"In the 1970s, Walter Hill established himself as a proficient writer ("The Getaway") and director ("Hard Times," "The Driver") of smart, tight, character-driven action films that drew on the work of Ford, Hawks, and Kurosawa but had a wry, literary voice all their own. It was often said - including by Hill himself - that the urban crime movies in which Hill specialized were Westerns in disguise."
"Yet there's another genre to which Hill was and continued to be equally beholden, and that's the Hollywood musical. Comparisons to Vincente Minnelli and Jacques Demy may not be as obvious as those to Sam Peckinpah and Budd Boetticher, but Hill's best work shares those directors' careful attention to rhythm (both in terms of pacing within scenes and in terms of overall structure), color, and the dynamic movement of bodies in space."
Walter Hill established himself in the 1970s as a writer (The Getaway) and director (Hard Times, The Driver) of smart, tight, character-driven action films influenced by Ford, Hawks, and Kurosawa while maintaining a wry, literary voice. His urban crime movies often functioned as Westerns in disguise. Hill was equally beholden to Hollywood musicals, sharing attention to rhythm, color, and the movement of bodies in space. He made Streets of Fire with song-and-dance elements, staged joyous performance scenes in films like 48 HRS. and Geronimo, and in 1979 consciously approached the musical form with The Warriors, structuring stylized fights and a DJ narrator as musical devices.
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