My Favourite Movies: The Driver

Despite never having owned a car nor really driven one and, unlike my brother, not being a petrol head I must admit to loving a good car chase film. As case in point is the 1978 release of the Film Noir like The Driver starring (rather oddly in my opinion) Ryan O’Neal as the eponymous anti-hero, Isabelle Adjani (pictured above) as the love interest and Bruce Dern as the cop out to stop him. The storyline – such as it is - is very simple indeed. The Driver drives for a percentage of the take on a heist, he’s very good at his job and has never been caught. The Cop wants to make his career by catching him in the act and will use any method – including blackmail and intimidation – to do so. The girl (AKA The Player) is little more than eye candy overall but is used by both Dern and O’Neal in different ways.

Apart from the quite superb car chases – and the demonstration of the Divers skills in an underground car park – what stands out for me in this movie was the character played by O’Neal. He was basically dead inside – for reasons unexplained – which enabled he to drive with apparent reckless abandon. A case in point was where he ‘played chicken’ with two police cars approaching at high speed. Clearly unconcerned about his own safety he forced the police to swerve at the last moment ensuring his escape. From his expression throughout I doubt if his heart rate went up much at all. But what really defined this film was, of course, the adrenalin fuelled chases through an unnamed darkened cityscape. They are some of the best I’ve seen and seemed to have been a particular expression of late 70’s cop movies. Of the many I saw in these my formative years the ones in The Driver are definitely amongst the best.