Taxi Driver [VHS]

The film most will know. De Niro is young, gleaming almost, as the ordinary guy slowly going out of his head experiencing daily life accelerated by his own awkwardness and subsequent loneliness, and finally reaching breaking point, which gave the film its controversial stance for the violence in its finale.Might be considered quite mild by today's standards. As the whole film might be viewed. But in context it was a smasher in its time.This 2 disc edition has the film with audio commentaries and the screenplay to read along with watching the film, plus subtitles if you need them. Disc 2 is full of bonus features and not many films have the status to warrant such treatment.

This is a gritty and realistic story about one man's gradual slide towards obsession and madness (possibly). The abyss. De Niro was rarely been better than the burned-out Vietnam vet, insomniac Travis Bickle as he drives his taxi around the mean streets of NYC at night, the streets lit with the sodium glare and neon shop fronts, this is New York at it's most raw, rank and seedy. Also features an outstanding score by Bernard Herrmann, who also scored Hitchcock's "Psycho". Brilliant supporting cast including many who were relative newcomers at the time, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks and Cybil Shepherd. Absolutely superb film making.

I have watched this movie over the years and owned different versions on disc. This is the best version. I doubt there will be a better one. Looks and sounds better than ever. Fitting for a classic like this. Dolby vision makes those colours pop, seeing 70s New York come to life.

Very good movie that is masterfully acted about how a regular guy loses his mind and slides into darkness. Not very well paced, the beginning is too slow and the end is too short. Still recommended!

This is a brilliant film; for me it's aesthetically beautiful (the Taxi bumper shots showing the bright lights of New York are stunning), it's also got a lovely melancholic jazz soundtrack that highlights Travis' perceived pointlessness and ambling in and through life.(Plot spoilers) The story is simple: an insomniac wants to better spend his sleepless nights so enrols to drive taxis, slowly but surely falling into the abyss of loneliness and insanity. He witnesses the depraved and seedy nature of New York at night (prostitutes, drug dealers et al.) and brands them the scum of the earth. This, ironically, coming from a man who regularly visits dirty movie theatres. At the same time, we see Travis develop obsessions with Betsy who is a campaign worker for Palantine, a presidential candidate. Soon after their relationship develops, Travis makes the mistake of taking her to one of the aforementioned dirty movies, which immediately sees an end to this relationship. Travis later angrily confronts her and makes various violent remarks towards her, the first sign of his unstable mental state. Throughout the film Travis encounters a young child prostitute who he feels is being forced against her will to ply her trade. Meanwhile he begins training and preparing to assassinate Palantine. When it comes to it however, he fails to do so after being spotted by Secret Service Agents before he attempts the assassination. His desire to exact violence upon those he despises (Palantine for his connection to Betsy) leads him to the location of the child prostitute who he feels he must help escape from prostitution. Therefore, he murders her pimp, the bouncer and her customer (these being the scum of the earth that he despises). He is injured in the battle and fails to commit suicide. Later he awakes from a coma to a hero's welcome for helping Iris (the child prostitute) return to her parents and Betsy showing renewed interest in Travis. The irony here being that had he been successful in assassinating Palantine he would have been deemed evil but now he is a hero.On note of the Blu-ray itself: WOW! For a film made in 70s this is one crisp picture!! I can't rave enough about how good the picture quality is; I must compare it to the recently released Star Wars Blu-rays and Taxi Driver blows those away. Yes, there are certain scenes where the camera pans and it seems as if the screen is jolting a bit and other scenes aren't quite as good quality as others but boy are the HQ scenes GOOD and the Low Quality scenes are still dozens of times higher than I could've hoped for in a 70s film.Bravo to Scorsese, De Niro et al.!

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