Taxi Driver - Blu-ray + DVD

TAXI DRIVER is an iconic film, considered by many to be a masterpiece and the crowning achievement of both Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Whatever your opinion this is a powerful film that starts strong and never lets up that has also stood the test of time. Everything in the movie is done so realistically that the story could still be told today. Robert Deniro plays Travis. We know little about him other than that he is an ex marine and a deep insomniac. He also sees the world as a dirty place that needs to be cleaned up. He becomes a taxi driver in the city of New York which takes on a realistic role of its own here. We see the two sides of everything and the same goes for New York. Nothing is held back on showing the realistic gritty underside of the city. But what of the transfer of this movie classic to blu ray. Seems like all the classics are being brought to blu ray, some more succesfully than others. The questions are always how does it look, is it an improvement over the dvd and does it bring the film to new life. TAXI DRIVER was the first film to receive an enhanced 4k restoration and what it does is perform magic on a decades old film. The video presentation is purely amazing. It is funny for when the film starts the Columbia logo is very fuzzy and then the movie starts. It is clear, crisp with colors strong. The film is very definitive in that scenes are either nighttime or daytime, dark or light. The blacks and dark colors are brilliant and all color ratios amazing. Whites contrast perfectly. No matter what the scene everything pops. The night scenes are very realistic and when colors are introduced they are vibrant and real. Nothing is overenhanced. Instead the film looks the way it must have when released originally in theaters. It is leaps and bounds over any dvd version. The climactic scene at the end is brought to new devastating life with this new restoration. Flesh tones are also perfect. Blu ray is put to amazing use here restoring this classic film to all its glory. The graininess here is meant to be here. It represents New York City in full detail. And the audio is just as perfect. The DTS 5.1 audio allows the amazing soundtrack to fully blossom and soar over the entire film. The score here tells the story as much as any character or visual. And dialogue is strong and present. Nothing is wrong here. The film itself is told in a way that it is open to many different interpretations but the blu ray itself needs no debate. It is spectacular. I will reiterate again. The film looks as pure and original as when in the theaters restored to its true glory. Do not hesitate to double dip if you own the dvd. This blu ray shows the movie as a whole new experience. I give this blu ray my highest recommendations.

Last saw this on cable about 15 years ago for about the 5th time, and liked it after every viewing, spaced about 3 or 4 years apart. Fast forward to day with a longer gap between views, coupled with higher quality blu-ray this time, and I now love it more than ever. This film has aged very, very well for me. I'm telling you a quality transfer to blu-ray from original film elements improves the color depth and contrast and audio so much so that it's like watching with a new perspective. Especially watching on a good quality big screen tv, in a dark room, sitting close to get a cinema theater type experience. Trivia that I learned in the extras: A big scene with blood late in the film looked oddly brownish to me, instead of dark crimson red. I was thinking a defect in the color from a damaged film element. Turns out the brownish blood was by design, via censorship from the powers that be. The scene was so graphic for the time that the only way the censors would let the scene remain was to alter the blood's color in post, to make a little less graphic. A deranged DeNiro is at his height as a young actor, and Cybil Shephard's sizzling good looks and decency create a dynamic contrast that bodes so well for the story line. This is pure cinema and story telling at its finest.

I don't know how you sum up such a perfect, artful, thoughtful film. It's important to note that introverted males are likely to click with this more than any other demographic, but the character portrayals are so strong and realistic that most of the message will shine through regardless. This is a film about emotions, about finding yourself, about seeing all the good and bad in the world, not even quite realizing your part in all of it but you desperately want to. It's about finding realistic meaning for your life, about taking chances, and about learning to be functional in difficult situations. The food in the film-- any time anyone purchases or eats food-- it's symbolic of how they're living their life or feeling inside. This is a really good movie and anyone feeling lost could benefit from watching it. You don't get any grandiose answers, just the simple ones you needed all along. People are important, and the little things you do impact everyone around you.

One of the greatest Martin Scorsese movies ever!! The frustration and angst of a late-20’s Vietnam veteran about the filths of 70’s New York City and America in general with internalized hatred toward then politicians, portrayed with De Niro like skillfulness. A MUST WATCH for all generations!!!

Taxi Driver is not an easy film to watch, it's both gritty and confronting at times, and the depiction of New York as an "open sewer" is pretty depressing. That said it is an important film in the history of cinema, not the least because it serves as an interesting glimpse of society in the time in which in was made. De Niro's performance is a standout, but all the actors play their parts extremely well. It's hard to come away unaffected by Taxi Driver, and to me that's the mark of a great film. The Blu-ray edition looks great considering the age of this film, though it's obviously not as sharp as recent releases. This Blu-ray worked fine in my region B player.

