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Released by: Twilight Time
Released on: August 13, 2013.
Director: Walter Hill
Cast: Ryan O'Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Odjani, Ronee Blakely
Year: 1978
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The Movie:
Directed by Walter Hill after the success of his feature directorial debut, Hard Times, 1978's The Driver stars Ryan O'Neal as The Driver of the title, a man with no name type who, when we meet him, is sitting at the wheel of a car parked out back of a casino. Two thugs pulls off a daring robbery and hop in the car and he tears out of there, the cops soon in hot pursuit. Enter The Detective (Bruce Dern), a nameless cop who has been hot on his tail for some time. He refers to The Driver as 'cowboy' and notes how he operates like an outlaw, all while bending and often times breaking the law himself to get what he wants.
When they catch The Driver the cops call in some witnesses. Most say they can't say they didn't get a good enough look at him to say for sure if he was the one outside the casino that day, but a beautiful dark haired woman (Isabelle Odjani) who did see him lies to the cops and says flat out that he's not the one. From there The Detective and his cohorts use The Connection (Ronee Blakely) to setup The Driver, coercing him into taking a job behind the wheel of a getaway car for a bank robbery to be setup by a trio of thugs who agree to do this in exchange for leniency from The Detective. Of course, The Driver is no fool, and this won't end well at all…
An obvious influence on Nicolas Winding Refn's recent Driver, Hill's picture is well paced and incredibly well shot. The case chases are not only tense and exciting but consistently impressive in their scope, stunt choreography and framing. An example of how much style is brought to these scenes takes place during one of The Driver's run from the police. As the chase plays out, we see out the window from his point of view but reflections in the windshield show off what's happening around us as obstacles and scenery move in and out of view and then into the distance. There's a strong, steady underlying of menace and violence to the chase scenes that foreshadow some of the events that will come to pass as the story comes to its conclusion and which reflect the way in which our titular character approaches his chosen profession.
The characters played O'Neal and Dern make for interesting contrast. The criminal is the one who sticks to his code, much like Alain Delon's character in Le Samourai, while the cop is the one who flies off the handle and is only too happy to step on anyone who gets in his way. The Detective makes it very clear that he'll stop at nothing to catch The Driver, he's comfortable using physical violence to get his way and has no problems threatening people or forcing hesitant co-workers to go along with his undeniably dangerous plan. The Driver, however, keeps his cool throughout the movie. Those around him speak of him in almost reverential terms, of his dislike for firearms and when it comes time for him to prove he's worth the asking price to The Detective's cronies, his skillset is obviously beyond reproach. O'Neal is all smooth charm and class here, Dern on the other hand paints his character as manic, obsessive and even psychotic. In the middle of this is the beautiful Odjani, the character who links these two contrasts together. Well acted, well shot and set to a great score, this is (reasonably) modern noir at its best.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Driver arrives on Blu-ray in an excellent looking transfer presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed in its original aspect ratio of 1.85.1. This is a very dark movie, the bulk of it takes place outside at night or indoors in sparsely lit dingy rooms so it was obviously of the utmost importance that shadow detail be perfect here and, thankfully, it pretty much is. Some of the darker scenes do show heavier grain than is visible in the movie's few lighter scenes but this never feels unnatural or like a problem with the transfer. Colors look great throughout, bold and clearly defined without any unnatural boosting or problems with bleeding. Skin tones look lifelike and accurate and black levels are nice and strong. Detail and texture are consistently excellent and this is an exceptionally nice presentation for the movie.
The only audio option for the feature is a DTS-HD Mono mix in the film's original English language. Closed captioning is available in English only. As far as the quality of the track goes, it's solid through and through. There are a few spots during the car chases scenes where the dialogue does get a bit buried but these moments are few and far between. Engines roar to life with some serious power and gun shots pack a punch. The score sounds great, it's an evocative piece that compliments the action, tension and drama perfectly and it adds some subtle ambience to a few key scenes. Presented in lossless, it has an obvious advantage here when compared to how it sounded on DVD, there's more presence and depth to it.
Extras are slim but we do get the film's original theatrical trailer as well as an alternate opening scene that introduces us to The Driver, The Cop and The Connection. It over explains things and takes away from the movie's excellent sense of mystery, but it's nice to see it included. Aside from that, we also get an isolated score track in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 format, which is a nice bonus. Menus and chapter selection round out the disc. As is the norm with Twilight Time releases, we also get an insert booklet with an excellent essay from Julie Kirgo which give the film some cultural and historical context in Hill's filmography and make some interesting observations about the different influences he pulls from for this picture.
The Final Word:
Twilight Time's Blu-ray brings the movie to high definition in wonderful condition and with excellent audio and if it's not crammed with extras, it's got a couple of supplements tucked away under its menus. As to the movie itself, it's an incredibly slick noir influenced thriller. The Driver is one of Walter Hill's finest moments, an exercise in the power of silence and calm wrapped up in ninety minutes of near flawless cinematic tension.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
