Taxi Driver (1976)

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

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  1. Dirkwkirk

    Dirkwkirk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Saw it when it was released. Loved it then & now. Funny thing, young guy I work with did'nt know it was De Niro when i showed him a clip. "Younger' people are used to Meet The Parents. Not the older stuff.
     
  2. Dirkwkirk

    Dirkwkirk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Just got the DVD of Taxi Driver. Saw it at the theater when it was first out. Now all these years later as an "old" guy I can get into it more. Thinking about getting either Annie Hall or My Dinner with Andre as well. Although Annie Hall seems more dated for some reason. Anyway, I am enjoying it all over again.
     
  3. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    Yes night and frickin' day there. It is like a ribeye steak vs diet soup.
     
  4. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Scorsese is the best Baby Boomer director.

    Scorsese
    Coppola
    Paul Thomas Anderson
    Spielberg
    Altman
    Reiner
    Tarantino
     
  5. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    No DePalma? Blasphemy. Reiner out of place there. Just my opinion of course.

    If Tarantino there surely his influence would have a higher place.

    For the record Anderson and Tarantino are Generation X
     
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  6. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    I would stand by no DePalma.

    Tarantino born '63
     
  7. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    Weird.
    Sisters, Dressed to Kill, Obsession, Blow Out, Scarface, Carrie, The Fury, The Untouchables..I am running out of breath.
     
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  8. Combination

    Combination Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans
    Yeah, well, get it together, because you ain't said diddly about Carlito's Way! :)
     
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  9. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    scarface (oliver stone's script, winner), Blowout, Carrie, Untouchables. Four. I guess. But less an auteur than a Hitchcock poseur.
     
  10. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    True that or Casualties of War. A frickin' juggernaut. He is Scorsese's foil.

    Taxi Driver vs Scarface was always an interesting match up.

    It is a rival as much as DeNiro vs Pacino.

    Kubrick didn't write either?

    The Hitchcock poseur is pretty played out. If that was true what of Tarantino and his straight rip off shots?

    To each his own.

    Just 4? Phantom of the Paradise? Body Double gets the shaft too.

    Sisters is an amazing movie. Just curious what you didn't like about that.

    Sorry if coming on strong just like to know the midset because we seem to agree on the most of it.

    You know what I always thought was funny...the obvious DePalma rip off style that Scorsese used on Cape Fear.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2018
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  11. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
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  12. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    It was the ‘70’s maaan.
     
  13. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    Makes me nauseated to watch Taxi Driver. Its that good.
     
  14. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    The reason a lot of these things weren't "fixed" because many times over films were being made on a shoestring budget where shots were stolen and wardrobe was changed at the last minute...oh and the fact that film had to be developed to see what actually happened??!!!etc... It was a living breathing happening and that is what gave way to a gritty look that today's CGI everything could never understand.

    It is kind of like some people getting bent out of shape about a scratch on a record and paying no mind to the sound wave being sampled (which is CUT UP) a million times.

    Which would one rather have, a performance where one is in the moment, or someone against a green screen that has no interaction with the world around them.

    Something has been lost in todays filming and it is pretty sad that people will look over things with a fine tooth comb like how something is filmed, but say "move along" when it comes to say entire films looking jacked up with poor transfers.

    To me, the art, however it was filmed should be preserved, and yes I get horrified at the CGI changes that happen like in the Terminator where goofs are changed and make me question my memory. I HATE IT and there is no way it is going to stop. How long before cigarettes are taken out, any kind of reference that isn't PC etc...

    The quote above is dangerous and it implies that there is some kind of fault because the world wasn't made with a perfection. How does one put up with theater? Can you imagine someone seeing an early exhibition where it isn't quite perfect? I know as a KISS fan I take the early 1996 performance because it had some problems, but a more honesty presentation based on a band that were hitting their stride that a "rehearsed" version later could never give.

    To each his own.
     
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  15. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    Reiner but no Coen Bros.

    Tarantino belongs with PTA, Villeneuve, Nolan.
     
  16. jh901

    jh901 Forum Resident

    Location:
    PARRISH FL USA
    Sony to release Ultra HD!!

    NOVEMBER 2019
     
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  17. ShockControl

    ShockControl Bon Vivant and Raconteur!

    Location:
    Lotus Land
  18. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Although both films are quite different, I consider Taxi Driver to be the sequel to DePalma's "Hi Mom!"

    Try watching them one after the other and you'll see what I mean. Hi Mom! is almost 2/3 Comedy, but that whole Be Black Baby is hyper intense and realistic. The script is lighter in most parts, but it isn't that difficult to imagine DeNiro's characters being the same person in both films.
     
  19. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Maybe if you mean Tarantino is Nolan's water boy.
     
  20. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    “Taxi Driver” is a tour de force film. That said, I’ve never completely understood the ending. Bickle goes on murderous rampage, gets shot, and the next thing you know, he’s driving again and lauded as a hero. Am I not remembering correctly?
     
  21. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

    He got Iris back with her parents.
     
  22. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    That's correct. He went insane and the deadly rampage should have landed him in prison. The twist was that he ended up as a hero. One can interpret the ending as a total psychotic break in Travis' final moments as he lay dying but that doesn't really align with the rest of the film's tone or the statement I think De Niro, Scorsese and Schrader were going for. The same sort of twist was prosecuted again in King of Comedy.
     
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  23. SRC

    SRC That sums up Squatter for me

    Location:
    New York, NY
    The writer Paul Schrader wrote on reddit:
    Which in itself is ambiguous, because the entire story repeating itself would suggest more of a dream or hellish eternity than anything real, but, having the ending be open to interpretation is definitely important.

    I think in the 1970's/80's, likely because of rampant crime in the cities, there was a sort of elevation of the "vigilante" for some of the public. There is an irony in what happens in Taxi Driver, because they (the press and the public) have simply looked at what good they think he's accomplished, despite the illegality of it - the ends justifying the means. While they never look behind the curtain to see the damaged man, the "ticking time bomb" as Scorsese once referred to him at the end. It's a troubling ending underneath its almost too-perfect neatness. Particularly with that brief frantic moment with the rear view mirror. To me now it suggests a man who is wildly out of balance, somehow finding himself briefly in sync with a society that itself has gone out of balance.

    On a more poetic note, I love the way after that mirror bit, we just see the city lights and hear that great music while the credits roll. I find it hard to consider watching the film again these years, now that I'm a father and hopefully more balanced myself than I was in my twenties, but I will never forget some very powerful sequences in the film.
     
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  24. You're forgetting the glance in the rear view mirror that indicates that he's no hero, he's ready for more. Maybe.
     
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  25. SRC

    SRC That sums up Squatter for me

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Schrader even as writer isn't the final word for interpreting the film, but it's interesting that elsewhere on that Reddit AMA with him that I posted above, he mentions that at some point De Niro approached him and Scorsese about much-later sequel to Taxi Driver, but Schrader laughed it off, saying that Bickle would have been dead within six months of the original ending. "Suicidal glory".
     
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