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These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Of course, that turned out to be exactly the right thing to do, and I was eager to do it in a terrified sort of way. Between the drinking and the morbid thinking and the pornography, I went to the emergency room with a bleeding ulcer.
The first draft was maybe 60 pages, and I started the next draft immediately, and it took less than two weeks. As the film begins, we see a yellow cab driving through a cloud of steam, and the theme music attacks the viewer as soon as the first frame is revealed. The powerful score grabs your attention from the first moment you hear it. Once Travis has completely lost his mind, he cuts his hair into a mohawk and seeks a resolution to the demons that haunt him.
After aborting an assassination attempt on a Presidential candidate, he turns his sights on saving a young teenage prostitute, Iris, played by Jodie Foster. The bloody shootout at the end of the film is one of the best in movie history. Once he reaches Iris, Travis tries to kill himself but is out of bullets. And when the police finally arrive, a bloody and battered Travis lays against a wall raising his hand to his forehead shaped like a gun, and metaphorically pulls the triggers several times.
This moment is one of the most haunting and powerful scenes in the entire movie. Earlier in the film, she rebuffed Travis after he naively took her to an X-rated film on their first date, but now like everyone else, including the audience, she views Travis in a different light. After Travis drops Betsy off at her apartment, he drives off as a hero, but is he truly free of his demons?
And compared to some of Scorsese's other work, this doesn't come across to me as some of his better material. His more recent contributions -- "The Departed" and "Gangs of New York", for example -- are vastly superior in pretty much every way.
While "Taxi Driver" is not a bad film, it is easily overshadowed by the other Scorsese offerings. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend you do. If for no other reason than giving Scorsese a fair chance, this is worth checking out.
The man has been sidelined for too long and someday critics and other people will look back and see his body of work as powerful and influential art. Released the year after the Vietnam War ended, "Taxi Driver" takes a look at the war's effects on people. Vietnam vet Travis Bickle Robert DeNiro takes a job as a taxi driver, meeting various kinds of people. But as time passes, he begins to lose his mind, and it may lead to irreversible results.
While there certainly are some violent scenes, it's pretty tame compared to the stuff that you see in movies nowadays. Still, you should be prepared for some of the scenes. But don't let that give you the wrong impression of the movie. This movie is perfect in every way. He grows increasingly disgusted by the lowlifes, scum and "trash" in the city at night, and this obviously doesn't help his attempt to get somewhere with Betsy Cybill Shepherd , who represents the vote for Senator Charles Palantine Leonard Harris , he even takes her to a porn movie on the first date!
Driven to insanity of powerlessness he buys four handguns and is intent on assassinating the Senator. Donning a Mohawk hairdo he is ready, but when he can't get close enough, he is gunned down in the end after killing Matthew, oh, he didn't die, and he returned to being a taxi driver. I think the main reason to see this film and the most memorable and notable scene is for the great improvised line when De Niro is talking to himself in the mirror, number 10 on Years, Quotes, "You talking' to me?
Yeah the story is a bit seedy but it's an incredibly interesting portrait of a mentaly unbalanced cab driver Bickle, played by Robert De Niro and his obsessions with "cleaning up" New York City. In addition to De Niro's stunning performance, we see a young and gorgeous Cybill Shepherd and a very, very young 12 years old Jodie Foster.
I've always wondered what kind of parents would allow their year-old daughter to play a role like this, but that's another subject. Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel with shoulder-length hair! Bickle's transformation from a "disturbed" cabbie to a fully-deranged assassin is fantastic to watch, and includes one of the classic scenes in all film history: Bickle talking to the mirror and repeating the question, "You talking' to me?
The more times I've watched this, the more I appreciate the cinematography and the music in here. There are some wonderful night shots of the city's oil and rain-slicked streets. Also, Bernard Herrmann eerie soundtrack is an instrumental part of the success of this film and should never be neglected in discussing this film.
Director Martin Scorcese has made a number of well-known but not particularly box-office successful films, and I still think this early effort of his was his best. A truly disturbing movie. Travis Bickle Robert DeNiro , great name, falls into a mood of brooding, amorphous rage and is frustrated in his attempts to murder a politician. So he wipes out a couple of low-life pimps instead.
The story tracks him through his descent into insanity. Interesting folks are encountered along the way but have less impact than rubber bumpers have on a pinball. Cybill Shepherd and Peter Boyle, for instance. He's particularly funny in his working-class disinclination to think things through. I saw this in the Castro Theater in San Francisco and the audience erupted in laughter. His most successful work has been with solidary groups, like small time hoods and the Mafia, in which there is an agreed-upon set of rules, and everyone knows everyone else.
