“The Driver” (1978)
The Walter Hill of the late 1970s/early 1980s was a complete and utter bad-ass. Movies like “The Warriors,” “Southern Comfort,” “48 Hours,” and “Streets of Fire” set aesthetic standards and packed some serious testosterone punch, so it’s sort of sad that his recent theatrical output has been so lame-duck (“Supernova,” “Undisputed”). Hill’s manly style came into focus with 1978’s “The Driver,” a lean and mean car chase/heist film with a quietly forceful performance from Ryan O’Neal as the titular character at the center. O’Neal’s nameless character steal cars which he then drives during robberies and which often lead to elaborate and well-staged car chases. Bruce Dern is the dedicated cop trying to track O’Neal down who’ll stop at nothing to get his man. As far as the plot goes, it’s fairly standard stuff. But what Hill has always excelled at is showcasing men in violent action, and “The Driver” is no exception. Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (the brilliant “Bronson,” “Valhalla Rising”) is about to start filming his getaway driver opus, “Drive,” with Ryan Gosling, which seems like it’ll nod heavily to this; will it be the equivalent of this Walter Hill classic for a new generation?
“City On Fire” (1987)
An undercover cop infiltrates a ring of diamond thieves only to see their latest diamond robbery go wrong. Sound familiar? No this isn’t a Hong Kong remake of “Reservoir Dogs.” Released in 1987, this taut action filled Hong Kong suspense film not only thrust its director, Ringo Lam, onto the map but also teamed Chow Yun-Fat with 1970’s Shaw Brothers contract player Danny Lee for the very first time (the two would later reteam to great effect in John Woo’s seminal “The Killer”). The film is marked by stylish action scenes that would make Sam Peckinpah proud as well as a myriad of indelible shots; The film’s memorable shot of light streaming through a bullet-riddled warehouse, for instance, was homaged/lifted by Robert Rodriguez for his ending to “From Dusk Til Dawn.” Yun-Fat gives one of his most nuanced performances as the conflicted hero caught between his professional commitments and personal ties, while Danny Lee is excellent as the ringleader of the diamond thieves who slowly warms to the new arrival. Despite some scenes from “Reservoir Dogs” uncannily resembling a few scenes from “City on Fire” and the two films generally sharing a plot, Tarantino maintains ignorance. When asked about the resemblance between the two films, Tarantino reportedly quipped he “was dying to see [“City on Fire”].”
“Straight Time” (1978)
Yet another undersung ‘70s classic, Ulu Grosbard’s “Straight Time” featuring a fantastic turn by Dustin Hoffman as an ex-con trying to go… (wait for it) straight, is one of those loose, laconic, but brisk, me-decade pictures, chalk full of limber moments that feel like they’re made up on the spot. Also starring a young and comely Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh, and Kathy Bates (how about that for a killer cast), Hoffman plays Max Dembo, a release thief trying to make it out on the outside, but constantly hounded by his tough prick parole officer (Walsh). He meets a young girl (Russell) who tempts him to stay on the up and up, but it doesn’t last and soon the shoot-from-the-hip con is planning another elaborate jewel heist with his pals. Co-written by Alvin Sargent (“Paper Moon,” “Ordinary People,” the Sam Raimi “Spider-Man” films) and Jeffrey Boam (“The Lost Boys, “The Dead Zone”), true-crime geeks might know it best as the picture based off real-life criminal Eddie Bunker’s “No Beast So Fierce” (Bunker also co-wrote the screenplay). He’s known for playing Mr. Blue in Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” and, like Danny Trejo, is recognized as a true-life con icon in cinema. Incidentally, Trejo and Bunker first met in Folsom State Prison. Michael Mann also reportedly contributed to the script in an uncredited capacity. Suffice to say the film has a major crime pedigree and is a must-see deeper cut in the heist film genre.
“How to Steal a Million” (1966)
William Wyler’s 1966 heist comedy is the very definition of a film the likes of which ‘they’ don’t make anymore. The frothy fun and captivating chemistry between Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole (surely two of the most beautiful people to have ever lived) seems effortless, but is really cinematic lightning in a bottle, making the film a purely escapist confection that succeeds completely in its simple ambition: to entertain and nothing more. And while this is less an intricately-plotted caper movie than a showcase for Hepburn’s Givenchy wardrobe, O’Toole’s amused twinkle and some neat open-top cars and upper-class French locations, the heist itself, involving a faked masterpiece, a boomerang and an innate knowledge of human nature, is actually fairly inventive, even if it is really just an excuse to have our two deeply attractive protagonists confined in a tiny enclosed space for hours. That their romantic cross-purposes and well-meaning deceptions (for of course the two are also conning each other) will eventually work themselves out, is never in doubt, but while the ending might be predictable, it’s also perfectly satisfying – perhaps the film is formulaic, but this is one rare occasion where the formula totally works. It is insubstantial light-as-a-bubble stuff, and if doesn’t withstand any particularly close scrutiny, well, why would you even want to delve any deeper when its surface charms are so considerable?
“Bottle Rocket” (1996)
We would probably give our left nut if Wes Anderson would go back to this low-key, but brilliant style of filmmaking, but that’s unlikely to happen until he mellows out with old age and gets over his stylistic tics. Either way there’s a reason why this spry, deadpan comedy about three friends who make for three completely pathetic and inept thieves is on Martin Scorsese’s list as one of the best films of the ‘90s. Forget Anderson’s later eccentric-overloaded diorama-like films, “Bottle Rocket” rests near the top of his finest work, worlds away from the chilly sterility of “The Life Aquatic” or “The Darjeeling Limited.” Marking the debut appearances of Luke and Owen Wilson (and some of their best work as well), plus the now long disappeared Robert Musgrave, “Bottle Rocket” is more a film about friendship and naive dreamers than it is a traditional heist picture, but that’s perhaps what makes it so brilliant. Born out of Tarantino-wannabe-isms, fortunately, by the time ‘Rocket’ hit the screen it was entirely something unto itself (and was rewarded as such by being routinely ignored by theatergoers). Full of charming, low-lit subterranean comedy, the picture also doesn’t scrimp on its actual heist either and features a too-funny climax that depicts these fools botching their tightly-planned scheme (“I don’t have it, I lost my touch,” Kumar hilariously intones). Subdued, witty and droll, “Bottle Rocket” is a tiny gem.
