Robert De Niro: Taxi Driver - Movie

Taxi Driver
Cast :	Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster
Director :	Martin Scorsese
Studio :	Columbia/Tristar Studios
Format :	Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen
Released Date :	February 08, 1976
DVD Released Date :	December 26, 2000
Language :	English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Portuguese (Subtitled), Thai (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Audience Rating :	R (Restricted)
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Customer Reviews

Rating
Date	August 08, 2005
Summary	Scorcese at his best
Content	The masterpiece "Taxi Driver" tells the tragic story of a certain Travis Bickle, an ex-Marine who gets a night job as cabby driver to while away his sleepless nights. His lonely work makes him aware of an array of bizarre and vicious characters, and he feels the urgent need of a big rain that would wash away "all this scum", like a deluge. Living an aimless life, he comes across a woman, Betsy, that stands out in the wasteland of the big city as a promise of redemption. But his best hopes are disappointed by the revulsion Betsy feels for his strange ways. In his quest for a meaningful life, he turns to a young prostitute, tries to rescue her, and finally plays the avenger of outraged innocense in the bloody end of the story, which is not for every taste. "Taxi Driver" is about loneliness, the sense of purity which it breeds, and the desire to chastise the corrupt world, embodied in the "low life pimp" that Bickle hates so much. The blood bath at the end seems to stand for a purifying ritual. I utterly agree with those who consider the very end of the story, so incongruent with the rest, as Bickle's delirium in the verge of death. The mood of self-justification is only too obvious and fits perfectly with the character. "Taxi Driver" is a movie to be studied, one of the finest examples of cinematic art.

Rating
Date	July 29, 2005
Summary	Classically Over-Rated
Content	Didn't see this movie back in the 70's, and never intended to until I recognized that a lot of Amazon reviewers compared "One Hour Photo" (a film I thought was excellent) with "Taxi Driver". So I relented and eagerly viewed the DVD, only to berate myself for having been duped. Briefly - "Taxi Driver" is the story of Travis Bickle, an ex-Marine turned NYC cab driver; a young man who "means well" but is a macho character with s*** for brains (kind of like the creators of this movie, I'm sorry to say). Anyone who hasn't sense enough not to take a woman to a smutty movie loses my interest and sympathy pretty quickly. Bickle is his own worst enemy; he doesn't have the patience or wherewithal to apply himself to get educated, etc. to make life better for himself and others. He just wants life to improve, NOW! OK, sure. So he instigates some bloodshed and death, and somehow sometime winds up a sort-of hero. HUH? I tried to get some insight on the HUH? part by viewing the "documentary" section of the DVD, but I just couldn't muddle all the way through it. It was full of nothing but ego-driven minutiae; details about stuff no sane person would care about (yawn), so I gave up and will happily dispatch the DVD back to the Public Library today and wash my hands of it. The End. PS What WAS interesting however, is the fact that this movie was made back when parts of NYC were so blighted that one could buy a Park Avenue co-op for the price (in today's $$$) of a used car. One of my relations did just that.

Rating
Date	July 18, 2005
Summary	Flawless Splendour
Content	Simply put, this is just a great movie. Along with other memorable celluloid characters such as Michael Corleone (Godfather), Marlow and Kurtz (Apocalypse Now) from that decade Travis Bickle stands out as the flawless depiction of a man gone over the edge. Certainly the 70's were a niche for some really gory but consequently influential films; when this was released it initially came under censorship in America as some of the scenes were reckoned to be 'as gory as Clockwork Orange and Straw Dogs' (Evening News '76). Indeed the build up towards the apocalyptic climax was enacted with flawless skill by Robert Deniro (hats off to him, nobody else could've have pulled off such a gig); his consummate method acting schedule then included driving around in a cab for hours at a time. To me, the most intensely enthralling scene in the movie was where the passenger (played by Scorsese) spies on his wife sitting at the back of Travis's taxi; as Scorsese angrily keeps rambling on about what he would do to the wife (who was cheating) Travis (Deniro) keeps adjusting the mirror, never taking his eyes off the man, and you could actually feel Travis's anxiety and curiosity as his eyes glare with rigid directness when the '44 Magnum' is first mentioned-such is the skill of Robert Deniro. What I love most about Scorsese's films is the ambiguous sort of ending, a scene where the protagonist shares a silent moment of reflection: In 'Mean Streets (1973)' we see Harvey Keitel ruminating on his knees after the car crash at the end, and in the recent 'Aviator (2004)' we have Leonardo DeCaprio looking back at his childhood-all of which carry a summary tinged with poignancy. So in the end, all intricacies aside, we have one movie that is flawless and a symbol of powerful 70's film-making.

