March 9th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Godard continues to confuse during Film Forum's weeklong screening of LE PETIT SOLDAT. Anna Karina's screen debut would doom her to marriage with the dreaded Jean-Luc. Hey, ya gotta take the salt with the vinegar. Wait I got that wrong. Whatever. Not my Pick.

The Bruno Walter Auditorium hosts the Library for the Performing Arts' screening of Harold Lloyd's THE KID BROTHER today at 2pm. Live musical accompaniment provided by silent film scholar Ben Model. Tempts, but not today's Pick.

BAM's trib to the friggin' adorable Isabelle Adjani continues with today's screening of Luc Besson's SUBWAY, also starring Conor MacLeod. But there can only be one, so I pass this up as my Pick. Another time, Highlander...

92YTribeca offers up a Yasujiro Ozu double feature tonight; A HEN IN THE WIND and EQUINOX FLOWER. Two views of postwar Japan's attempts to catch up with the modern world, the latter a generational clash, the former a struggle for survival. Hard to take sides against Ozu. But today I do. Gomennasai.

And midnight offers second screenings of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, ALIENS and THE EXORCIST at IFC Center, and CANDYMAN and HEAVY METAL at the Nitehawk Cinema. The Nitehawk offers awesome root beer and tater tots and as much as I want of both during the screening. The IFC Center offers a three block walk from my house. So both tempt for different reasons conducive to my high blood pressure, but I pass them up. For this day screens a film from one of Hollywood's last "Guy Flick" autuers from his heyday, a career peak that produced efforts like THE WARRIORS, SOUTHERN COMFORT, THE LONG RIDERS and 48 HOURS. Yes, I'm talking about melonfarming Walter Hill.

Walter Hill decided one day to make movies. And that was that. Working his way through the Directors Guild apprenticeship program he eventually found work as a second-assistant to Norman Jewison (THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR), Peter Yates (BULLITT), and Woody Allen. You read the last name right. He made his first real mark as screenwriter, penning THE GETAWAY for Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen and HICKEY AND BOGGS for Robert Culp. At some point he got his hands on Alexander Jacobs' script for John Boorman's POINT BLANK, and its sparse text served as both kismet and revelation for the burgeoning screenwriter. Less is more became his mantra, and he tested it with two icons of Guy Flick cinema; Charles Bronson and James Coburn in HARD TIMES, as a depression-era bareknuckle brawler and his manager, respectively. The film was met favorably by critics and audience alike, yet Hill felt he was still too garrulous in his cinematic storytelling. He sought something leaner, simpler, to be gotten only by those who'd get it. An existential exercise behind and before the camera. He decided to focus on a character whose function is his identity, a cultural fear in an increasingly dehumanized age, but machismo fodder for the lone wolf set. Movie title is main character. Mission is meaning. The resulting existential neo-noir action flick quietly slipped past ticket buyers and was mostly meh'd by the critics, but has since seen its stock rise to be regarded as not merely one of the best of the filmmaker's career, but a big influence on 80's Hollywood and perhaps one Michael Mann in particular, and we all know how MIAMI VICE turned out. Nudged into that transitional era between action flicks of the 60's and the 80's, Hill's masterpiece is festooned with tropes from both decades, and offers some of the best car chases ever captured on film. What's left to sell?

Walter Hill's THE DRIVER screens as part of BAM's trib to Isabelle Adjani. I IMPLORE you to attend this screening. Especially if you only know movie car chases from the FAST AND FURIOUS films. No knock, I'm just sayin'.

Follow me on Twitter @NitrateStock!

Like the page at Facebook.com/NitrateStock!

Check with the folks at Occupy Sandy to donate/volunteer!

Be safe and Sound and make sure the next guy is too, Stockahz! Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh