<em>Baby Driver</em> Is a Rare Heist Movie With a Heart
Edgar Wright’s latest film is easy to dismiss as an exercise in style, but he’s both paying homage to, and subverting, the morality of the getaway driver.
This story contains major plot spoilers for Baby Driver.
The title character of Walter Hill’s 1978 classic heist movie might as well be making his entrance from the pits of hell. The opening shot of the movie sees Ryan O’Neal rise into focus, riding a one-man valet elevator in a parking garage, as the dirge-like score hums atonally. The Driver doesn’t have a name—nobody in the film does—and he barely has a personality. He’s just a wraith behind the wheels, leading the cops on a grim chase through the streets of Los Angeles on behalf of his bank-robber clients. The opening set-piece of is nearly wordless; it’s just a cacophony of squealing tires and police sirens,
