Taxi Driver (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976) [2-disc Special Edition]
A Film by Martin Scorsese
2xDVD9 (VIDEO_TS) | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | Film: 109:13 mins + Extras: 200 mins | 6,77 Gb + 6,90 Gb
Audio: AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps (each track) - English, German, Spanish + Two English Commentary tracks
Subtitles: English (+SDH), German, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Turkish
Genre: Thriller, Drama | Nominated for 4 Oscars + 21 wins | USA
A Film by Martin Scorsese
2xDVD9 (VIDEO_TS) | PAL 16:9 (720x576) | Film: 109:13 mins + Extras: 200 mins | 6,77 Gb + 6,90 Gb
Audio: AC3 5.1 @ 448 Kbps (each track) - English, German, Spanish + Two English Commentary tracks
Subtitles: English (+SDH), German, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Turkish
Genre: Thriller, Drama | Nominated for 4 Oscars + 21 wins | USA
Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran living in New York City. As he suffers from insomnia, he spends his time working as a taxi driver at night, watching porn movies at seedy cinemas during the day, or thinking about how the world, New York in particular, has deteriorated into a cesspool. He's a loner who has strong opinions about what is right and wrong with mankind. For him, the one bright spot in New York humanity is Betsy, a worker on the presidential nomination campaign of Senator Charles Palatine. He becomes obsessed with her. After an incident with her, he believes he has to do whatever he needs to to make the world a better place in his opinion. One of his priorities is to be the savior for Iris, a twelve-year-old runaway and prostitute who he believes wants out of the profession and under the thumb of her pimp and lover Matthew.
IMDB - Top 250 #42
A landmark of 70s American cinema that announced to the world the arrival of director Martin Scorsese, screenwriter Paul Schrader and star Robert De Niro. Though critics remain divided over the ultimate merits of TAXI DRIVER, it is an undeniably brilliant, nightmarish portrait of one man's personal hell.
Taxi Driver (1976)
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TAXI DRIVER is an alarmingly plausible character study of Vietnam vet Travis Bickle (De Niro), an alienated insomniac who spends his nights driving a New York cab. Much of what we see of the city is viewed through his windshield. After long night shifts, he still can't sleep and spends hours in porno theatres or alone in his squalid room. He has nothing but contempt for the "scum" he sees all around him and prophesies that someday a big rain will come and clean all the filth from the streets. Travis' world brightens a little when he sees a beautiful blonde woman, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), in the campaign offices of presidential candidate Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris). He quickly develops a crush on her, and she finds him intriguing enough to agree to go out with him. When he takes her, though, to a porn film (the only type of movie he knows) she walks out in disgust. An even more frustrated Travis then meets Iris (Jodie Foster), a 12-year-old runaway turned prostitute who is managed by a long-haired pimp known as Sport (Harvey Keitel). Travis becomes obsessed with "rescuing" Iris from her situation, turning himself into a one-man killing machine as he prepares for a bloody crusade which he believes will put the world to rights.
Taxi Driver (1976)
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TAXI DRIVER is a fevered, paranoid take on the perils of contemporary urban life. Scorsese paints a picture of New York City with stark, unforgettable images–steaming sewers, rainslicked streets, glaring neon lights–that together constitute a vision of hell on earth. All this is helped immensely by Bernard Herrmann's visceral score (his last; he passed away a day after its completion), and Michael Chapman's grainy cinematography. The climactic killing sequence is a sustained, hallucinatory triumph of shot composition and editing–as stomach-churning as it is technically astonishing. (Much of the negative critical reaction to the film focused on Scorsese's moral stance toward this bloodbath, claiming–short-sightedly–that it is portrayed as a positive, cleansing ritual that redeems Travis' character. TAXI DRIVER is far more ironic and multi-layered than such an interpretation suggests.)
Taxi Driver (1976)
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De Niro's mesmerizing performance is central to the film's success. He appears in nearly every scene and we see nearly everything through his skewed vision. He commands the screen and evokes such power and authority–even during Travis's meekest moments–that we are inexorably drawn into his life. Shepherd is highly effective as the Hitchcockian icy blonde, and the young Jodie Foster effortlessly conveys both youthful innocence and a street-smart, wise-beyond-her-years quality. Her breakfast scene with De Niro is riveting. In smaller roles, Boyle is great fun as an eccentric cabbie; comedian/filmmaker Albert Brooks plays Shepherd's somewhat nerdy co-worker; and Harvey Keitel makes a memorably sleazy Sport.
