I Think It’s Time We Revisit “Taxi Driver” (1976) and it’s BRILLIANCE

PS my favorite cast member of this movie is old NYC. Real NYC. NYC when it was it’s most dangerous and seedy, yet most interesting, fun and energetic. NYC was luring during this era, filled with starving artists and businessmen and all types of people. It was diverse, also, despite what some racists here wanna claim.

I miss the REAL NYC, with an edge like nowhere else. It’s nothing but a tourist trap and Disney commercial now, made to make white transplants feel “safe” and at home. Smh.

OP, it is one of the greatest films ever made. I like it much more than Raging Bull. Travis is truly disturbing and the fact that he is lionized as a hero while remaining a ticking time-bomb was so prescient. think of how often society in general lionizes "heroes" of dubious moral character (i.e. American Sniper). Travis is a warning of what happens when society gives power to people like that.

The most disturbing scene in the movie is where Scorsese is in the cab, talking about wanting to kill his wife and how she is with a "ni**er" as he watches her room from across the street with Travis.

R3 that’s the clip in my OP

R4, yeah I know, it reminded me how disturbing that scene is. It's hard to tell if it is real or not. It could be Travis is projecting his on racism and fears onto someone else.

Deniro was perfect.

Any fans of Bringing Out the Dead here? I think it is Scorsese's second best movie of the 90s (after Goodfellas, of course). I found The Age of Innocence miscast and mediocre.

Most of Scorsese's movies are overrated and so inundated with nonstop voice-overs. The only movie of his I could sit through and enjoy was CASINO.

Bump

[quote]I miss the REAL NYC, with an edge like nowhere else. It’s nothing but a tourist trap and Disney commercial now, made to make white transplants feel “safe” and at home. Smh.

& it gradually got worse and worse, by the end of the 80s you were stepping over people lying in the street - on every street corner you were stopped by panhandlers...it's now the modern American city and its greed and materialism is a reflection of the times we are living in.

It will get bad again. What goes up must come down.

Was Travis an Incel?

R11, I agree.

Taxi Driver came out when I was young, and that climactic shootout scene was so unsettling to me, I don't think I slept well that night.

Jodie Foster was great in this but were people really paying big bucks to fuck her?

And it was probably the only movie where Cybill Shepherd turned in an authentic dramatic performance. Scorcese had to be a genius to be able get something good out of that wooden wall of blondeness.

I never liked Shepard, not even in this, but it is the best she ever did.

Scorsese could be hot, but his personality! Mary!

[quote]I never liked Shepard, not even in this, but it is the best she ever did.

She was good in The Heartbreak Kid.

Look at her face in this pic.

Says it all.

[quote]Scorsese could be hot, but his personality! Mary!

He never shuts up. He's like a wind-up doll. Once he gets started he could just jabber away all day. Try watching one of his interviews,

Wasn't Cybil also (allegedly) really good in The Last Picture Show? I've never seen it so I can't say.

I always found Cybill stiff and boring. Someone that truly got by on her looks.

I thought Cybill was great on Moonlighting. She had definitely improved by then.

Sorry but I liked Cybil in Moonlighting too.

I thought she was "OK" in that thing about Martha Stewart. I wanted her to be meaner and madder, (I guess I'm a typical gay in that way).

God, He's hot.

R26, Pauline Kael was right--he should have never gotten fat for Raging Bull. It diminished his looks a lot. He was never able to regain his sexiness, even after he lost the weight.

Agree with R1 - the main reason I like it. The freedom and cheapness of NYC in the 70s. There were downsides - but I’m not sure on balance it’s better now. Safer - but you can’t afford to live life without a soul sucking job.

Supposedly during the lunch scene, Cybill had a real hard time with the dialogue, so Marty had to do line readings with her.

And then people blather on and on about "Joker"... Everything that that hyped piece of garbage tried to say, "Taxi Driver" said much better 40+ year earlier and without pandering to MRAs and incels.

R30, correct. Although there are some really foolish critical misreadings of the movie claiming it champions vigilante justice, promotes violence, is ugly, etc.

Shepherd was used as much as an image which is why she was so effective. If Scorsese ran lines with her, it wasn't because she was forgetting them. This WASP blonde goddess had an effect on people which is why she was perfect for the role.

Shepherd was barely all that

I love this movie, dont love Shephard or Foster.

DeNiro is so hot in this.

This film deserves more love. It’s fantastic. And De Niro is hot in it

[quote]This film deserves more love.

