Customer Reviews
Terribly overrated 
2008-06-28
Bad acting, lame story and very poor execution. It could have been good if carried out right but it moves too slowly. The dialogue doesn't make much sense and it's like Martin was just killing film time by having the actors talk slowly so they had less to write. Nothing brilliant about this film, 1/5
A slum-land superhero for realists. 
2008-06-16
Martin Scorsese, the writer/director of the Taxi Driver, has admitted that this film is the cathartic result of a bevy of dark thoughts that surrounded his mind during a very low period of his life. By the time the credits finally make their merciful way on screen, we can see exactly what Scorsese saw during those days and the residual effect it has on us, the viewers, will likely stay hauntingly familiar long after we have watched the conclusion of this film.
PLOT:
Tavis Bickle, a taxi driver and volunteer for a New York City political campaign, has tried it all. He's attempted doing things the right way, treating people with kindness and women with respect. Nevertheless, he is ignored and his chivalrous advances continually stepped upon or altogether discarded by one person after another. It is when Tavis realizes that he will forever be average and overlooked that he decides to make drastic changes in his world. Almost at once he begins driving the most dangerous portions of New York in his taxi, scouring the nighttime landscape with his mind cultivating a solution to his own personal, dark problems. Soon, his decision becomes conclusive: he will become a vigilante, and his first offering to the world will be in aiding a young teenaged prostitute by providing her a way out, no matter what it may cost Tavis personally in the process.
Perhaps Scorsese's most poignant film, The Taxi Driver offers a bleak, but somehow refreshing, alternative to the concept of "taking it lying down." Here, in his vision, there is another solution, and one in which while many of us fantasize about, almost all of us refuse to make a reality.
4.5 out of 5
"All the animals come out at night......." 
2008-06-14
This is the main observation of Travis Bickle, rookie NYC cab driver who has recently returned from active duty in the Viet Nam war. He cruises the mean and scummy skid row streets on the midnight shift, loathing the locals while he steals from his employer by "doing it off the meter".
Played by Robert De Niro (in what must be his twenties), Travis exudes all the makings of a spring wound too tight and ready to explode into a million pieces. Obvious signs of post traumatic stress including dependence on drugs and alcohol, inability to relate to "normal" people back in the USA, combined with a repulsion of those "night animal people" he services with his taxi, latent racist tendencies, and an underlying contempt for authority and the society who seemed indifferent to the war or those in it create a character who is a walking time bomb with many potential targets to choose from to vent his rage. It is a rage that simmers just beneath the surface and is never physically visible to those around him.
"She appeared like an angel out of this filthy mess."
Travis's first sighting of Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) was nicely photographed in slow motion. He finds a way to meet and charm her into having lunch with him. He asks her to a movie, she agrees and he now has an opportunity to have a relationship with a smart and beautiful woman. But on his way to the date the music is somber and we see Travis plodding slowly toward what we know will be a doomed encounter. The only world to Travis is fifty square blocks of seedy, dirty, crime infested neighborhoods including the local porno theatre where (to Betsy's horror) Travis takes her for their movie date. He thought it would be okay because "lots of couples go there". He wasn't trying to be salacious; he just didn't know any better. She leaves abruptly. Across the street from the porno theatre is a regular movie house showing regular movies.
He sends her flowers numerous times, phones to ask forgiveness and another date. This scene is probably the most pivotal and one of the best scenes in the movie. As he is going down in flames and it is too painful to watch, the camera mercifully and slowly pans away, focusing on the busy street outside as we can still hear the one way conversation. After he hangs up the phone his infatuation with Betsy is immediately over and he feels she has now become "cold and distant" and is "just like all the others."
The director, Martin Scorsese, makes a cameo appearance as an unhappy and creepy fare that is stalking his cheating wife and plans to kill her for her infidelity. A young Peter Boyle has a small role as "Wizard" the street wise career cab driver who tries to console Travis with guidance and life philosophy when Travis (in his time of grief over losing Betsy) says to Wizard he wants to go out and "do bad things".