TAXI DRIVER won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, and Scorsese and De Niro were honored as Best Director and Best Actor by the New York Film Critics.
Taxi Driver (1976)
"One day a rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets."
Throughout the history of cinema's encounters with the dark side of the American psyche, there has never been anyone quite like Travis Bickle. And yet Travis is an everyman, a nobody; we meet people with similar backgrounds and similar views all the time. He's a former soldier, honourably discharged, bearing scars of the sort polite people don't ask about. He's out of work, he can't sleep, so he spends his days in porn cinemas and takes up a job as a taxi driver by night. This brings him into contact with the city at its ugliest. It's New York, and it's every city, Scorsese has said. Travis is seething with prejudice and paranoia. The city feeds his fury. Something is growing inside him, something dangerous.
Taxi Driver (1976)
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In many ways Taxi Driver is the last of the great films noirs, crossing over into cinema verité without sacrificing either style or tone. Perhaps Travis is a fall guy looking for a femme fatale, but Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), the object of his desires, is revolted by his bleak existence. Hers is a world off hope, of joyous optimism, as she campaigns passionately for would-be senator Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris). Here is a Kennedy figure, an icon of the American Dream, a figure who almost reaches Travis too, but not quite; and when he can't fulfil his promise, again that anger grows. Enter Iris (Jodie Foster), whose profession as a prostitute makes her the perfect icon of helplessness, whose youth (she is only ten) makes it easy for Travis to project onto her pretty much anything he likes. Obsessed with saving her, he gradually loses sight of everything else, including himself.
Taxi Driver (1976)
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This is an extraordinary film. De Niro in the central role delivers one of those powerhouse performances that simply blows the audience away. Travis is somebody we know; Travis has always been here. It's impossible to wake up and imagine a world before this happened. But the rest of the film is spot on, too. In places the cinematography uses only natural light; we're soaked in the darkness of this world, ever alert to possible danger, shifts of mood, like Travis cautiously watching his rear view mirror. At times we're not quite sure what is or isn't real, sharing the heady experience of prolonged insomnia. The score hisses, creaks and thunders, catching us by surprise. Like Travis' moods, able to shift at a moment's notice. Charming, then terrifying. Hope, then desolation.
Taxi Driver (1976)
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The supporting cast are superb. Foster excels in the difficult role of Iris (she was 13 at the time) and makes her a convincing human being even when seen through Travis' distorted gaze. Like everybody here, she has her own agenda. Harvey Keitel gets minimal screentime as her brutal pimp but leaves quite an impression. Harris is perfectly slick. Peter Boyle, as fellow taxi driver Wizard, seems to live and breathe the resentment that only Travis can turn into action.
Taxi Driver (1976)
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Taxi Driver is probably the only film that can claim to have inspired the attempted assassination of a president. Whilst that's hardly something its creators are pleased about, it is a measure of its force. Now beautifully restored and as relevant as ever, it's a must see.Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film
Taxi Driver (1976)
Special Features:
DISC ONE:
* The Film
- Audio commentary with screenwriter Paul Schrader
- Audio commentary with Professor (Film Studies & Digital Media at Georgia Institute of Technology) Robert Kolker
- "Screenplay To Movie" feature (Original Screenplay)
- Bonus trailers for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 30th Anniversary Edition", "The Punisher", "Spider-Man 3" and "Ghost Rider"
DISC TWO:
- Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver
- Producing Taxi Driver - featurette
- God’s Lonely Man - documentary
- Influence and Appreciation - Martin Scorsese Tribute
- Taxi Driver Stories - featurette
- Making Taxi Driver - documentary
- Travis' New York - featurette
- Travis' New York Locations - featurette
- Intro To Storyboards By Martin Scorsese - featurette
- "Storyboard To Film Comparison"
- Animated Photo galleries
- Scorsese At Work - Photo Montage
Taxi Driver (1976)
Scans is here.
Huge Thanks to repoman2you for original upload.
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