Country: USA
Year: 1978
Duration: 95'
When Driver,
an impassible driver
working for gangsters, is behind the wheel, escape is guaranteed. Until
a
determined policeman blackmails a gang of criminals to push Driver out
into the
open. A gloomy metropolitan noir with plot and characters reduced to
the
essential, the film uses action in the pure state, with frantic chase
scenes
and sudden outbursts of violence.
“The Driver certainly
has this sense of being
closed-in, of claustrophobia. Maybe it was a period of my life when I
was
feeling locked in, without any outlets, and subconsciously I
transferred these
feelings onto the film. The lead is a caged man who fights his own
battle and
does everything he can to win. The Driver can be
read like a race, a
game.” (W. Hill)
Biography
film director
Walter Hill
Walter Hill (Long Beach,
California, 1942)
studied art and later enrolled at Michigan University, where he
discovered his
passion for cinema. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam war, moved
to Los
Angeles and entered the world of cinema as assistant director. He
worked on the
set of Bullit (Peter
Yates, 1968) and The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman
Jewison, 1968) and in
1971 met Sam Peckinpah, for whom he wrote the screenplay for the film The
Getaway (1972). After writing the screenplay for The
MacKintosh Man (
John Huston, 1973), Hill debuted as director in 1976 with Hard
Times, a
story about clandestine boxing matches during the Great Depression. He
next
wrote the screenplay for The Drowning Pool (Stuart
Rosenberg, 1975) and
went on to direct his second movie, the detective film The
Driver (1978).
Walter Hill won international fame with his next film, The
Warriors (1979),
which mixes classic and modern cinema, horror films and musicals,
westerns and
thrillers. His success was confirmed by his next movie, Alien
(Ridley
Scott, 1979), which Hill produced and, along with David Giler (his
present
collaborator), was also non-accredited screenwriter. In 1980 Hill tried
his
hand at westerns for the first time and directed The Long
Riders,
followed two years later by the greatest success of his career, the
action film
48 Hrs., which made Eddie Murphy a star, and in 1984 the rock
fairy tale Streets
of Fire. Over the next few years Hill experimented different
genres -
comedies, Brewster's Millions (1985);
musicals, Crossroads (1986);
modern westerns, Extreme Prejudice (1987); noir
films, Johnny Handsome
(1989) - along with more commercial productions like
Red Heat (1988)
and the sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990), without the
same box office and
critical success he had enjoyed during the 1970s and '80s.
After the violent
film Trespass (1992), Hill returned to directing
westerns with Geronimo:
An American Legend (1993) and writing screenplays for John
Milius, Wild
Bill (1995) and Last Man Standing (1996),
based on a story by
Kurosawa. In 2002 he directed Undisputed, which
takes place in a
California prison and is inspired by Mike Tyson's
vicissitudes, and in 2004 he
directed the pilot film of a western series on HBO entitled Deadwood.
Hill is now on location in Canada shooting his next western, Daughters
of
Joy.
FILMOGRAFIA
Walter Hill (Long Beach,
California, 1942)
studied art and later enrolled at Michigan University, where he
discovered his
passion for cinema. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam war, moved
to Los
Angeles and entered the world of cinema as assistant director. He
worked on the
set of Bullit (Peter
Yates, 1968) and The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman
Jewison, 1968) and in
1971 met Sam Peckinpah, for whom he wrote the screenplay for the film The
Getaway (1972). After writing the screenplay for The
MacKintosh Man (
John Huston, 1973), Hill debuted as director in 1976 with Hard
Times, a
story about clandestine boxing matches during the Great Depression. He
next
wrote the screenplay for The Drowning Pool (Stuart
Rosenberg, 1975) and
went on to direct his second movie, the detective film The
Driver (1978).
Walter Hill won international fame with his next film, The
Warriors (1979),
which mixes classic and modern cinema, horror films and musicals,
westerns and
thrillers. His success was confirmed by his next movie, Alien
(Ridley
Scott, 1979), which Hill produced and, along with David Giler (his
present
collaborator), was also non-accredited screenwriter. In 1980 Hill tried
his
hand at westerns for the first time and directed The Long
Riders,
followed two years later by the greatest success of his career, the
action film
48 Hrs., which made Eddie Murphy a star, and in 1984 the rock
fairy tale Streets
of Fire. Over the next few years Hill experimented different
genres -
comedies, Brewster's Millions (1985);
musicals, Crossroads (1986);
modern westerns, Extreme Prejudice (1987); noir
films, Johnny Handsome
(1989) - along with more commercial productions like
Red Heat (1988)
and the sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990), without the
same box office and
critical success he had enjoyed during the 1970s and '80s.
After the violent
film Trespass (1992), Hill returned to directing
westerns with Geronimo:
An American Legend (1993) and writing screenplays for John
Milius, Wild
Bill (1995) and Last Man Standing (1996),
based on a story by
Kurosawa. In 2002 he directed Undisputed, which
takes place in a
California prison and is inspired by Mike Tyson's
vicissitudes, and in 2004 he
directed the pilot film of a western series on HBO entitled Deadwood.
Hill is now on location in Canada shooting his next western, Daughters
of
Joy.