"He called you a little piece of chicken."
As Travis descends into madness, he once again encounters a child prostitute named "Easy", real name Iris, (played by a very young Jodie Foster) being used and exploited by a punk, street thug pimp (played by a very young Harvey Keitel). He tries to convince her that he will rescue her from her sordid life style. She is not interested.
At the same time Travis plots to kill the Presidential candidate (that Betsy was working for). The fact that she jilted him seems the only reason he wants to do that. After a bizarre conversation between Travis and a secret service agent at a supporter rally followed by a failed assination attempt, he escapes into the crowd. Once back at home he begins to feel that his real purpose in life at this time is to rescue Iris from the clutches of the scum he detests even if she is unwilling.
He illegally purchases many weapons, shaves his head into a Mohawk and sets out to administer justice, punishment, and do the "right thing" because "here is a man who stood up and wouldn't take it anymore".
The ending was not unexpected but did have some surprising and thought provoking twists. The soundtrack is haunting and the cinematography is terrific. Overly bright neon lights sometimes seen through a rain washed windshield or cruising the grungy, seedy, skid row streets that show the color of blood brighter than anything is a tribute to Scorsese's ability to put us right in it.
I have to agree with the American Film Institute that this is one of the best 100 films ever made. I think it is De Niro's best work followed by Goodfellas (also directed by Scorsese).
Powerful 2008-05-12
I can definetely see why this movie is considered a classic. It is both powerful and disturbing. And completely memorable.
I havent made up my mind whether the ending is fantasy or reality and I do see a strong case for both, however I am leaning towards reality because I feel they wouldnt have panned the wall of his still oh-so-cheap apartment with the newspaper clippings and the letter. It would have been more dream-like. But who knows, lol. Perhaps it was left a bit ambiguous to produce discussion.
If someone did this in real-life the ending would be an institution for the criminally insane (probably for life), although many would regard the person as a hero IF the actual story came out accurately (thats a big if). And who says insane people dont ever become heroes :)
Im glad I watched it although I found it to be very hard to watch as I feel it was almost too real. With the meth and crack plague in America the portrayal of the young girl was a bit too close to home for me. Which is why this movie doesnt even feel as though it has aged a bit. In fact I am guessing it will remain relevant for many, many generations. It really is a classic.
A disturbed young man. 
2008-05-07
I can see why people love this movie and why others hate it. Taxi Driver is a mixed bag for me, parts of the film I find interesting but there are some slow and boring sections for me as well. Robert De Niro is a fantastic actor, this is his defining role. Jodie Foster is also good as well, she plays a young streetwalker and De Niro's character tries to save her from a life on filth and suffering. The ending is pretty good but I still unsatisfied with the whole film, it's an unique flick but not a classic, I prefer Raging Bull instead.
Shocking 2008-05-05
4 Academy Award® nominations including Best Picture! (1976) Special Collector's Edition is digitally remastered and includes a never-before-seen making-of documentary featuring interviews with the creators and stars of the film. Robert De Niro stars with Jodie Foster Cybill Shepherd Harvey Keitel Peter Boyle and Albert Brooks in the all-too-real story of a psychotic New York cabby who is driven to violence in an attempt to rescue a teenage prostitute.System Requirements:Running Time: 114 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396174047 Manufacturer No: 17404
ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVER! 2008-04-30
I first saw Taxi Driver when it was released in the mid 1970s (over 30 years ago!), and was amazed then at DeNiro as an actor and the movie as a whole. The movie was so fascinating to me back then as a youngster that I remember dragging my girlfriend to the movie theatre at least 6-7 times to see it over and over. I just got the double DVD set and am re-amazed (is that a word?) at DeNiro's acting and again , with the movie as a movie. This is a film that you need to watch several times to take it all in. As for DeNiro - in my opinion, the best actor ever (forget the wasted performances in Meet the Parents, the Flockers, etc.), watch his facial expressions, catch his voice mannerisms, etc., and I think you'll agree he really nailed the part of a man who is a little off to start and whose life spirals downhill. Screenwriter Paul Schrader's commentary (on disc 2) on society's fixation with fame/media, and with making anybody a "hero", even a killer, is even more applicable today. This is a fascinating movie, really one of a kind. The 2 disc set also gives you a 2d DVD with over 2 hours of really enetertaining documentary/commentary on how the movie was made.
