Driver (film)

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Movie
German title Driver
Original title The Driver
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1978
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Walter Hill
script Walter Hill
production Lawrence Gordon
music Michael Small
camera Philip H. Lathrop
cut Tina Hirsch ,
Robert K. Lambert
occupation

Driver from 1978 is an American detective film with action elements in the style of film noir . It is about a getaway driver who is being chased by an almost morbidly ambitious police officer. The film takes place mostly at night.

Characters

One of the features of the film is that none of the characters are mentioned by name. Only the job titles of the main characters are known, they are also used by others (if at all). The driver is generally called that, but also has a "nickname", which the bull calls and addresses him with: cowboy . Little is spoken in the film, especially the main character only gives 350 words in total.

The driver is known in the Los Angeles underworld for his gifted driving skills. His job is to drive robbers away from the crime scene in return for a high percentage of their prey and to shake off the police in a wild and ruthless drive. He only has a portable cassette player with country music and a little clothing, has no permanent job and lives in cheap shelters. The chases are probably all about thrill, although he does them with stoic calm and without twisting an expression. He's hardly interested in money. The agent establishes contact between him and the criminals who need his services and provides him with alibis, for example through the young player .

The dirty cop is a police officer who has been on the driver's trail for a long time, but was never able to arrest him. His methods mostly move in a gray area between legality and illegality. He wants to arrest the driver under all circumstances, although his reasons seem to be more personal in nature than to maintain law and order. His colleagues are skeptical of his risky approach.

The player is very young but it seems she is already in conflict with the law. She lives on the money she earns from false statements that cover the driver and from the occasional check that an acquaintance sends her. It's not clear whose side she's on, but she becomes a key element as the story progresses.

The glasses-wearing bandit is a robber who, together with an aggressive guy and another, inexperienced driver (whom the driver knows from earlier), carries out robberies. He is from the cops caught and forced to cooperate, but has its own plans that he wants all fooled.

action

The filthy cop has been chasing the driver for a long time , but he can not capture the driver because of the alibis he bought from the player . During an interrogation making bull clear he the Driver respected because of its professionalism, it is, however, hunting with the same professionalism on his part. To the surprise of the agent , the driver shows great interest in the young player and even visits her in her apartment. However, he does not respond to their advances. In turn, she is threatened by the cop , but does not allow herself to be intimidated.

When the bull a supermarket robber, the bespectacled bandits can grasp, he promises this full pardon if he the Driver hires for a bank robbery and then extradite the police. When the driver meets the gang for the first time, the driver already seems to notice the game. He is very skeptical of the bandit and especially the aggressive guy , intimidates them with his driving style and finally declares that he will not work with people like the bandit and the aggressive guy . The cop uses violence against the bandit to "motivate" him to stick to the plan. Meanwhile, colleagues are cops always skeptical and call for the unorthodox plan open to him. The aggressive guy goes to the driver and asks him to work with them again. When the driver refuses, the aggressive guy draws a gun and threatens to kill the driver . Although unarmed, he can easily overwhelm the attacker and ultimately just sends him away.

In a key scene, the cop visits the driver in his barren booth and the two talk. At this point in time , the driver , who lives completely without comfort, is obviously just as interested in money as the cop is in law and order - both are only driven by the desire to defeat the other. They arrange their game of cat and mouse more or less openly. The driver then agrees to the bandit's plan , but insists that the aggressive guy not take part in the robbery.

By the cops but arranged case takes an unexpected turn because the bandit would rather escape with the money instead of doing it the cops handed. He shoots his colleague, the inexperienced driver, and wants to kill the driver too . When he expressed incomprehension about the fact that a clever man like the driver never carries a weapon before the fatal shot, the driver , standing in the open car door, had a revolver in his hand that was not visible to the bandit. With it the driver shoots the bandit .

The aggressive guy wants to avenge the bandit and have the money, so he ambushes the agent and learns where the driver is and that the money is in a locker at the train station. Then he murders the agent . The driver is now getting support from the player when he wants to launder the money stolen from the bandit , i.e. exchange it for much less money, but in small, uncounted bills. She reminds him to be careful, but the driver tells her that he thinks he is in a winning streak at the game, it's about the thrill of the moment, and that he even intends the money to the cops zuzuschicken if all went well.

The player hands over the money at the train station , but the cop has her monitored. With the help of their locker keys, the money launderer deposits his bag with the clean money in one locker and takes the bandit's bag with all the loot from the other locker . But he is caught by the cop while on the run on the train and killed in a shootout. Meanwhile, taking the aggressive type of player from the key to the locker with the clean money. When he tries to escape, he is caught by the driver after a wild chase . With the words: "You lost" the driver shoots the aggressive guy and gets the locker key back. The hired driver of the aggressive types can the Driver go unmolested.

When the driver now wants to get the money from the safe deposit box, waiting there already the bull on him. Triumphantly he tries to arrest the driver , but to his own surprise he finds that the bag is empty and that the money launderer has set them both up. Without evidence of the need to cop the Driver can be drawn. In the end, both walk alone and without their hoped-for “booty” through the exit of the station into the night.

Others

  • Most of the film takes place at night in Los Angeles .
  • Isabelle Adjani can be seen in her first role in an American film.
  • The main role was originally intended for Steve McQueen .
  • The recordings of the chase at the beginning of the film were re-edited five years later for the episode "Trappers" of the series A Colt just in case .
  • The background of the film was taken over for the computer game series Driver .
  • The chase at the beginning of the film was taken over and re-filmed for the film The Transporter .
  • Nicolas Winding Refns Film Drive shows parallels to Driver . In the film, Ryan Gosling also plays an unnamed driver and getaway driver. Edgar Wright also said that his 2017 film Baby Driver , in which Ansel Elgort plays a music-loving getaway driver, was heavily inspired by Driver .
  • Sony's first Walkman did not come onto the market until July 1, 1979 - almost exactly one year after the premiere of this film on July 10, 1978. The device that the driver uses to listen to his “cowboy music” in the film is a misappropriated dictation machine.

Reviews

"[...] Director Walter Hill, who as assistant director at Bullitt in 1968 co-staged one of the most spectacular car chases, didn't just focus on fast-paced car action: The confrontation between the two main characters (none of the people is addressed by name) is carefully developed, the nightly shots of Los Angeles as an opaque tangle of garages and highways create a gloomy, almost unreal atmosphere. Conclusion: Fast-paced and crazy: a modern film noir. "

- Cinema

“Inspired by the legendary car hunt in 'Bullitt', Walter Hill staged an action thriller with merciless, breathtaking street races in the style of film noir after 'Ein stahlharter Mann'. [...] Highly professional existentialist drama with excellent camera work. "

- Video Week

“Action cinema with brutal effects; atmospherically dense, staged with stylistic ambition. "

- Lexicon of international film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for driver . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2009 (PDF; test number: 50 420-a V / DVD / UMD).
  2. ^ IMDb [1] Trivia
  3. ↑ Jacob Knight: Edgar Wright Talks BABY DRIVER And The Enduring Legacy Of Walter Hill In: birthmoviesdeath.com, June 30, 2017, last accessed November 9, 2017.
  4. ↑ Cinema.de: Filmkritik Driver (accessed on Monday, January 5th, 2009)
  5. ↑ DVD Driver
  6. ↑ Driver. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 19, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used