Taxi Driver

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Summary: u talkin 2 ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This movie is so cool. Escipally the last shooting scene. BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Summary: Now, This is a Great Film!
Review: "Taxi Driver" is a classic, no matter what anyone says. It's even considred one of the best 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute. That alone says a lot, because a film donesn't reach that spot by accident. This is a timely classic that continues to entertain people all around over and over again.

Directed by the great Martin Scorsese, this is the story about a man named, Travis Bickle. He cannot sleep so he decides to be a taxi driver by night. From his job he has seen the worst of the worst, and every day he seems to be losing his mind. He turns psychotic every day and it only gets worse. It eventually gets to the point where Travis wants to kill someone; anyone. This is a terrifying glimpse into the darkest parts of city life that very few dare to explore. This is the tale of one man who has had enough.

The movie is very well directed and written. It is beautiful, dark, and haunting. Disturbing as it may be, the story has such realism to it. Robert De Niro outdoes himself in this film. You can sense his drifting into madness so clear that it's scary. They could have not achieved this goal if they had casted someone else for the role.

My favorite scene in the movie has to be when De Niro is talking to the secret service man. It's so funny and yet so chilling at the same time. And, of course, who can forget watching De Niro talking to himself in the mirror. "You talkin' to ME?"

This new DVD version is beautiful. The picture quality is outstanding, considering how old this film is, and that I once had the older version that just came out when DVDs were only getting started. Lots of special features on this disk. If you have the older version of this movie and you love this picture, I urge you to go and get this newer version of the DVD. It is ten times better.

This is a classic, and no one can ever take that away. However, keep in mind that since this is a classic, it does not mean that you will like the movie. I cannot tell you if you will like it or not, and neither can anybody else. Just because "Citizen Kane" is a classic didn't change the fact that I didn't like that movie. If you are currious to see it, then rent it and see if you enjoy it. Even if it turns out that you don't like it, I clearly doubt that this will be the worst rental you will choose. "Taxi Driver" is a magnificent work of art, and it is film-making like you have never seen. A great movie that can never be duplicated. A spectacular film. Not one single complaint here.

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Summary: Haiku Review
Review: Funny elbows dance
On wings of yellow mallards.
Kick the tires soft.

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Summary: What's Moonlighting?
Review: You already know that this is a classic film. What makes the DVD worth owning is the fascinating making-of documentary that accompanies it.

Schraeder, Scorcese, De Niro, Foster, Brooks, and Keitel all share their memories of the film's inception, production, and reception upon release. Their insights and recollections are actually worth hearing, and the documentary as a whole makes you wonder why most other DVDs have such useless extras.

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Summary: The Hack From Hell!
Review: "Taxi Driver," Paul Schraeder's brilliant character study of a certain type of alienated white male that emerged in the post Vietnam 70's, remains as distrubing today as it did 25 years ago.

"Taxi Driver" established Schraeder as a major screenwriting talent, Robert De Niro as a star and Martin Scorsese as the pre-eminent filmmaker of his generation.

The acting is flawless (was the ever a BAD performance in a Scorcese film)?...even Cybil Shepherd gives the illusion she can act....Scorsese himself, playing a jealous husband who's gone over the edge, is simply stunning.

"Taxi Driver," is a mixture of Urban Gothic horror and a psychological case study of the terror that can be wrought by loneliness and alientation, scored beautifully by the late Bernard Herrmann (can anyone watch the film without going around humming that haunting saxophone passage?)

This new special edition DVD is superb, containing a 90 minute documentary on the making of the film that includes interviews with many of the cast and crew ( Scorsese, De Niro, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Albert Brooks, Paul Schraeder, makeup man Dick Smith, and Elmer Bernstein, standing in for Herrmann).

The only element sorely lacking in the DVD is the commentary Scorsese did for the Criterion laserdisc edition.

"Taxi Driver," a film that could never be made today in the era of "Scream 2"," where 12-18 years make up the bulk of the ticket buying public, remains a contemporary classic and this special edition DVD is a filmlover's delight.

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Summary: A dark and creepy horror film
Review: Taxi Driver is one of those rare mainstream horror movies, dark and sinister, ominous and threatening. The mind of Travis Bickle is fierce and frightening, the loneliness omniprescent. The performances are amazing in this film, Robert DeNiro, looking very young, is incredible. Cybil Shepard is an odd fixture, and her role is never adequately explained. Some may find that annoying, but it adds a bit of thought from the viewer, which really makes the movie interesting. The special edition is wonderful, the hour long documentary is inciteful and well worth having. A real keeper, and one that can be watched many many times, each time the viewer brings something new. It is incredibly violent and slightly explotative (which is understandable before Mean Streets, Scorsese did Boxcar Bertha for Coreman) but like Silence of the Lambs, the explotation aspect is one in keeping with the tone and feel of the movie.

