The Driver (Walter Hill, 1978)

7/10
I watched two films in the lineage of 2011's Drive, this being the first. It features an unnamed getaway driver (Ryan O'Neal, adequate) on the run from an obsessed detective (Bruce Dern, awful) and getting tangled up with "The Player" (Isabelle Adjani, mysterious as ever). It's not bad for a 70's curio but I didn't get obsessed with it like I did with Two-Lane Blacktop or Vanishing Point, both of the same ilk. Quentin Tarantino calls it one of the coolest movies ever made but to me it was that exact "coolness" of the aforementioned two movies that was either lacking, or felt too forced in this case.

Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)

8.5/10
Not much to say that hasn't already been said - the movie is absolutely, almost unfathomable, gorgeous. Every scene is eye candy and some of them you never want the camera to break away. The story is simple and understated (though the narration is a bit heavy-handed and unnecessary at times) and the acting is great. It was really lovely, another movie I look forward to revisiting.

The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978)

6/10
Interesting, obscure British film from 1978 about a mysterious stranger with the power of a shout so loud it can kill people. He (Alan Bates) invites himself into John Hurt and his wife's home after becoming obsessed with Hurt's wife and he kind of makes life difficult for them. Tim Curry also has a minor role as the person Bates is recounting the story to (the entire film unfolds in a flashback). I was hoping for more but it's still a curious, surreal little movie that probably deserves better than the obscurity it seems confined to (no region 1 DVD and a pretty barebones European release).