Robert Deniro Movie:

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		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
Taxi Driver is the definitive cinematic portrait of loneliness and alienation manifested as violence. It is as if director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader had tapped into precisely the same source of psychological inspiration ("I just knew I had to make this film," Scorsese would later say), combined with a perfectly timed post-Watergate expression of personal, political, and societal anxiety. Robert De Niro, as the tortured, ex-Marine cab driver Travis Bickle, made movie history with his chilling performance as one of the most memorably intense and vividly realized characters ever committed to film. Bickle is a self-appointed vigilante who views his urban beat as an intolerable cesspool of blighted humanity. He plays guardian angel for a young prostitute (Jodie Foster), but not without violently devastating consequences. This masterpiece, which is not for all tastes, is sure to horrify some viewers, but few could deny the film's lasting power and importance. --Jeff Shannon

Taxi Driver [Region 2] Reviews:
Powerful! Gripping! Excellent!
2008-12-22 - This movie is very powerful and is certainly deserving of its Top 100 AFI rating. This is the story of madness and the slow decent into criminal violence that it leads Taxi Driver Bickle when he sees it as the only way out of a hopeless situation. Loneliness can be a terrible thing to deal with and while most people struggle with it and choose a more conventional and healthy solution others with mental illness or who are prone to it "choose" different paths that may lead to self-destruction or as in the case of Travis Bickle, vigilante-ism and taking the law into his own hands to set things "right." The lonely angry psychopath who reacts in this way is the ticking time bomb that unfortunately is almost never recognised until the effects of their madness come to fruition e.g. the Unabomber etc. DeNiro does an excellent job in portraying this individual and is genuinely scary in his role; even scarier is the realisation that perhaps at some point in our lives the vast majority of us have at least contemplated taking things into our own hands and so to some extent perhaps even identify and even find ourselves rooting for Travis. The violent end may have shocked 70s audiences and you get the sense that Scorcese even toned it down a little for fear of a public backlash but it's interesting to me that as violence in film has been getting worse and worse over the years, I felt that it was pretty tame given what we are exposed to these days e.g "Kill Bill", "Blade" etc and I thought the final scenes were not violent enough relative to today's films. Ironically, Bickle is treated as a hero and is not punished for his murders in the end which is also interesting as this ticking time bomb is released into the streets in an ominous ending which leaves us expecting a sequel of some sort. I would like to see a Director's Cut of this movie and to see how Scorcese would "modernise" this brilliant film for today's audiences. In my opinion, this is the best film since "Midnight Cowboy" to expose the seady side of the 70s New York City underbelly although it is just as powerful a film for its impact on its audience.

This dvd version of the film though is a bit of a mixed bag as although the picture and sound quality have been cleaned up the sound quality in 2 channels isn't very good and I'm glad that in the newer 2-Disc and upcoming Blu-ray versions you'll get the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound option which I hope sounds much better than what we get here. The picture quality isn't perfect as a few frames here and there have spots and other imperfections on them but I thought it was done well enough to not detract from the overall viewing enjoyment. The Special Features includes a good making-of documentary with interviews with Scorcese and the cast.

Overall this is a great study into the lone, crazed anti-hero and is certainly one of the better films that I've ever seen. You may however want to give this particular dvd version a miss and go instead for either the Blu-ray or the other 2-disc standard version with the improved sound quality.

God's lonely man...
2008-11-29 - This is a very powerful film. It's very personal to me, because many of the problems Travis has can be related to me in ways. They can be related to everyone in ways. The problems of loneliness. The film expresses it through Travis in a deep, dark, and disturbing way. We connect to the character in his downfall.

"You're Only As Healthy As You Feel."...
2008-10-31 - Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) is a mess. He can't sleep. His diet consists of pills and junk-food. Mostly though, Travis is lonely. He's utterly alone in the milling crowds of NYC. Travis doesn't understand how the city got this bad, this full of filth and human debris. Why has it been allowed to degenerate into such a cesspool? Why is he the only one who seems to notice or care? Why are all women the same? Why are all men such low-life trash? Why can't someone do something about it? It's up to Travis Bickle to make things right. To clean out this festering wound. Travis has a plan. He'll get the job done. Now, all he needs is a bunch of guns. TAXI DRIVER is the 1976 shocker from Martin Scorsese that scared a generation! So real is it's presentation of mental disintegration and mass murder that it has been blamed for many of society's ills. DeNiro is absolutely in the skin of Travis Bickle, bringing out subtle mannerisms and quirks that make him as complex as he is terrifying. Jodie Foster (12yo at the time) is so convincing as Iris / Easy the prostitute that she steals every scene she's in, especially in the diner. Iris is the only one Travis considers to be worth saving. She is the one pure person in an otherwise hopelessly diseased city. She is also just as lonely and in need of love as Travis himself. If he can save Iris, he can salvage some piece of himself. The other characters, such as Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), Wizard (Peter Boyle), and Sport (Harvey Keitel) are important in helping Travis to reach his breaking point. These are the people who either cause the problems or have no good answers to solve them. Betsy's rejection is a stab through his soul. Wizard's advice is useless drivel. Sport's domination of Iris is intolerable. Travis finally cracks wide open, becoming outwardly what he'd been fantasizing internally for quite a while. He'll fix it all. He'll make it right. Nothing else matters. This movie is cinematic perfection! Highest recommendation...