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Summary: Certainly not for everybody
Review: To be frank, although I enjoyed Scorcese's Mean Stretts, the film did not leave a lasting impression on me. This does not mean that the acting was poor, rather the script was somewhat simple and unpolished. Scorcese took a lot more time on Taxi Driver, and this is apparent throughout the entire film. To begin with, the music score by Herrmann compliments the tone of the movie perfectly and conveys a feeling of loneliness and drifting. Secondly, the strength of DeNiro and Keitel's acting has improved considerably.
I don't want to give an explanation of what happens in the movie, rather to present an inidividual understanding. Many have dismissed Taxi Driver as a film which goes nowhere, and have called it too artsy. My interpretation differs. Certainly, it is not a unique film, but the feelings of loneliness and social awareness that DeNiro brings to his role are interesting. DeNiro may be thought of as a modern day Steppenwolf-a man completely alienated from his surroundings. Note, for example, the scene where he sits in the cafe with his collegues. His inability to communicate at even the most superficial level demonstrates his alienation from his surroundings, but also arouses the sympathy of the viewers.
Taxi Driver is unique in that the Scorsese did not hesitate to include racism in the movie(recall the scene when Bickle leaves the cafe and throws some menacing looks at a black man passing by). To see a film that is not concerned about making people happy and being politically correct is refreshing. Also the portrayal of the corrupt and superflous candidate is amusing.
Essentially, Taxi Driver is one of the most slept on films of the 1970's. Although it made a big impact at the time of its release, the touchy subject matter made it difficult for TV stations to air it to a home audience.

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Summary: Taxi Driver
Review: Directed by Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest films of the 20th Century. The story about a man drowning in loneliness that desperately seeks the approval of the social lives of those around him. He is Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), who (as the film opens) gets a job as a cabbie because of the insomnia he suffers of. He prefers working nights (12 hour shifts), will take anyone anywhere, and still he can't seem to sleep. His point-of-view is an ingenius cinematic approach whereas it is viewed in slow-motion (which symbolizes his heightened observation). There are so many undercurrents within the film that even Bickle himself doesn't realize. There is an apparent prejudice against african-americans (the usual stereotype of them all being pimps or drug dealers - and ironically enough when Bickle finally does meet a pimp, he turns out to be white).

Bickle bides his time in a coffee shop where all the 'night shift' cabbies hang out. He listens to them ramble about imaginary women who give them $500 tips and their phone number to somewhere in South America. His attention wanders and his inability to socialize presents an awkward air that is at times difficult to watch.

Bickle eventually meets Betsy (Cybil Shepherd) who is an avid supporter of the presidential candidate Palantine. His former view of the inhabitants of New York as "scum" is finally changed when he meets a girl who "is not like the rest of them". He asks her out to a movie and it turns out to be porn. He knew it was porn (he goes to the same theatre every night he's off work), but he doesn't go for the usual reason people go, he gets no satisfaction out of it, it is as if he's punishing himself for having walked into such a place. He seems to not realize why she looks at him with disgust and eventually leaves and never wants to see him again.

Bickle is a "walking contradiction" whereas he sees the world as evil and wrong, but in his attempts at being accepted, he finds himself bending the rules of morality and becoming what he despises.

He comes across a 12-year old prostitute named, Iris (Jodie Foster), who he immediately likes, but the only way he can be near her is to pay for "half an hour". He does so, and despite her attempts to "make it", he tries to tell her that he's come to set her free from the life of prostitution. "Don't you want to get out of here?" he asks. "But it saves me from myself," she answers innocently. He leaves frustrated.

Bickle is (like the John Wayne character in "The Searchers") trying to rescue women who don't want to be rescued. It becomes his obsession that these women are being oppressed and that his goal in life is to set them free.

His obsession leads to violence when he purchases weapons and attempts to assassinate Palantine, but runs away almost as if, at the last moment, coming to his senses. But that is only the "dress rehearsel" for the climax of the film which is one of the most graphic scenes of violence ever filmed. It is shot in 'washed out' colors as if the ensuing violence has drained the blood from the film.

