The Driver

1978
R
1h 31m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Psychological Thriller Action Crime Thriller

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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.1/10

20K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
This 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).

Goofs
In a couple of shots in the first car chase the lid is missing from the trunk of the Driver's car. However, it isn't until a couple of minutes later that we see the police actually blow the lid off with a shotgun blast.

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 versions
A 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.

Connections
Featured in Automan: The Biggest Game in Town (1984)

Soundtracks
One 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

User reviews120

Review

Featured review

A matter of style

As many other Walter Hill films, The Driver portraits a stripped universe inhabited by archetypes. These are nameless, speechless and can trace their roots to the principles of Epic.

It can happen in any city, during the late 70s or nowadays but as a film noir in its essence, exclusively at night.

The performances are great and the car chases register no equal in film history. The pace of the delivery of lines is almost as suspensful as the story itself.

The minimalism of Hill's execution resembles the cinema of Jean Pierre Melville and the film's universe picks up there where Hawks, Walsh and Siegel left.

It's an exercise in style, a triumph of a clever mind, a loveable barren film that adresses, from particular detail, general, eternal issues.