 |
| Robert
de Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybil Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel,
Peter Boyle |
|
 |
Anamorphic
widescreen |
|
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
 |
DTS |
|
|
Trailer(s) |
|
Featurette(s) |
|
Documentary |
|
Audio commentary
|
|
Deleted scenes
|
|
Concept art
/ storyboards |
|
Multi-angle
feature |
|
|
|
|
Travis
Bickle (Robert de Niro): The days go on and on... they don't end. All my life needed
was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote
his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become
a person like other people.
A
Vietnam veteran cab driver in New York projects the loneliness and self-loathing
he feels onto his sordid surroundings.
 Marrying
Paul Schrader's disturbing screenplay to Scorsese's brilliant direction
and one of the best leading performances of the century, Taxi Driver
now stands as masterpiece of modernist cinema that manages to get inside
the head of a character most people wouldn't want to even give the time
of day in real life. Besides being a great piece of cinema, Taxi
Driver has by now also become an odd historical document of 1970s
New York, painting a vivid if sordid picture of the 42nd Street that
used to be.
Michael Chapman's cinematography together with the great Bernard Hermann's
final score combine to lock you inside the eyes and mind of a lonely
and confused lost soul who sees nothing but decay and is fascinated
by it. The viewer, in turn, is fascinated by this monster we see developing
before our very eyes. The only weak scene in the film is the only one
that excludes Travis, when we get to see Jodie Foster's character alone
with her pimp. Although the extra character information is helpful in
understanding the relationship a 14-year-old prostitute can have with
her pimp, its shift away from the film's single perspective is too awkward
to mesh with the rest of the movie. It should have been available in
a Deleted Scenes section on DVD... |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Columbia
first released a Region 1 movie-only edition, and later released a Special
Edition with a different cover, that was released for Region 2 with
the cover from the initial movie-only release. More recently, Sony produced a remastered two-disc DVD release with new supplements, which is available for Region 1 and 2, and which served as a basis for this review.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at 1.85:1 and constitutes a slight but noticeable improvement over the previous DVD edition (which was already very solid). Colors on this new edition are somewhat fuller, and more fine detail is visible, while grain has been toned down without losing the natural film-like look. An outstanding visual presentation.
The soundtrack has been remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, giving Bernard Herrmann's outstanding score the required oomph in key scenes. While mostly limited to the center speaker for dialogues and foley effects, the sound stage is broadened and deepened in its presentation of the musical score.
The new two-disc release carries over all the superb extras from the previous single-disc release: the exceptional hour-long documentary covers
the movie's production history and reception, and features interviews
with all the principal members of cast and crew. A portrait gallery
has a voice-over narration from DVD producer Laurent Bouzereau where
he takes the opportunity to add some anecdotes and bits of trivia that
were left out of the documentary.
Paul Schrader's entire original screenplay is also available on the
disc, with the option to jump directly to a chapter in the movie. A plethora of new featurettes has been added exclusively for this edition, and they prove to be surprisingly good across the board. The first featurette has Scorsese reflecting on the film's production and influence, and the director pops up regularly in the other featurettes included here. Other items include new talks with screenwriter Paul Schrader and producers Paul and Julia Phillips, and a talk with several New York taxi drivers who reminisce on how it was to be a driver in those days.
Dan Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: December 5, 2007
Click
here for IMDB info on Taxi
Driver .
Click here
to return to the front page.
|
|
| |