The famous line, "Are you talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here," spoken to himself in a mirror, has been many times mimiced but the meaning can only be fully realized in this film. It is the voice of a lonely man amidst the crowd, a voice of sarcasm at his own worthless condition. The condition we all find ourselves in from time to time.

The film ends with Bickle meeting Betsy one more time as he is driving her home in his cab (by a chance meeting). Her look has changed from one of disgust to admiration and the viewer senses that this scene is not real. That it is either his final dying thoughts or simply a fantasy in his mind. It is Bickle finally finding redemption, finally finding his place in society. It has all been resolved and now he can lead a normal life or die happily.

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Summary: Yeah, I'm talkin' to you!
Review: Man, the 70s were chock full o' excellent films. From "MASH" to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Network," "Nashville," "Days of Heaven" and especially "Taxi Driver," the 1976 Martin Scorsese-directed grungy, street-level study of alienation. Robert De Niro, memorable as the young Don Corleone in the second "Godfather" movie, brings us into the closing decades of the 20th century as Travis Bickle, the obscure and troubled cabbie. This remains one of his signature portrayals.

Primarily a character study with only a bare-bones plot, "Taxi Driver" reveals Bickle, whose experiences in Vietnam have left him a shell, a soft-spoken insomniac with a never-ending monologue about the sordid things he encounters while prowling the mean streets of New York. He drives his cab through rain-washed streets and kills time in porno theaters, cut off from the rest of humanity for reasons even he can't fully comprehend. Eventually, he meets and attempts to woo two women who will change his life: Jodie Foster as a teenaged prostitute, and Cybill Shepherd as a dedicated campaign worker. Unfortunately, Bickle's inability to articulate his torment and his mental problems inevitably lead him down an increasingly shadowy path.

The film's climactic confrontation (between De Niro and Harvey Keitel as a pimp) scorches and burns but fails to provide a catharsis for De Niro's character (as it would in a lesser film), and its enigmatic ending remains much debated. This is a dangerous film, seemingly as lethargic as Bickle's speech but, like the character himself, capable of erupting in violence. John Hinkley would later use this film's political assassination plot as inspiration in his own pursuit of Jodie Foster; it's difficult to view the film without that association. But this is a must-see, must-own film for serious buffs, DeNiro and/or Scorsese fans.

Brilliant comedian/filmmaker Albert Brooks has an amusingly neurotic role as one of Shepherd's colleagues. The always excellent Peter Boyle also stars.

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Summary: SCORSES'S GENIUS IS OBVIOUS
Review: In 1976, Martin Scorsese directed "Taxi Driver", starring Robert DeNiro. Calling this a "conservative" movie is a stretch, but it is a prescient look at New York attitudes that preceded the age of Giuliani. Paul Schrader wrote it. His story is a hoot in and of itself. He and his brother were raised in a strict Calvinist Pennsylvania family, emphasizing the strictest tenets of Scripture and absolutism. The Calvinists are big on pre-ordained destiny. Released from this environment, he came to Hollywood and tried everything. Naturally, he was a mess; a drug addict, an alcoholic and a heterosexual so confused he tried homosexuality just...to try it. Given the assignment to write a screenplay, he was holed up in a downtown L.A. hotel for weeks, then months. He had little social contact except occasional taxi rides to restaurants in and around L.A.'s skid row. He began to see the world from inside the taxi, and came up with a character and a plot revolving around the concept.
DeNiro's Travis Bickle is a Vietnam Marine vet, off kilter but moral, who is sickened by the crime, drugs and immorality of 1970s New York City, seen from the taxi he drives night and day. He has an ill-fated fling with a pretty campaign worker (Cybil Shephard), goes off the deep end and portrays himself as a possible assassination threat to a Presidential candidate, although this is never fleshed out. In the end, he commits an act of vigilantism to save the life of a teenage prostitute with potential (Jodie Foster), and like in "Death Wish" (Charles Bronson), is made a hero.
The message of "Taxi Driver" is that peace comes from strength. It was a popular theme in a number of flicks. Hollywood seemed to fail to grasp some important realities about its marketplace. Time after time, movies that veered away from "touchy feely" liberalism and gave teeth to conservative characters (Eastwood's "Dirty Harry", Bronson, DeNiro, and others) made boffo box office, yet the industry has never come to grips with itself. They return time after time to premises that insult conservative audiences, and wonder why the lines get shorter.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
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