Essentially a treatise by writer Paul Schrader on pathological loneliness and PTSD, "Taxi Driver" goes deep into the numbingly boring yet emotionally painfilled and completely socially disconnected life of taxi driver Travis Bickle. We follow him down a rabbit hole of his own making leading to increasingly disturbed behavior and onto the final blood bath. So dark and violent in its day, Scorsese had to edit some shots and desaturate the blood color of the climatic shoot out scene just to avoid an "X" rating by the censors. Today, it would be a fairly standard "R" rated film for language and some violence, ha! It shows a coal black, seedy and amoral 70's New York City mostly at night. The images haunt the viewer, and we know that nothing good is coming down the line with this narrative. Part of this feeling of tension and foreboding is enhanced by the stunning score by the great Bernard Herrmann. It's a masterful mixture of smooth, jazzy themed elements with discordant, howling blocks of chords sounding almost like a horror film at times. The score becomes another full character of the movie. Sadly, Herrmann passed away literally hours after he finished it and never saw the released film. The film is dedicated in his honor. Another thing to note is the almost movie stealing work of a 12-year-old Jodie Foster as Iris, the like aged prostitute. Detailing in interviews years later how uncomfortable and awkward it was being on the set playing her role and interacting with the fellow male actors yet she still somehow managed to put on a stunning portrayal of hardened, street wise bluntness with an almost childlike humor and vulnerability. It is truly amazing to watch. Even Scorsese himself steps out of the director's chair and into a scene as one of Bickle's fares. It is an extremely chilling interaction and further contributes to Bickle's disintegrating mental state. Colombia does itself proud with the 4K Dolby Vision release of this film. Restored from the original camera negative the video quality just oozes with the grainy, grimy color saturated world of nighttime 70's New York City. Detail is abundant. Grain is wonderfully present and textural. Blacks are deep with no crush. Neon signs pop with the HDR giving a garish eye dazzling experience. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track is quite atmospheric delivering a sense of "street" sounds as well as the unforgettable sonics of Herrmann's score and clear easy to understand dialog. There's lots of interviews, documentaries and behind the scenes extras on both the 4K disc as well as the included SD Blu-ray disc. This is a must own for all lovers of American neo-noir films and belongs in just about anyone's physical media collection. It will haunt you well after the credits roll.

I'd heard Taxi Driver was a great movie, and with Scorcese at the helm and all kinds of famous actors in it to boot, I was expecting good things. Nor was I disappointed. Taxi Driver is a special movie. It's a character study on one hand, a philisophical treatise on the other. It simultaneously entertains with it's sultry shots of 1975 NYC, lots of good dialogue between the characters, and a story line that unfolds naturally - people who appreciate photography will especially like Taxi Driver - it's a joy to watch Scorcese tell this tale. The movie is accessible on many levels, the acting is fantastic and the story itself, subtle, violent, occasionally funny - and finally, something to think about for those that are paying attention. SPOILERS The thing to notice is when he's trying to decide if he should 'do a bad thing' and he's talking to one of the other taxi drivers asking for advice. One of the things the guy says as he tries to talk him down is that we are what we do.. like you do a job, and that becomes who you are. This movie is never very 'in your face' about it's message if it could be said to have one at all. But what does happen? Either way, Travis is kind of a sick puppy with the desire to kill. When that desire is aimed at the politician, he's a wacko (he wants to whack him because the girl he loves and who rejected him, is working on his campaign - this would be a kind of revenge, showing who 'has the power' - in his twisted mind). On the other hand, he meets the underage prostitute (Jodie Foster), devolops a protective streak towards her and ultimately ends up offing her pimp and other would-be enablers of her profession. This happens somewhat by accident. His first mission was to off the politicician. He takes up Jody Foster's mission as kind of a side inspiration and does the deed before he gets a chance to kill the politician. When the smoke clears he's a hero. An accidental hero. Again, the words of the older taxi driver are fulfilled: 'You are what you do'. The IRONY is that it could so easily have gone the other way. What would he have been if he'd managed to hit the politician? Had it gone as he'd originally planned, he'd certainly have been nothing less than the 'trash' he despised - from any rational person's point of view. How much of what we do is up to chance, luck, or as fate would have it? The movie seems to unconsciously ask this question. Travis is a 'walking contradiction'. He hates the scum, the sickos, the perverts, but finally, it's only a stroke of fate that distinguishes him from them. Taxi Driver is a great ride, and there are many reasons to see it. Loved the mohawk. This movie is hard as nails.

Takes a while for the plot to develop, very slow paced until the end.