This one digs into urban anomie. Scorsese is examining a social world that, as an Italian Catholic, he really has had little contact with. The film was written by Paul Schrader who, as an ex-Calvinist, is a little more familiar with this sort of ontological anxiety. It crops up in the production design. When DeNiro makes his unfulfilling meeting with Jody Foster, the twelve-year-old whore, it collapses in misunderstanding but in the background there are a multitude of Catholic candles.
The climactic scene has a voice reading a letter to DeNiro from Foster's square Midwestern parents, congratulating him for an act that was ancillary to his own agenda, which was evidently to bring the world down around his ears. A film of the s, it resonates less with audiences today.
The racial troubles that were so headline-grabbing at the time show up less often in the news today. Not that the problem of race is solved, but the categorical thinking that divided us into two warring tribes has less relevance.
The resentment simmers but has been cut off at the ankles, partly by our recent election of an African-American to the highest office in the nation. At the same time we have to admit that, as a nation, we are pustular with hatred for each other and for other countries that may not behave the way we want them to. Our leading presidential candidate has made it clear that he will go to war with Iran if Iran doesn't give up its nuclear ambitions.
These attitudes come from the same place as Travis Bickle's. Most powerful shot in the movie: the camera slowly moves in on a bubbling glass of Alka Seltzer on the table in front of Robert DeNiro. All that fizzing is but one step removed from the explosion that is to follow. Tweekums 18 February This classic follows Travis Bickle; an insomniac who spends his nights driving a New York taxi. Unlike other drivers he will drive anybody to any part of the city; this leads to him seeing the very worst of the city and he starts to think that something must be done about it.
He goes out with her a couple of times but can't see why she won't see him again after he takes her to see a pornographic film! After purchasing a small arsenal he sets about rescuing twelve year old Iris from a life of prostitution; something that leads to a bloody shootout.
This film certainly won't be for everybody; it isn't easy to like our troubled protagonist and he is rarely off screen. Many other characters are even worse; director Martin Scorsese is clearly showing New York as a moral cesspit.
Robert De Nero is on top form as Bickle; one of cinema's iconic characters. He makes us believe in Bickle as a real person rather than a caricature. He is brilliantly supported by Jodie Foster as Iris; it is hard to believe that a thirteen year old could give such an impressive performance. This does inevitably leads to some uncomfortable scenes as she offers herself to Bickle. Other notable performances come from Harvey Keitel, who plays Iris's sleazy pimp, and Cybil Shepherd, who plays Betsy.
For the most part there isn't much violence; this makes the finale, which is very bloody, all the more shocking. Overall I'd definitely say that this deserves to be considered a classic and would say it is a must see for adult movie fans; just be prepared for some disturbing moments. This too much black movie concerns on a psychotic taxi driver named Travis Robert DeNiro who returns from Vietnam and suffers insomnia. He feels revulsion at the underworld full of delinquents , pimps Harvey Keitel , prostitutes Jodie Foster and general corruption in the N.
C streets and eventually drives him to murder. Then , outcast Travis turning into exterminator angel during the nighttime of downtown N. Meanwhile , he becomes infatuated with a political campaigner Cybill Sheperd. Awesome film with tremendous images , colorful scenarios and extraordinary performances. Atmospheric cinematography by Michael Chapman , a prestigious cameraman and occasionally director. Bernard Herrmann's impressive musical score , this is his last film.
Excellent screenplay by Paul Schrader , containing some immortal phrases , it was written during his splendor time in the 70s. Magnificent Robert DeNiro portraying perfectly the dark vision of alienation and subsequent urban catharsis whose environment to drive him berserk.
De Niro worked fifteen hour days for a month driving cabs as preparation for this role , he also studied mental illness. De Niro is the Scorsese's fetish actor. This splendid movie won several prizes in British Academy , Cannes 76 and L.
Film Critics. Rating : Better than average , well worth watching. Insomniac Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle Robert De Niro takes a job driving a New York taxi cab, becomes obsessed with beautiful political campaigner Betsy Cybill Shepherd , who gives him the cold shoulder after he tries to take her to a skin flick on a date.
Bickle then becomes obsessed with underage hooker Iris Jodie Foster , buys lots of guns, and goes trigger happy on her pimp Harvey Keitel. As a fan of gritty 70s movie-making, I find it hard to believe that, until now, I hadn't seen Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver; I think perhaps the problem was that, having heard so many good things about the film, I didn't want to risk disappointment.
