Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
there’s a nobody who
dreams of being a somebody.
Columbia TriStar
- Cat.no: CDR 90019
- Cert: 18
- Running time: 109 minutes
- Year: 1976
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo), Mono
- Languages: English, German, French
- Subtitles: 16 different languages available
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Filmographies, US Theatrical Trailer,71-minute Featurette, Video Photo Gallery with Commentary, Original Screenplay,Storyboard Sequence, Advertising Materials
Director:
- Martin Scorsese
(After Hours, The Age of Innocence, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Bringing Out the Dead, Cape Fear (1991), Casino, The Color of Money, Goodfellas, The King of Comedy, Kundun, Mean Streets, The Last Temptation of Christ,New York New York, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver)
Producers:
- Michael Philips and Julia Philips
Screenplay:
- Paul Schrader
Music:
- Bernard Herrmann
Cast:
- Travis Bickle: Robert De Niro (Analyse This, Awakenings, Backdraft, Brazil, A Bronx Tail, Cape Fear, Casino, Cop Land, The Deerhunter, The Fan, The Godfather Part II,Goodfellas, Great Expectations (1997), Guilty By Suspicion, Heat, Jackie Brown, Jacknife, The King Of Comedy, Mad Dog and Glory, Marvin’s Room,Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Mean Streets, Midnight Run, The Mission, New York New York, Night and the City,Raging Bull, Ronin, Sleepers, Taxi Driver, This Boy’s Life, The Untouchables)
Iris: Jodie Foster (The Accused, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Bugsy Malone, Contact, Five Corners, Little Man Tate, Maverick, Nell, The Silence of the Lambs, Sommersby, Taxi Driver)
Sport: Harvey Keitel (Bad Lieutenant, Bugsy, Cop Land, The Duellists, From Dusk Till Dawn, Mean Streets, Pulp Fiction, The Piano, Reservoir Dogs, Rising Sun, Taxi Driver, Thelma and Louise, The Two Jakes)
Betsy: Cybill Shepherd (Alice, Chances Are, Daisy Miller, The Heartbreak Kid, The Last Picture Show, The Last Word, Married To It, Once Upon a Crime, Taxi Driver, Texasville, TV: Cybill, Moonlighting)
Taxi Driverstars Robert De Niro in a powerhouse performance as Travis Bickle, a 26-year-oldloner and mentally-disturbed Vietnam verteran. He’s also an insomniac so may as well make use ofhis twilight hours and takes a job as the film’s title would suggest. After 12 or 14 hoursa night spent driving around though, he still can’t sleep so pops down to his localseedy 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 anddepravity. As the film progresses onwards, so his attitude and state of mind progressdownwards, to the point where he wants to put the world to rights his way – and if thingsare going to work out like that, it’s not going to have a happy ending. However, you’ll knowthat even if you’ve not seen the film, but have seen the oft-copied pose of De Niroquestioning, “You talkin’ to me ?”
“Life” may have been the name of the game for Bruce Forsyth when he hosted the GenerationGame, but for Travis, it’s “stalking” and he turns his attentions to Betsy (CybillShepherd), 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 developsan affinity for Iris, a young prostitute from the day she tries to catch a ride, but is hassledby her pimp (Harvey Keitel). There was an outcry at the time of the film’s releasebecause 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 evenmanages 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 himon their first date :
The picture is a bit on the soft side at times and the print could use aremastering, but a lot of the time it is fairly clean. The film is presentedin its original 1.85:1 ratio and is anamorphic. The average bitrate is anabove-average 5.34Mb/s, occasionally peaking above 8Mb/s.
The sound is more functional than impressive. Although in stereo, there’s nota great deal of stereo separation to tax your speakers. German and Frenchowners only get a mono soundmix. Couldn’t Columbia have pressed the disc asa dual-layer and boost these soundtracks?
Extras : Chapters/Trailer :The usual 28 chapters are applied here and the original US theatrical traileris 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 theVideo Photo Gallery with Commentary from Laurent Bouzereau, producer ofthis Special Edition DVD, the ‘Commentary’ part being something I haven’t comeacross before in this type of extra, only in feature-length audio commentaries,The Land Girls‘ delete scenes commentary andThe War Zone‘s audio-descriptive commentaryfrom 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. TheAdvertising Materials shows a brief selection of publicity photosand film posters from the film, while fans of the film will also want tosee the extensive 71-minute behind-the-scenes Featurette.
Finally, the disc also contains the Original Screenplay, which is usedin quite a novel way. The screenplay contains the original shooting scriptwhich has been matched up to scenes in the film, apart from those scenes inthe screenplay which aren’t a part of the final cut. The disc will also allowyou to navigate back and forth between the film and the screenplay, which givesthis disc an excellent selling point, as if the film alone wasn’t enough reasonto make a purchase.
Menu :Static and silent, with a grim, grey, dirty look. No, no, don’t worry. Thelatter 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 13at the time of shooting, the BBFC saw fit to remove the sound of her unzippingDe Niro’s flies…
The picture and sound aren’t the best I’ve ever seen by a longshot, but anyonewho’s seen this film beforehand will know what to expect and will agree thatthis is the best it’s going to get.FILM : *****PICTURE QUALITY: ***SOUND QUALITY: **EXTRAS: *****——————————-OVERALL: ****
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.