Taxi Driver: Scorsese's meditation on urban loneliness and alienation.
2008-10-30 - Martin Scorsese collaborated with writer Paul Schrader to shock the world in 1976 with Taxi Driver. While Taxi Driver is now a film icon, it is worth experiencing again. Set in post-Vietnam New York City, it tells the story of Marine vet Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a 26-year-old loner adrift in the mean streets of Manhattan. Because he is a chronic insomniac, he works nights as a taxi driver. He spends his days in porn theaters. After he is rejected by Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a presidential campaign supporter for New York Senator, Charles Palantine, Bickle becomes unhinged by the seedy state of affairs in NYC. "Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets," he observes. He embarks on an intense physical conditioning program, buys four handguns, cultivates a menacing persona ("You talkin' to me?"), and becomes obsessed with the Palantine campaign. After meeting a 12-year-old child prostitute named "Iris" (Jodie Foster) in his cab, Bickle becomes obsessed with saving her from the moral decay of the corrupt City. Just as his descent into madness manifests itself in the form of a Mohawk haircut, Bickle's ascent as a hero begins in the media. Much has been written about the film's final scenes. In his fil review, critic Roger Ebert writes, "the end sequence plays like music, not drama: It completes the story on an emotional, not a literal, level. We end not on carnage but on redemption, which is the goal of so many of Scorsese's characters."

Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes film festival. There are many things that make Taxi Driver such a powerfully prophetic experience in film: Robert Deniro's intense performance as Travis Bickle; Scorsese's gifted direction; Jodie Foster's highly-controversial performance as a child prostitute and Harvey Keitel's performance as her pimp, "Sport;" Paul Schrader's talent as a writer. The "Two-Disc Collector's Edition" of Taxi Driver includes many informative extras. Taxi Driver is a compelling meditation on urban loneliness and alienation.

G. Merritt



The original American Psycho
2008-10-06 - Being a cab driver for almost 18 years, Taxi Driver is a personal favorite of mine. Driving a cab is like a drug: you get to meet new people everyday; you don't have to wait a week or two to get paid---everything's cash money; you get to know the whole city; you learn where the hot spots are--the restaurants, the bars, the clubs, etc. You set your own hours and you choose where you want to work and whom you want to serve. You have no one breathing down your neck--you are your own boss. There's a saying among cabbies: only two kinds of people get more p**** than cabbies: movie stars and rock stars.

Being a cab driver is like being a sponge. You become a therapist, a conscience, a drinking buddy, a strip club buddy, a shoulder to cry on, or a one-night stand. People show themselves to you, but you're a cabbie and you've seen it all anyway. For an extra-nice tip, a cab can be a rolling motel, a getaway car, or a safe haven to indulge strange pleasures. A cabbie is faceless from the back seat: he or she won't judge you.

After a while, every cabbie develops a callus: every passenger becomes a blur. Robert De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, sees society as converging dots flowing together like the scum on his windshield. Prostitutes, pimps, addicts, and winos gum the sidewalks. Urine stings every breath. Neon melts over his cab. This is the world that Travis lives in, and he hates it more and more everyday.

The world has become a toilet to Travis Bickle. Out of this filth appears a flower of virtue that nothing can touch--a young gorgeous campaign-volunteer named Betsy played by Cybill Shepherd. She's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Driving a cab at night, all Travis sees are whores; however, Betsy's incorruptible, and she alone can redeem mankind. She allows him to take her on a date. Though awkward, he says all the right things. He takes her to the theater to see a movie--a porno flick. Horrified and offended, she hails a cab and leaves him on the sidewalk. Travis is stunned. At that moment, a whore saunters by. They pause to gaze at each other--she is his mirror; they are one and the same.

Betsy destroys Travis; she's just like all the others. Now, there's nothing in the world worth saving--now, he knows what he must do. He hones his body and his mind: no more smoking; no more drinking; no more bad food--he must be fit. He'll annihilate Betsy and the whole world. By chance, he stumbles into the middle of a pimp/whore squabble; the whore is a thirteen-year-old girl. Something rises up in Travis's heart, something he never felt before. He discovers something worth saving-- a lost thirteen-year-old whore named Iris (Jodie Foster).

Taxi Driver was the second collaboration between Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese. Bernard Herman's magical score wafts over every scene. Taxi Driver was an omen, forecasting the senseless tragedies of both Columbine and Virginia Tech. No movie collection is adequate without this great film. See it. Buy it. Enjoy it.

author of Gotta Be Down!