Unfortunately, that's precisely what I felt when I finally got around to watching the film. It's not that it's a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination—on the contrary, it's a skilfully assembled character study of a self-destructive loose cannon that boasts excellent cinematography, great music, and superb performances—BUT in the end it just didn't grab me as much as I would have liked. The story progresses very slowly, which in itself isn't a massive issue for me, but the payoff simply isn't as satisfying as I felt it needed to be given all that has gone before.
After all of his stalking, inane rambling and meticulous planning, Travis Bickle's rampage is over in a flash, after which he is proclaimed a hero and freed to roam the streets once more unless you prescribe to the theory that everything after the shootout is in Bickle's mind as he slowly bleeds to death. Perhaps Scorsese's point was to show us just how easy it is for a dangerous loony like Bickle to be overlooked by society until its too late—but it sure felt like a letdown to me.
Martin Scorsese's film is indeed quite good, but it's also flawed, murky and confusing, talky in the wrong places, and features such an over-hyped performance by young Jodie Foster as a pre-teen prostitute that I imagine most viewers will be let down by what amounts to an extremely minor role. Robert De Niro's work is the centerpiece of the picture, playing haunted New York City cabbie Travis Bickle, a man so consumed by the evil on the streets that he eventually stoops to its level. Bickle is a human time bomb; he's ready to explode, and it wouldn't matter where he was or what he was doing.
The movie doesn't make any apologies for Bickle, but I didn't buy some of the reasons for his actions it's briefly alluded to that Travis wants to "save" Foster from her sordid existence, but one gets the feeling he just wants to shoot at somebody I've seen better movies about people-as-targets, the City As Hell and urban alienation, but I think the reason why so many people remember "Taxi Driver" and keep returning to it is Scorsese's style.
The filmmaker has an unflinching, fearless ability to take on the most neurotic of outcasts while wedging his camera into the most provocative or squalid of surroundings. His picture moves at a staccato rhythm--and it has too much chatter--yet the seamy, sticky ambiance is so tangible you can practically feel it on your fingertips. Cybill Shepherd does excellent work as a beautiful woman stumping for a senator's presidential bid who comes into contact with Bickle; Harvey Keitel is oddly-placed but compelling as a smug, self-assured pimp; and Oscar-nominated Foster, while just a bit self-conscious, does well with a sketchy role.
De Niro, who was also nominated for an Oscar, is so adept at these kind of misfit characterizations that we're ready to fill in the blanks left behind by screenwriter Paul Schrader. We don't really learn much about Travis Bickle--deliberately, one assumes--yet De Niro and Scorsese draw us into his dark world. It's a fascinating portrait. Dark look at s New York City.
TxMike 12 September I was able to watch this on BluRay from my public library. Being one of the more famous movies, there isn't much to say regarding "review" comments. The disc has a number of extras, some over an hour long, so any big fan of this movie should view the BluRay version, it will entertain you for a long time.
As an example of his inability to understand 'norms' on his first date with an attractive campaign worker he took her to a theater showing porn movies. To him that was just normal. She walked out and he followed her. In fact during filming in Foster had not yet turned This is a well-made movie for the times, mostly with very dark themes. Quinoa 13 February Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a riveting, disturbing and powerful masterpiece of a film that gives new meaning to the word "snapped".
The scenes, quotes and characters are legendary and so is this film giving breakthrough performances to Albert Brooks, Jodie Foster, and of course, Robert De Niro. De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a disturbed taxi driver who drives his taxi all around new York City going crazier every day. And what the story leads up to is one of the most memorable pieces of cinema ever. The film is great, the score by Bernard Hermann his last is excellent, and the feeling, and atmosphere is perfect. So, "are you talking to me"?
Director Martin Scorsese uses harsh reality and memorable characters to perfection. His insomnia appears relentless and he spends a lot of his time in porno theaters. This lonesome loser does have a heart buried beneath that rough and hardened exterior. Driving his taxi allows him to see through his eyes the underbelly of the city and confirms his contempt for the "scum" all around him.
Then trying to "rescue" a year old runaway turned prostitute Jodie Foster and dealing with her sleazy pimp Harvey Keitel. A stomach-churning bloodbath seems to be an unconditional cleansing of a very personal hell. This great movie is just a building block towards Scorsese's genius.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In Martin Scorsese's classic s drama, insomniac ex-Marine Travis Bickle works the nightshift, driving his cab throughout decaying mid- '70s New York City, wishing for a "real rain" to wash the "scum" off the neon-lit streets.
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