Edgar Wright Talks with Walter Hill About 'The Driver'

Continuing with his film programming at New Beverly Cinema called The Wright Stuff II, filmmaker Edgar Wright gave us a vehicular double feature with "The Driver" and "Duel." But the main attraction of the evening was "The Driver," a 1978 movie directed by Walter Hill, and Edgar Wright gleefully told the audience that it was more for him than us (it was his first time seeing it on the big screen), and that it made him want to become a getaway driver. Joining him for this screening was the film's director Walter Hill, actors Bruce Dern and Ronee Blakley, and producer Frank Marshall.

Upon seeing the sold out audience at the New Beverly, Walter quickly remarked:

"This is the largest crowd in the United States that has ever seen this movie. It didn't do all that well when it was first released."

Indeed, "The Driver" is not as well known as some of Hill's other movies like "48 Hours" or "Southern Comfort." When it came out, it was criticized as not being fun and for being "too real." Walter remarked that it is depressing when a movie you make does no business and gets bad reviews. Later though, another filmmaker contacted him about the reception "The Driver" got and told Walter:

"Pay no attention to reviews. The movie's marvelous, life is hard."

"The Driver" marked the first time Walter Hill worked with Bruce Dern, and Bruce praised him endlessly throughout the evening and said that he would go anywhere in the world for him. Bruce found Walter to be "full of surprises," and he came to work thinking that they would do something never done before. Walter in turn described Bruce as "a very special actor" who always jumped out at him with quality and personality in each of his performances, and that he gave each role an unusual quality of psychological density to even the most mundane of characters.

Producer Frank Marshall, best known for the Bourne Trilogy and blockbusters like "Raiders Of The Lost Ark," originally turned the movie down because it was being shot at night in downtown Los Angeles. At the time, he was worried about shooting in there as it had a very brutal atmosphere (it has since made a comeback). Somehow though, he got sucked into doing this one and ended up trading a summer in Malibu for it. "The Driver" later led to another Walter Hill movie called "The Warriors" which was also shot at night.

While Bruce Dern has most of the movie's dialogue, the main star of "The Driver" is Ryan O'Neil. His character is noted for having only 350 words in the entire script, and Edgar remarked how nice it was to have an action movie where the hero has no good lines. Ryan was known as a heartthrob at the time, but he was eager to do something different in his career when this role came along. However, many didn't accept Ryan as this character when the movie came out as people had a different image of him (he did comedies before this). After all this time though, it is clear just how good Ryan is, and he really grew as an actor here.

When it comes to the car chases in "The Driver," it is clear that the actors were really driving those cars and not stunt doubles. This was not long after "The French Connection" which did everything for real, and everyone was really tearing around at crazy speeds in those scenes. Walter and company were "young and reckless" back then, and he gleefully pointed out that there was "a real man in that car that flipped."

But what's great about the car chases in "The Driver," as Frank Marshall pointed out, is that they are telling a story with them. These are not chases for the sake of chases, but ones which are an integral part to the film as a whole. Watching it at New Beverly Cinema, it made me yearn for the kind of car chases that Hollywood doesn't do anymore unless CGI is heavily involved. In the end, there's not much that's even better than the real thing.

One audience member asked if there were any police experts on set during the making of "The Driver." Walter said there were not, and that the movie is really "pure fantasy" in what it portrays and that it is the "opposite of law enforcement." It's hard to think of any police force wanting to be involved with a movie like this as it appears to show the "bad guys" getting away scot free. In the end, Walter saw it as an extension of the "dark sides of personalities." Indeed, this is not a film inhabited by easily redeemable characters, and Walter was correct in saying that it was a "very unreal movie."

Walter took the time to talk about his style of directing, and this something I was eager to know more about. His films typically don't get much rehearsal time, but he found that it actually works in the director's favor. Walter told the audience that 2/3^rd's of directing is casting, and that he never gets any rehearsal until take 1. Bruce added that he's not very good at rehearsal, and that made him and Walter seem like a perfect match for one another.

Walter even talked about how he originally wanted Robert Mitchum for Bruce's part, and that he talked with him for 6 hours straight about it. In the end though, Robert said that there was "too much car stuff" and that he didn't have the energy for it. This clearly benefited Bruce who got the role, and he admitted that Robert would have been a "handful" for Walter.

In the end, "The Driver" really turned out to be a gift for everyone at New Beverly Cinema that evening. It was a gift for Walter and the other guests as it brought back so many memories they would have otherwise forgotten. It was also a gift for Edgar Wright as he would never have seen it on the big screen otherwise. But it was an especially big gift for all of us in the audience that evening because we may not have seen the movie if it weren't for Edgar. I probably would not have rushed out to see it was Edgar not to feature it in his festival of movies, and for me it turned out to be a special treat.

"The Driver" is one of the many movies that prove Walter Hill is a vastly underappreciated filmmaker. After watching it at New Beverly Cinema, I cannot deny how effective of a director he is.