Taxi Driver (1976)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Siegmund, Feb 3, 2018.

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  1. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I loved this movie 30 gears ago. Watched it again last night, it was still a great watch. However the glaring continuity errors spoil it somewhat, characters having different hairstyles seconds apart in different scenes, dead bodies re-positioning themselves etc. Very amateurish, whoever was responsible for that did a terrible job. Can't imagine how these things were missed.
     
  2. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    Oh, man, an Easy Rider sequel! What a fantastic idea! I mean, from an idiotic junk movie angle...like all those late 60's / early 70s exploitation movies that were all over the place back then.

    How about this: we know the main characters are dead, so how's about we pick up the story from someone else? Let's say a couple of the rednecks that were in the cafe later get psychedelicised by a medicine man in a bar and realise a horrible crime had been committed way back when. They find out who did it, track 'em down, and make 'em pay. It's twisted down home south so we need some back country horror - maybe an shoddily constructed underground torture room, maybe near or under the sawmill, or an inbred family of torturin' gimps with a horror shed/meat curing barn in back -- or both!

    Gawd the possibilities are endless! Paging Quentin Tarantino!
     
    jwoverho likes this.
  3. Grunge Master

    Grunge Master 8 Bit Enthusiast

    Location:
    Michigan
    The real star of Taxi Driver

     
  4. Lord Summerisle

    Lord Summerisle Forum Resident

    I need to buy this.
     
    Grunge Master likes this.
  5. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Great film. Is it ever mentioned if Travis is a Vietnam War vet? I remember he's a former Marine. He does seem to suffer from PTSD. I think he's somewhat sympathetic because he seems to want to appeal to the better part of his nature, and clean the city of its "filth". Problem is, he goes about it in a very wrong way.

    The cinematography is a key to this film. Scorsese wanted to show the seedy side of 1970s New York, and it really paints a picture.
     
    Dan C likes this.
  6. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    I have a noir music cdr with stuff from Chinatown, Farewell My Lovely, etc. This is a MUST on any late night/noir mix tape.
     
  7. helter

    helter Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ
    In 1981 it was the most talked about movie in the country after Hinkley used it as an inspiration for his attempted assassination of President Reagan to impress Jodie Foster.
    A long time ago it seems now ...
     
  8. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Didn't Scorsese -or De Niro and Scorsese- have to testify at Hinckley's trial? Basically just to say "It was only a movie"?
     
  9. JimW

    JimW In the Process of Becoming

    Location:
    Charlottesville VA
    You mis-quoted me; that quote referred to "'night, Mother" a great film that doesn't get talked about. TD obviously gets lots of talk.
     
  10. NUNZI

    NUNZI Forum Resident

    The relationship between "Late for the Sky" and my ears hasn't been the same since the first time I watched this amazing film.
     
  11. aforchione

    aforchione Forum Resident

    Location:
    Englewood, Florida
    Love the song, but obviously they never slow danced to this song on American Bandstand...
     
  12. uncarvedbloke

    uncarvedbloke Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK - SOT
    Love this film, and I am lucky enough to have an original cinema quad poster framed on my wall. ( I bought it for £1 ) :)
     
    harmonica98 likes this.
  13. Borgia

    Borgia Do not speak wisely of this night

    Location:
    Arkansas
    I love Taxi Driver. Both Scorsese & Deniro where never better. They came close with Goodfella's, but TD was tops...
     
    ohnothimagen likes this.
  14. I like the scene where Travis takes his girlfriend to a porno movie and he doesn't understand why she is disgusted. It was an excellent way to show how caught up Travis was in his own little world, his own little reality. It raised an interesting question in my mind - what becomes of you if you are plonked down in a huge city with no friends or family and only minimal contact with people? How far can your reality shift from the 'norm'?
     
    dlemaudit likes this.
  15. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    It's funny that you mention "Psycho", because years ago I saw a dosumentary on TV about Bernard Herrmann, and it pointed out that at the very end of the "Taxi Driver" score, he used the same three low notes that he used at the end of "Psycho". It was his subtle way to indicate that he thought Travis was still disturbed and a possible future threat, that he was still a "psycho'.
     
  16. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    Given the time frame (1976) and Travis was a recent vet, it must have been Vietnam. His war experinces probably fueled his rage and paranoia and propensity towards violence
     
    Standoffish likes this.
  17. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    Funny tidbit- I saw "Taxi Driver" the week it opened in NY in Feb 1976. I was watching the film at the (now gone) Coronet Theater on Third Ave and 59th Street, and there's a shot where Travis drives right past that very theater !!

    One great thing you get from the film is the shots of the old, "bad" New York, long gone but not forgotten....This was "The Deuce" 40 years earlier
     
    yesstiles and Dan C like this.
  18. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    I loved the old "bad" New York. Strip shows, live *** shows, harlots, pimps. Fantastically sleazy! The heck with the Disneyized version. Bring back the smut!
     
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  19. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Sorry I sold this last year.

    [​IMG]
     
    yesstiles and harmonica98 like this.
  20. Minty_fresh

    Minty_fresh Forum Resident

    Location:
    B.
    Saw it early 90’s and thought it was overrated. It’s not a bad movie but far from DeNiro/Scorcese’s best.

    I definitely don’t think it’s worth the most if the praise it gets. Raging Bull on the other hand....
     
  21. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    I moved to NYC in 1976 and Taxi Driver captures the feeling of that time perfectly. I think many tourists come to NY looking for the NY of the ‘70’s and all they find is a big shopping mall for European tourists. The truth is that NY would have terrified them.

    Taxi Driver and King of Comedy are Scorsese’s masterpieces. I wish Gangs of NY could have had the same dark sinister edge as Taxi Driver, it would been much more effective. Instead it was like the Disney NY of the new millennium.
     
    Dan C likes this.
  22. Johnny66

    Johnny66 Laird of Boleskine

    Location:
    Australia.
    That's interesting, indeed! Never noticed, but thinking back and humming those notes - it is indeed true. Very clever! :)
     
  23. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    I grew up in THAT New York, and I remember it well ...
     
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  24. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    Those were the days ! There are stories I could tell, but this is a family website ...:D
     
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  25. jjhunsecker

    jjhunsecker Senior Member

    Location:
    New York city
    Yeah, the very last shot of "Taxi Driver'- of all the cars in traffic- compare to the last shot in "Psycho", of the car being pulled from the swamp. It's the same 3 low notes
     
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