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 SITTING IN THE MIDDLE OF IT AND WATCHING IT Feb 28, 2010
I saw this movie when it was released to the theaters in the '70s. In New York City. In a moviehouse in Times Square. The theatre was full of blacks and there were roaches running up the walls and cum all over the seats and this is the only way to see this movie: Sit right in the middle of the theater of action while it is all over the screen. I walked out with my friends after it was over into the late afternoon sun and none of us needed to say anything. This totally is a New York movie about going insane in New York City and cathartically divesting yourself of the whole mess you find yourself in in a very lethal way and getting away with it, then returning to normalcy, having been cleansed of the demons which drove you into madness in the first place. Heavy duty. Love this movie.
Hard-hitting 70s urban drama. Dec 30, 2009
Taxi Driver stars Robert Di Nero as Travis Bickell, an isolated, alienated Viet Nam vet living in NYC, during the mid-70s. Travis inhabits a world of violence, crime, and sleaze, as he makes his way through NY as a nighttime taxi driver. His personal life is empty, and he has no intimate friends, family, or romantic attachments.
Travis negotiates his life in the Big Apple as best he can, without much morale support at all. When Travis becomes acquainted with a teen-age prostitute named Iris, he's determined to save her from her low-life pimp, and get her off the streets. And Travis is willing and able to use deadly means, to accomplish this mission.
There couldn't have been a better actor to play Travis, than Di Nero. It's as if he was born to play Travis. He does a superb job, of conveying Travis's acute sense of anguish, rage, and steely determination, to rescue Iris from her sordid existence. An excellent supporting cast graces this film too; especially Jody Foster as Iris, Harvey Keitel as the vile pimp, and Peter Boyle as a fellow taxi driver, and confidante to Travis.
Taxi Driver is a magnificent, hard-hitting urban drama. The genius involved in crafting this utterly compelling film, makes it among the best movies of all time. Highly recommended, for those that like a film with deep, meaningful emotional impact.
HERE IS! Dec 16, 2009
If you want a sappy uplifting movie, go buy 'You Light Up My Life" or "The Sound Of Music." If you dare to peer into the seedy side of life and the descent into madness, HERE IS!
Martin Scorcese's classic Taxi Driver is the quintessential "Through The Looking Glass" examination of how a man becomes an island in a city of millions. The Classic Anti-Hero, Travis Bickle, (Robert DeNero, "Henry Krinkle") is all too pathetic, all too pitiful in the way that he wrenches from you pure disgust of his persona. Everyone sometime in life have felt that crushing loneliness he goes through, but few people compound that loneliness in layers as he does. It seems that his every action feeds his problems until he loses contact with reality, and his fantasies take control to turn him into a killing machine. Through Travis' eyes and mind we see the worst of society. Travis seems to incorporate all these defects into his own personality.
Through stop action, repeating a scene and close ups of Travis' diary you get a glimpse into Travis' twisted mind. Travis prefers to stare at dissolving Alka Seltzer than to pay attention to reality. Travis cannot accept life as it is. He sees people as either scum or angels. Yet he can only relate to the things he hates the most.
Scorsesee in his commentary states that the ending of Taxi Driver is a portrayal of the anti-hero becoming the hero, only to be cocked and ready to be triggered again into another "episode." I think that the ending is merely Travis' psychotic fantasy dream as he is dying. Real life does not operate the way Travis dreams it must operate. As in the movie "All That Jazz" the main character's death is all choreographed in his own mind.
Dare to relive this nighhtmare! DeNiro's performance is so realisticly tragic that even the camera at times cannot take looking at him, and would rather pan an empty hallway than look at Travis and his pitiful condition!
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1976 Scorsese Masterpiece on dvd. Nov 17, 2009
This film stunned audiences when it came out in theatres, with it's dark subject matter, stark realism, and graphic use of violence. Not to mention a powerful and compelling performance from De Niro.
Like Good Literature Nov 11, 2009
I'd heard Taxi Driver was a great movie, and with Scorcese at the helm and all kinds of famous actors in it to boot, I was expecting good things. Nor was I disappointed. Taxi Driver is a special movie. It's a character study on one hand, a philisophical treatise on the other. It simultaneously entertains with it's sultry shots of 1975 NYC, lots of good dialogue between the characters, and a story line that unfolds naturally - people who appreciate photography will especially like Taxi Driver - it's a joy to watch Scorcese tell this tale.
The movie is accessible on many levels, the acting is fantastic and the story itself, subtle, violent, occasionally funny - and finally, something to think about for those that are paying attention.
SPOILERS
The thing to notice is when he's trying to decide if he should 'do a bad thing' and he's talking to one of the other taxi drivers asking for advice. One of the things the guy says as he tries to talk him down is that we are what we do.. like you do a job, and that becomes who you are. This movie is never very 'in your face' about it's message if it could be said to have one at all. But what does happen? Either way, Travis is kind of a sick puppy with the desire to kill. When that desire is aimed at the politician, he's a wacko (he wants to whack him because the girl he loves and who rejected him, is working on his campaign - this would be a kind of revenge, showing who 'has the power' - in his twisted mind).
On the other hand, he meets the underage prostitute (Jodie Foster), devolops a protective streak towards her and ultimately ends up offing her pimp and other would-be enablers of her profession. This happens somewhat by accident. His first mission was to off the politicician. He takes up Jody Foster's mission as kind of a side inspiration and does the deed before he gets a chance to kill the politician. When the smoke clears he's a hero. An accidental hero. Again, the words of the older taxi driver are fulfilled: 'You are what you do'.
The IRONY is that it could so easily have gone the other way. What would he have been if he'd managed to hit the politician? Had it gone as he'd originally planned, he'd certainly have been nothing less than the 'trash' he despised - from any rational person's point of view. How much of what we do is up to chance, luck, or as fate would have it? The movie seems to unconsciously ask this question. Travis is a 'walking contradiction'. He hates the scum, the sickos, the perverts, but finally, it's only a stroke of fate that distinguishes him from them.
Taxi Driver is a great ride, and there are many reasons to see it.
Loved the mohawk. This movie is hard as nails.
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