Taxi Driver (Collector's Edition)
by Martin Scorsese
List Price:
Our Price: $6.14
You Save: $13.80 (69%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.68 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cybill Shepherd, Frank Adu, Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro, Victor ArgoDirector: Martin Scorsese
Cinematographer: Michael Chapman
Editor: Melvin Shapiro
Editor: Tom Rolf
Producer: Julia Phillips
Producer: Michael Phillips
Producer: Phillip M. Goldfarb
Writer: Paul Schrader
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-06-15
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Taxi Driver (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: You know it's a Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
The 1970's are widely regarded as perhaps the most artistically exciting era in film, and "Taxi Driver" stands as one of the finest films of that great period and 30 years later, "Taxi Driver" is still Scorsese's best film and one of the greatest films of all time. If, for whatever reason, you have any interest in films at all and still haven't seen "Taxi Driver", don't put it off another day.
"Taxi Driver's" inimitable success is rooted in its two most prominent and seemingly conflicting elements: De Niro's brilliant, empathetic and real lead performance alongside Scorsese's expressionistic, overblown visuals. Countless films have portrayed the city, and New York City in particular, as a hellish netherworld, but few do so as absolutely and convincingly as "Taxi Driver". The NYC of "Taxi Driver" is a blinding, neon-lit freakshow of streetwalkers, killers and (worst of all) politicians where the billowing steam rises from sewer vents to hide the squalor in an opaque mist and the rain pours forever down. Few viewers are liable to be too fond of what they see in this unreal city, and neither does Travis Bickle, our tortured anti-hero and one of the most memorable characters in all film. Schrader deserves a lot of credit for conceiving Bickle so brilliantly, but few actors, if any, could've brought life to his contradictory yet somehow understandable personality like Robert De Niro. These three figures, Scorsese, Schrader and De Niro, are the core of the film, but almost everything else comes together to perfection as well.
This film is all about Travis Bickle, so much so that he's never off screen for more than a minute or two at a time, and not often at that. Travis isn't from New York City, and isn't a part of it, though he still, somehow, seems to belong. Bickle is a lot of things, but his main trait is obvious from the get-go: He is alone, alienated. He hates the city; he prays for the rain to come wash the filth from the streets, but he's drawn to those streets at the same time. Travis, unable to sleep at night, decides to become a taxi driver even though he loathes and fears his clientele. His reasons for taking the job, though unstated, are apparent: Better to face the depravity of the streets than live alone with the uncertainty and emptiness within himself day in and day out. When not working Travis sits alone in his dingy apartment, staring at the television with indifference, pours his anger into his diary and haunts seedy downtown porno theaters. He feels a need to find something more, something outside of himself, but he doesn't know what it could be. Before too long he finds a cause, a reason to exist, in the form of the beautiful campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) and, later, the plight of teen-runaway Iris (Jodie Foster). He wants to be with them, to protect them, but do they want that? Do they need that?
Bickle is a great character, for me anyway, because he's just a first-rate, if highly exaggerated and malformed, representation of the conflicts that breed in many people, particularly young men, I think. (Myself included.) Bickle is a pure embodiment of idealism/romanticism curdling into bitter cynicism; the former, however, never totally dies and serves as fuel for the latter. Travis acutely feels the sort of hopelessness that comes with this perspective; there's nothing Bickle can do, nothing logical, anyway, that will make any difference in the depraved world, so he mindlessly loathes the darkness and clings to the few remaining misplaced threads of idealism (Placed in the two women he obsesses over, neither of whom much resembles what he imagines them to be) a coping method which inexorably leads to his final explosion. As far as personal reflections go I, and almost all of us who can feel for Travis, aren't 1/1000 as messed up and nutty as he is, but the reflection is still there and that makes him really hit home. You can't excuse his behavior, nor does the film ask you to, but you can see where he's coming from. (Well, for the most part. Some of the leaps he makes are pretty out there, but he *is* a nut...)
I haven't said all that much about the plot so far, but there isn't really that much to say. Travis drives the cab, fixates on the two females, muses on and on and eventually loses it at the violent finale. But man, there are some great individual scenes stuffed in this frame: Travis picks up a deranged man (played by Scorsese) who gives a chilling monologue about his plans to punish his unfaithful spouse; Travis converses with Wizard (A great turn from Peter Boyle) about life; We see Bickle's bizarre training regimen in his apartment as he prepares for the end; Travis humiliates himself horribly when he tries to go after Betsy. These individually great scenes all come together in climax that is absolutely stunning and brutal.
A few odds and ends:
- I love the criticism of politicians found here. The film just has Palantine talk for some time and he *never* comes close to saying anything meaningful. You can't fight your way through the slogans and double-talk, cause that's all there is.
- "Taxi Driver" has some effective humor in it for such a bleak film. I particularly enjoy the lie-filled letter Travis composes to his parents towards the end.
- I'm not a huge fan of the score. It works well in the most dramatic scenes but, as usual, Hermann never lets off. He's always overblown beyond belief.
- I don't have a strong position on whether the ending is reliable or not. Both ways work for me.
Yeah, that's it. Brilliant movie.
Grade: A
Summary of Taxi Driver (Collector's Edition)
Taxi Driver is the definitive cinematic portrait of loneliness and alienation manifested as violence. It is as if director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader had tapped into precisely the same source of psychological inspiration ("I just knew I had to make this film," Scorsese would later say), combined with a perfectly timed post-Watergate expression of personal, political, and societal anxiety. Robert De Niro, as the tortured, ex-Marine cab driver Travis Bickle, made movie history with his chilling performance as one of the most memorably intense and vividly realized characters ever committed to film. Bickle is a self-appointed vigilante who views his urban beat as an intolerable cesspool of blighted humanity. He plays guardian angel for a young prostitute (Jodie Foster), but not without violently devastating consequences. This masterpiece, which is not for all tastes, is sure to horrify some viewers, but few could deny the film's lasting power and importance. --Jeff ShannonSimilar DVD Movies
A Clockwork Orange (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $5.91
Price in other shops:
Cape FearUNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
Mean Streets (Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2004-08-17; DVD
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
Pulp Fiction (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)Buena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2002-08-20; DVD
Best price: $7.75
Price in other shops:
Seven (Single Disc Edition)NLV; Release date: 2004-02-03; DVD
Best price: $3.90
Price in other shops:
Apocalypse Now: ReduxLions Gate; Release date: 2010-05-18; DVD
Best price: $5.35
Price in other shops:
The Deer HunterNBC Universal; Release date: 1998-03-31; DVD
Best price: $7.63
Price in other shops:
Dog Day Afternoon (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-02-28; Published: 2006-02-01; DVD
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops:
GoodFellasWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-05-15; DVD
Best price: $4.18
Price in other shops:
Raging Bull (Single Disc Edition)Team Marketing; Release date: 2005-02-08; DVD
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops: