"How do we know you're that good?" "Get in."

June 18, 2016 11:12 AM

Back in January, AV Club started a series called "A History of Violence", which discusses the most groundbreaking action films, year by year, starting with Bullitt in 1968. Last week after ten entries, they have finally circled back to the car chase film and arguably one of the peaks of the genre: Walter Hill's The Driver.

1978's The Driver (trailer) is famous for its minimalist plot, characters (with names such as "The Detective" and "The Player") and dialogue (the lead character speaks a total of 350 words in all), and the screenplay is considered a master class in the form. The film makes great use of Los Angeles locations, which this site has a breakdown of. Alt Screen features a spotlight of the film with excerpts from various critics as well as an interview with Walter Hill conducted by fan Edgar Wright. Did I mention The Driver also has one of the coolest movie posters from the 70's?

But, let's be honest: You came here for the car scenes. So here's The Getaway, The Audition, and The Showdown.

posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (10 comments total)

I saw this when I was in high school. I was stunned. I stayed in the cinema to watch the whole thing again, and was late home for dinner. My mum was mad at me.
posted by carter at 12:38 PM on June 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

I must note that both Bullitt and The Driver have been viewed by the Fanfare Shut Up And Drive Club.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:40 PM on June 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Ryan O’Neal could do completely expressionless better than anyone.
posted by octothorpe at 2:38 PM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

(Almost) no music or dialogue. Most movie action sequences try to hammer me over the head with how I'm supposed to be feeling, and it never fits how I'm actually feeling. This one let the driving speak for itself.
posted by clawsoon at 3:12 PM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

This looks like a good review series; I hope they cover First Blood, as well. I also didn't know that Travis Bickle was a vet, a detail that I missed from Taxi Driver (it's mentioned in the review of Rolling Thunder).
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:49 PM on June 18, 2016

Drive is amazing, because in 1978, the car scene in the USA was grim. The high-performance model of the Pontiac Trans Am made in that year, the badguy car in the "Showdown" clip, only made 200HP and 280ft/lbs of torque off the showroom floor, compared to the 1970 model, which made 370hp and 500ft/lbs. The American companies didn't want to figure out emissions control tech, and assumed it would all go away in a few years - then the Germans and Japanese kicked their ass when they got it in gear in the late '70s, and oh yeah, they could go around corners, too.

Even then, a top-of-the-line Mercedes 450SEL in 1978 had an engine that was almost as powerful as the W108 280SE in glorious orange from the film, which is 8 years its senior.

The Showdown clip featured lightweight vehicles boasting a V8, a 1973 Chevy pickup and 1976 Pontiac Trans AM, and they were both heavily modified, as this is the era before emissions testing. The underlying monster V8s were still there, if you yanked off all of the anti-smog, fuel-efficiency foofaraw.

I will take this moment to note that the fully EPA compliant, bone-stock 2011 Mustang GT that was featured in "Drive", which owes more than a little to "The Driver," makes 412 HP and 390 ft/lbs, and it was by far not the most powerful Mustang made that year, which featured a number of Shelby Cobra variants of jaw-dropping capability. All of them meeting or even going lower than their required smog numbers.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:35 PM on June 18, 2016 [12 favorites]

The sound design is excellent, btw; worth listening to with headphones.
posted by carter at 6:32 PM on June 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

This video contains content from Studiocanal, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.
posted by kersplunk at 10:12 AM on June 19, 2016

Ryan O’Neal could do completely expressionless better than anyone.

I was impressed by how good at this Liam Hemsworth is in the trailer for the new Independence Day movie, it remains be seen whether he can do it for the whole movie.
posted by biffa at 3:04 PM on June 19, 2016

Ryan O’Neal could do completely expressionless better than anyone.

Ryan is good, no doubt, but Keanu Reeves is King.
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:47 AM on June 20, 2016