Rating
Date	July 16, 2005
Summary	Intriguing But Somehow Not As Riveting as It Should Be
Content	Taxi Driver is obviously a classic. It has inspired numerous filmmakers and further established the career of Robert De Niro as one of the preeminent actors of our time. The story is about Travis Bickle (De Niro) who, to quote Pauline Kael's review, "has no point of entry into human society." Bickle turns to his violent fantasies after a campaign worker (Cybill Shepherd) rejects him- and thus his final attempt to connect with other people. This culminates in a famous scene of heinous violence. But just because a film is about disconnection doesn't necessarily mean that it has to diconnect its audience. Ultimately, that's how I felt. Here's why. -It's meandering. This is a film with many shots- carefully planned and technically beautiful shots. But at times, they seem to exist in of themselves and not to further the story, the character, or the mood. The shot going into a foaming glass of alka seltzer being just one example. These shots eventually add up and contribute to a sense of tedium. Also, the endless scenes of De Niro in his apartment eating cereal, practicing with his guns, or watching TV start to feel like exercises, revealing little that we don't already know. -Travis Bickle is inexplicable. In order to watch for 2 plus hours essentially a one-character tragedy, that one character has to be interesting. As Schrader's script is written though, Travis isn't as compelling as he should. De Niro's performance is good, especially in his early scenes when his social ineptitude towards Cybill Shepherd's character is sweetly endearing (he takes her to a porno theater on a date and can't figure out why she's offended). And when he says to his cabbie friend (played by Peter Boyle) that he's worried about "bad ideas" you see a man slipping from sanity, while at the same time trying to preserve his morality by "saving" a young prostitute (Jodie Foster). These short scenes of De Niro interacting speak volumes, and it's unfortunate that Scorsese and Schrader primarily chose to depict De Niro through his rituals, which as I said earlier, have little nuance and feel static. With that all said, there's enough good in Taxi Driver to obviously warrant a viewing. A few examples: -The New York City setting Everything about this film evokes the scuzziness of New York City in the 1970's. Scorese films the potholes, hookers, pimps, and porno theaters with such contempt that we fully understand why Travis hates it. The place is a sewer, and the pimp (played by Harvey Keitel) that Travis targets is a symbol of how hellish the city is. -Jodie Foster I really liked Jodie Foster's supporting performance as the 12-year old prostitute, Iris. She's only in a few short scenes but she captures the innocence-gone-bad that Travis so despises. In one scene, she's just a regular kid, eating some toast and giggling, and yet she's been thrust into this disgusting world. -The Palantine Subplot The artificial stump speeches of presidential candiate, Senator Palantine and the septic bourgeois banter between Betsy (Cybill) and her friend (Albert Brooks) is chilling in an odd way. It's as though the political campaign symbolizes a "civilized" and benevolent society, and yet it is completely oblivious to the hell that is out there, and thus allows the Irises and Travises of the world to suffer. One of Palpatine's talking points is ending poverty and crime. And yet, when he talks to Bickle in a cabbie by chance, his phony political good-guy schtick is perversely transparent, and it's clear that he isn't interested in genuine connection- which this film argues- propels crime and violence. Anyway, I recommend seeing Taxi Driver. It's a good movie- a bonafide classic. It's not as emotional or visceral as it should be, and falls into tedious lapses, but that doesn't detract from the influence it has had or the power it still can have over audiences.

Rating
Date	July 15, 2005
Summary	4 stars for the movie & 5 for De Niro
Content	I just watched this movie for the first time and was not disappointed. This is a great film. Every element fit perfectly and I was pleased to see that the end didn't have the "blockbuster" feel that most movies have these days. It was a raw look and loneliness, disturbance, and violence. I am not a big Scorese fan, please forgive me, but I would recommand this movie to people who enjoy good film-making, it really is a classic. Enough said about the movie - the real treasure of this film is Robert Da Niro. I can't say enough about his perfomance. I don't think I would have really liked this film as much if it had been another actor, nor can I think of anybody else who could've possibly tried to do this character. Da Niro didn't act in this film, he lived in it, he became Travis. If anyone loves Da Niro or wants to persue acting, then this movie is necessary to study. I believe that it's his best performance. This is what acting is all about.

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