I think it gets a ton, gurl. What are you talking about?

ITS brilliance, not it's, OP.

"... talking about wanting to kill his wife and how she is with a "ni**er" as he watches her room"

The original concept of the film was that Travis would be a racist, enraged that African Americans were behind the decay of NYC. This was watered-down in the final form, though several scenes remain of Travis glaring at black people in a paranoid way.

R38, I agree, it's very apparent that Travis is racist and projects his own filth onto the people he judges.

One of my favorites. De Niro was eye candy here

[quote]Jodie Foster was great in this but were people really paying big bucks to fuck her?

Was it implied she was getting "big bucks"? I don't remember that.

r41 she should have been making no bucks

Cybill looks divine in this.

[quote]r21 Wasn't Cybill also (allegedly) really good in The Last Picture Show? I've never seen it so I can't say.

Cybill Shepherd is good in most of the things she did. The problem is she made some famously bad films (DAISY MILLER, AT LONG LAST LOVE, etc.) that hung like a cloud over her. And she was somewhat arrogant and abrasive ... which gave her a bad rep.

She is still arrogant

I would say she's a little bit clueless around the edges, and lacks a filter. She's one of those people who thinks they're smarter than they are.

However, I still like her. And, she was certainly gorgeous.

YOU THINK THAT, OP, BECAUSE YOU'RE COPYING WHAT OTHERS INFORMED YOU ON THE 'JOKER' THREADS ALREADY!

QUIT COPYCATTING AND MAKING REDUNDANT THREADS FOR EVERY NOUN MENTIONED ON A PREVIOUS THREAD, YOU ASPIE MANIAC!!!!!

PLEASE F&F THIS EXHAUSTING TROLL. "I THINK IT'S TIME WE REVISIT CHEMICAL CASTRATION!"

Who really wants another 100 threads cataloguing ancient pop, just with the new and improved label, "I Think It's Time We Revisit?"

DIE IN A GREASE FIRE

I think it's time we revisit R47's anger management sessions.

Taxi Driver is a movie I don't really "enjoy" but I admire it. It's unlike anything else. And to think a major studio bankrolled it is astonishing because it would never be made today.

The cinematography is stunning - the way it captures NYC throughout the day, the grittiness, it's mesmerizing.

I also love Bernard Hermann's score - the jazzy, romantic theme is unforgettable.

R49 I love that NYC plays a role in the film too. Just looking at it. Ugh, I miss it. This new NYC is trash.

Quite possibly my favorite movie, and it still rings true today. The same person can be a "Hero" or a "Villain" -- decided by small twists of fate, really.

I'm not drawn to the story - it's too coldly grubby and alienating. But it IS flawlessly cast and acted, so I admire it.

I revisited Taxi Driver for the first time in a while after watching Joker. It's almost not even worth comparing the two because Taxi Driver's operating on an entirely different level.

I think my biggest takeaway this go 'round was just how aesthetically pleasing the film is. The colors, the lighting, the mist, the atmosphere... everything about it is just so fucking sumptuous. And it's a pretty low key film as well... it simmers right up until the end when it bursts with violence. It's hypnotic.

The scene where Jodie and Robert have lunch is actually like... really fucking devastating because up until this moment Jodie was rocking that iconic prostitute outfit, but in this scene she's just a girl... and like, it's jarring for a number of reasons because the way it's shot and lit, it's like the film immediately sheds its moody genre trappings and you're just there, in the 70s, looking at a girl, and it's tragic because you know that later that day she's going right back to that life of prostitution.

I don't know if Scorsese's talked about filming this scene. It really stands out from the rest of the film.

It's also the most beautiful De Niro has looked. Scorsese knew, that's why he put this extended slow mo walk in the film. Scorsese actually gave us plenty of hot De Niro in his prime. I'm grateful!

[quote]r53 I don't know if Scorsese's talked about filming this scene. It really stands out from the rest of the film.

As preparation, the two performers had many meals in that diner together during filming, and gradually began dropping dialogue from the scene into their talks. Eventually it became only the dialogue. This is why the behavior is so natural. It was rehearsed naturally.

The young woman you see briefly playing another hooker was a real street prostitute who tutored Jodie Foster on street behavior, etc. in that world.

I don't think anyone knows what eventually happened to her, or remembers what her name was.

It would be interesting to find out.

R56, I thought her prostitute name was Iris, hence why Jodie was given that name. Could be wrong about that though.

