“The Driver” (ザ・ドライバー), Original Release Japanese Movie Poster 1978, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) O797

This is an original Japanese B2 movie poster printed in 1978 for the first Japanese theatrical release of The Driver (ザ・ドライバー), a United States neo-noir action thriller directed by Walter Hill, starring Ryan O’Neal, with Isabelle Adjani, Bruce Dern, and Ronee Blakley.

Film background
Released in 1978, The Driver is a stripped-back, style-forward crime film built around pure archetypes: a laconic getaway driver, a relentless detective, and a dangerous woman who plays both sides. Walter Hill’s cool minimalism—sparse dialogue, tight staging, and precision car-chase choreography—made the film hugely influential on later action and crime cinema, especially in the way it treats driving as performance and identity.

Poster design
A superb Japanese B2 that sells coolness and threat through layered imagery. Ryan O’Neal dominates the upper half behind a car window—sunglasses on, expression unreadable—while the lower section becomes a graphic noir panel: the English title THE DRIVER above the bold Japanese 「ザ・ドライバー」, an inset of Isabelle Adjani holding cards like a dealer of fate, and a grainy chase-street still suggesting speed and danger. The red diagonal Japanese copy across the bottom reads like a hardboiled challenge—warning that once this man has your money, even “Brigitte” can’t catch him. Clean, cinematic, and extremely displayable.

Condition
Excellent. Please review the photos—they show the exact poster for sale.

It is over 47 years old!

It is not a reproduction or a reprint.

Certificate of Authenticity included.