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Dom Robinson reviews

Taxi Driver

On every street in every city,
there's a nobody who
dreams of being a somebody.

Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

Taxi Driver stars Robert De Niro in a powerhouse performance as Travis Bickle, a 26-year-old loner and mentally-disturbed Vietnam verteran. He's also an insomniac so may as well make use of his twilight hours and takes a job as the film's title would suggest. After 12 or 14 hours a night spent driving around though, he still can't sleep so pops down to his local seedy fleapit for a screening of the "Debbie Does Dallas" of his day.

In a town full of scum, hookers and "skunk-pussies", he sees nothing but filth and depravity. As the film progresses onwards, so his attitude and state of mind progress downwards, to the point where he wants to put the world to rights his way - and if things are going to work out like that, it's not going to have a happy ending. However, you'll know that even if you've not seen the film, but have seen the oft-copied pose of De Niro questioning, "You talkin' to me ?"

"Life" may have been the name of the game for Bruce Forsyth when he hosted the Generation Game, but for Travis, it's "stalking" and he turns his attentions to Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), one of many campaigners to help Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris) get elected. Her concerned colleague, Tom (Albert Brooks), is another.

If all of this is not enough for one sad cabbie to get to grips with, he also develops an affinity for Iris, a young prostitute from the day she tries to catch a ride, but is hassled by her pimp (Harvey Keitel). There was an outcry at the time of the film's release because the prostitute was played by Jodie Foster who was only thirteen years old.

The film also has a cameo from its director, Martin Scorsese as one of Travis' customers, 38 minutes in. Behind the camera though, he cuts a tight masterpiece which even manages to raise a smile or two in sarcastic humour, amongst the disturbing madness.

If there's one line which sums up Travis' character very well, it's Betsy's comment to him on their first date :

"I don't believe I've ever met anyone quite like you."

The picture is a bit on the soft side at times and the print could use a remastering, but a lot of the time it is fairly clean. The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 ratio and is anamorphic. The average bitrate is an above-average 5.34Mb/s, occasionally peaking above 8Mb/s.

The sound is more functional than impressive. Although in stereo, there's not a great deal of stereo separation to tax your speakers. German and French owners only get a mono soundmix. Couldn't Columbia have pressed the disc as a dual-layer and boost these soundtracks?

Extras :

Chapters/Trailer :

The usual 28 chapters are applied here and the original US theatrical trailer is also included.

Languages/Subtitles :

Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and German, plus subtitles in SIXTEEN languages : English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, French, German, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian and Dutch.

And there's more... :

As far as I know this disc contains all the extras of its American cousin, so chalk up a green tick for Columbia on that point.

Filmographies are available for the four main characters in the film, plus director Martin Scorsese, photos from the film can be seen in the Video Photo Gallery with Commentary from Laurent Bouzereau, producer of this Special Edition DVD, the 'Commentary' part being something I haven't come across before in this type of extra, only in feature-length audio commentaries, The Land Girls' delete scenes commentary and The War Zone's audio-descriptive commentary from Game On's Neil Stuke.

A Storyboard Sequence details De Niro's closing scene in the film, so it's vital you don't look at this until after you've seen it. The Advertising Materials shows a brief selection of publicity photos and film posters from the film, while fans of the film will also want to see the extensive 71-minute behind-the-scenes Featurette.

Finally, the disc also contains the Original Screenplay, which is used in quite a novel way. The screenplay contains the original shooting script which has been matched up to scenes in the film, apart from those scenes in the screenplay which aren't a part of the final cut. The disc will also allow you to navigate back and forth between the film and the screenplay, which gives this disc an excellent selling point, as if the film alone wasn't enough reason to make a purchase.

Menu :

Static and silent, with a grim, grey, dirty look. No, no, don't worry. The latter part of this is done specifically to tie in with the mood of the film.

Overall, the film and the extras are the two best reasons to buy this disc. However, the film does have one slight cut. Since Jodie Foster was only 13 at the time of shooting, the BBFC saw fit to remove the sound of her unzipping De Niro's flies...

The picture and sound aren't the best I've ever seen by a longshot, but anyone who's seen this film beforehand will know what to expect and will agree that this is the best it's going to get. 

FILM	 		: *****
PICTURE QUALITY		: ***
SOUND QUALITY		: **
EXTRAS			: *****
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ****

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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Andy Serkis Batman Benedict Cumberbatch call of duty Calvin Harris Chris Hemsworth Dave Bautista doctor who Domhnall Gleeson doom Drake E3 2017 E3 2018 Ed Sheeran grand theft auto Grand Theft Auto V GTA gta 5 gta5 gta v Idris Elba Inside No.9 Jenna Coleman Jennifer Lawrence Jess Glynne Justin Bieber los santos Michael Fassbender Murray Gold Oscar Isaac Peter Capaldi Reece Shearsmith rockstar Sam Smith Samuel L. Jackson Scarlett Johansson Sia Stan Lee Stanley Tucci star wars Steven Moffat Steve Pemberton Taylor Swift Toby Jones Woody Harrelson

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