Taxi Driver 2008-04-25
It was easy to see that Robert Deniro was going to be an amazing actor from this film. I caught most of his movies from the 80's and 90's so he was a seasoned actor by then. In Taxi Driver you could see the rawness and hunger in him. Loved it.
Maybe was as good as it got back then 
2008-04-06
The movie was long and boring. I didn't absolutely hate it but I didn't like it all. I know it's supposed to be a drama flick but it could have had a little more action. I couldn't wait till it was over. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
The film finds a new legitimacy in this new electoral year 2008-04-01
1976 was a funny electoral year. One year after the full defeat in Vietnam and the evacuation of Saigon on the run. Two years after the resignation of Nixon, to avoid an impeachment that would have led to the very first conviction of the President. 1976 was the year when all had to changed, and nothing really changed because the establishment just looked for a way to save face and restore the everyday standard imperialistic power, and of course that will fail with Jimmy Carter, but Scorsese could not know it though everyone knew that success would be a miracle. What's more, success in that line was doomed in the long run. It was not yet possible to know what was going to happen in China, but we could know it was going to change, even if it was quite clear that the Soviet Union was not going to change at all, even if we could not know the industrialized feudal soviet system was going to fall down the chute, was going to be flushed down the drain. That was what Scorsese meant with his crossroads but he did not know how many roads there were in that crossroads nor where they led nor of course which one to take. But one thing was sure in those days: the US were going to take a road that did not lead to any confrontation with their real historical mission which is to create democracy through freedom in a system that had to improve itself all the time because it knew perfection did not exist in this world, be it only because perfection is divine and cannot be found in a non-divine world, in a human world, what's more in a human sinner's world. It was sure the US were not going to face their historical fate and their inner problems and their inner challenges like for example the racial problem, like for example the education of their young, like for example the control of violence, like for example a health care system that was more than necessary. The film is a vague echo of that particular challenge with the allusion to the welfare system, because that was where the US stood at the time: helping the poor. But Warhol had already exposed that problematic solution by showing in his films how vain, hypocritical and corrupted the welfare system was in the US, and that could not be an objective for the US, an objective they could put in their constitution in the form of a new amendment, the only way to really improve the system is by making it constitutional since then to repeal such an amendment is particularly difficult. But the film has aged tremendously since today the US have reached the end of that road, the bad road they chose in 1976. They are deep in the mud of a new war (the Buddhist have a nice saying about elephant getting caught in mud) that has been rejected by the world from the very start, they are confronted to the emerging of a world power they will have to share responsibilities with sooner or later so let it be now, the famous BRIC, Brazil, Russia, India and China, and that has to be done straight away since that BRIC is already the first economic power in the world and will be the first political power in the world within a few years. What's more the US is deeply agitated by the necessity to finally come to terms with the racial divide and the racial problem, by the obligation to provide all Americans with a full health care system, by the duty to provide every American with the possibility to educate themselves even if the government has to cut the military budget to do that. The good old three objectives of equality, good health and education in a system that would recapture freedom and democracy, both having been impaired and limited in the process of the US negating history in order to impose their own self centered epiphanic power. But what does Scorsese envisioned beyond 1976? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The system was defeated in a way. That's why the film has aged since the US and Americans finally have the chance today to be able to choose the road that would lead to their finally getting to political adult age.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