R53, that scene is also disturbing because I think the way Iris puts sugar on her toast is supposed to imply that Iris is a junkie.

I think the hypnotic effect of the film is why people love the film despite its disturbing, off-putting content. You don't see many people who would champion Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45 or King of New York (admittedly a crappy movie) in the same way, for instance. I noticed when watching the film that whenever there is a red light is when the score becomes really alluring while the opposite tends to happen with green lights. It's all about how Travis perceives the NYC world that surrounds him--he is repulsed by it but also drawn in. He is a loner (not by choice) and wants to be part of the world around him so badly even as he despises it. That taps into something deep about the feeling of isolation and loneliness that a lot of people feel, whether they live in urban areas or not.

No love for ME?

Albert Brook is indeed the one nobody really cares about in the movie. He's fine but his part could have easily been played by a lot of people.

R56 The fate of the actress who plays Iris's friend (who was a real prostitute and junkie in NYC at the time) was a mystery for many years.

When the internet came along she finally became known to the public and film fans at large. Her name was Garth Avery. You can find a lot of info about her in a Facebook group in her memory, set up by her family:

Filming locations for TAXI DRIVER in NYC's East Village, captured and compared around 2000 before many were demolished:

R61, that is so sad. I wonder why she became a hooker in the first place? Seems like a loving family, at least on the outside.

A lot of prostitutes come from loving families. You would be shocked. They aren’t always from bad places.

Post from an alleged cousin.

[quote] Garth was from an upper class family, educated at private schools and was a fabulous artist. For reasons known only to her immediate family, she ran away and was, in fact, a hooker for a while. She was NOT 15-years-old, as stated in the creepy director's interview on the recent anniversary re-release of the film, but was in her 20's. She was NOT an underage hooker and not a "street person." She ended up eventually getting on heroin, dried out in a facility, worked in a factory for a while while kicking her drug habit, and unfortunately contracted AIDS. After three years, my dear cousin died in October 1994, after living in her mom's Stuyvesant Town Apartment overlooking the East River.

R65 Yes! A rabbit hole of internet mystery surrounding this woman.

I noticed there seems to be a previous Facebook group dedicated to her that the moderator says was stopped in part because, "some creepy woman has photoshopped images of herself as Garth in certain scenes from #TaxiDriver," directing people to the new group.

It's also confusing that one person on a site states that the mysterious Garth Avery is just in one nightime scene, but the film still at r56 is daytime. There was another "friend"/hooker cast member named Shirley Kuhn (who also acted under the name Billie Perkins). Maybe that is the performer in the R56 pic.

I prefer Goodbar to this, by miles.

(I'm very DL in some ways).

R54- I disagree. I think DeNiro's looks peaked in the movie Falling In Love (1984) The movie is LAME. But he was SO good looking in that movie.

Just watched the trailer for Falling In Love. I didn't even know this film existed! De Niro, Streep, Wiest, Keitel... what a cast! It must have been a seriously clunker if I hadn't even heard of it. That being said... in my opinion, his Taxi Driver look still tops it. I'm also a fan of his Richard Pupkin look (it's the mustache), and of course the Raging Bull bod is magnificent.

Back to Falling In Love... what was with Meryl's hairstyle?! I know it was the 80s, but damn... I mean... was that look all the rage? A sort of... choppy, sapphic mullet?

I was googling De Niro pic from HI Mom (1970) - who's the dish in the middle?

& here's "Hi Mom"

Thanks, OP for starting this thread. Because of it, I watched the film again and it really is a masterpiece. I noticed things I hadn't seen before. Plus, seeing it in my 40s, I do feel some kind of connection to Travis. I think one could possibly relate to his sense of isolation in a changing world and living in a metropolitan city.

Scorsese's scene is still so creepy. Harvey Keitel puts in a fine supporting performance that doesn't get recognized enough. Cybill was good too and she looked beautiful.

Taxi Driver, Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Cruising are three of my favourite gritty films of the '70s and early '80s. Films that would never get made today.

R74 I agree. But I love The Warriors also

Such a good song.

Despite some similarities between Travis and Arthur Bremner, Schrader now says there was no connection between "An Assassin's Diary" and his screenplay.

R74 Serpico as well.

"I Think It’s Time We Revisit “Taxi Driver” (1976) and it’s BRILLIANCE "

"I Think It is Time We Revisit “Taxi Driver” (1976) and it is BRILLIANCE " ?

OP is a fucking idiot.