepherd of the San Diego Reader praised the film highly (awarding it the highest 5-star rating). "The whole show, in fact, is something like a coded message passed from the moviemaker to the devotees of the genre, in full view of, but beyond the full understanding of, the rest of the audience," according to Shepherd.^[1]

[edit] Trivia

Ryan O'Neal's character only says 350 words in the entire movie.
Not one character has a name in this movie, and are all addressed by their occupation e.g. "the Driver".
This film was originally written for Steve McQueen.
The original red Mercedes which was elegantly destroyed in the multi storey carpark scene was auctioned off, in its current destroyed state, to independent British movie car collector, Ian Jackson. The price of the final bid is unknown but is believed to be between £8,000,000 and £9,000,000.^{[citation needed]}
The film was originally intended to be over two hours long. For years even the VHS tapes had said the length was over two hours, although it was always 90 minutes on those tapes, on cable TV, and now on DVD. Only once was the longer version shown, in a theater in Hollywood by director Walter Hill. This director's cut involved more chase scenes and character development.