I am a rideshare driver with 17,000 trips. I’ve had a knife pulled on me twice. I’ve been punched in the face once. I’ve had two passengers go to jail during the trip, both at stops. One punched a cop in the face the other trashed a gas station. I’ve had two people leave a baby in my car to extort another ride, both said “ you won’t leave with my baby in the car.” I’ve had three people try to get in my car, still holding a meth pipe in their hand. A guy started watching porn on his phone with the volume turned all the way up. He was so high that he would only look up to see me speak, but he wouldn’t change his actions or reply. I was asking him to turn the volume off or get out of the car. Longest three minute ride ever! I had a guy order a ride to get help moving. I heard a phone conversation between a witness to a murder and the murderer trying to get the story straight. I could go on forever.
@@Mozokuni I'm a taxi driver in a smallish New England city, I've seen a few things, I can scratch high-speed chase off my bucket list(not the cops), I've had a few threats, a few, much too vigorous punches to the shoulder, the one guy that legitimately tried to punch me, well, it might've landed if he were less drunk. Knock on wood, I haven't had anyone try to rob me besides trying to pass a bad bill(only fell for that once with a $50), a couple of flim-flam idiots I learned to shut down quickly, and you will get the occasional runner no matter how hard you try. For the most part, people up to no good will leave you out of it, they aren't going to screw up their ride home. Sometimes people are a little too honest about the drugs they're after, and that's a drag, plausible deniability, we love NOT knowing. On the upside, you get to help people, and sometimes you get some cool people with interesting conversations, sometimes that's enough to put up with the downsides.
And? Is there a point or a conclusion you want us to draw from reading all that? I was a Lyft / Uber driver for 6 years and I did 31,000 rides in Minneapolis St Paul. I was picked on fairly frequently because of my car (a 2015 Prius) and my appearance (long gray pandemic hair in a ponytail) - it must have screamed libtard to a lot of passengers. And by picked on, I mean the passenger was the one who started the verbal dog-whistle probing, exploring what could get me going. Never had a weapon pulled on me. I was tipped $100 once for offering good liberal politics arguments to a conservative passenger who enjoyed the conversation. I was assaulted (relatively mildly) once in the suburbs by a very conservative and very angry drunk guy 30 years my junior who had a chip on his shoulder as he got into the car, while his wife watched his performance from the backseat. I got away from that with a minor cheek bruise and no damage to the car. All I could think of during his outrageous attack was "I don't want to hit him. Need to shove him down so I can get in the car and run", which is what I managed to do. Filed a police report, no arrest, no charges. What I want you all to take away from this is that people have wildly varying experiences in public, probably depending entirely on where they are and what their persona / vibe is.
He's a man so alienated that a movie is just a movie. He didn't register that a porno isn't just another movie. People go to movies on dates. Why not first date at a porno. To me that's a huge insight into his character. Also that pan shot from the phone to the empty hallway is maybe my favorite shot in any film. The isolation is agonizing.
“This reminds me of Rocky.” The dude he’s talking to at the beginning about getting a job driving taxi is the guy that played the bookie/mob guy that Rocky worked for at the start of the first one.
@@John_Locke_108 I live here, it’s changed significantly since then. There’s no way anyone can honestly say it’s the same city as it was in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s safer today, cleaner today, way more gentrified (for better or worse), and there are very few corners of the city left that are truly “dangerous”, and even those are typically fine as long as you’re not actively looking for trouble. It’s so drastically different that most New Yorkers say the city has been “Disneyfied” since then, and some oddly miss those days despite also admitting things are mostly better now. But while it’s a way safer place than it was, some of the flavor and character is definitely gone today.
John Hinckley became obsessed with Taxi Driver and had severe mental health issues. Soon he blurred the lines of fiction and reality. His grip on the real world collapsed. He began writing Jodi Foster letters and became increasingly more unhinged and disturbing. Hinckley saw himself as the Bickle character eventually so fully he vowed to assassinate a presidential running candidate in Jodi's honor to 'save' her. John Hinckley Jr. wrote Jodi letters from 1976 to 1981. He stalked her for years, but she was pretty unattainable to get to until she elected at 18 to do a play. This was Hinckley's opening. He attended the play opening night, told Jodi in a letter he would be there to see her and meet her back stage and decided on newly elected president Ronald Reagan as his target to assassinate as a tribute to Foster. Security details and a high police presence thwarted Hinckley's attempt to make contact with her opening night at the play, but wrote her a letter including proof he was there. He put in writing proclaiming he was going to shoot Reagan in the next day or so. On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan when leaving a speaking engagement in Washington, DC, was shot and wounded by Hinckley as Reagan was returning to his limousine. Four other people were wounded by Hinckley's shooting rampage including a police officer, secret service agent and press secretary James Brady who was struck in the head and left paralyzed by the attack where 33 years later would finally pass away as a result of his wounds. The fallout effect for Jodi Foster was immense and life-altering. Just 18 years of age at the time of the assassination attempt and left shaken by the knowledge Hinckley was present at her live performance armed, she never did any live theatre or a play ever again as a result of that traumatic experience. Jodi chose to take a four year sabbatical from acting and Hollywood instead enrolling into Princeton University where she was flanked with a security detail every day to escort her to class and home the entirety of her university time. She also did this as a way to go underground from the press that were vultures about the life imitating Scorsese spectacle of the insanity all this was. Even Robert De Niro wasn't sparred the hassle of low brow sensationalistic press hounding him. When he won best actor for Raging Bull on March 31, 1981 at the Oscars, the Academy Awards were literally held the very next night after Reagan had been shot just the day before. What should've been a happy evening for De Niro was one of frustration and ultimately anger as the press only wanted to talk about the Hinckley-Taxi Driver connection. Holding his Oscar, one reporter asked if he felt remorse for doing Taxi Driver and responsible for all those wounded. That's when De Niro finally snapped, lost his cool, screaming at the entire foreign press corps which then all culminated in Robert throwing the mic stand and storming off stage into the night.
He also played Clyde in the very good X-Files episode 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." That show was just an embarrassment of riches when it comes to great character actors.
The last shot when he moved the mirror and there’s a reversed music sting, according to writer Paul Schrader, means that Travis is a ticking time bomb again and will do something like he did again.
@@cgbleak Too late, though I saw in a documentary about the late Anton Yelchin that he was planning to get ready to direct a script he wrote about Travis Bickle but before the contract could be signed, he died.
I saw this film on the second weekend of its run. After the movie I walked back to my car and sat there for about half an hour totally stunned. I couldn't start my car and drive away because I was so shook. I've never had a movie affect me the way this one did.
There are movies that entertain, movies that shock, movies that inspire. Taxi Drive is a movie that is the closest thing you'll ever see to the mind of a man dealing with his shadow self.
My dad tells me that between Midnight Cowboy, Mean Streets, and Taxi Driver, nobody who watched movies wanted anywhere NEAR the city of New York for the entire 1970s.
You have to see "King of Comedy" now. It's the other film that inspired "Joker." It stars Deniro again, and is directed by Scorsese. It was made in response to the controversy behind John Hinckley being inspired by "Taxi Driver" to assassinate Reagan.
Bill Hader described the camera pan to the hallway when he's on the phone as "Even the movie was so uncomfortable it didn't want to watch anymore". Personifying the cringe of experiencing him.
@@chandumanoj2656I believe it was inspired by a similar pan in a Fellini film, but it can't be denied, there's a lot in this movie that would inspire turning away.
Not only does that shot work as a way to spare the viewers from witnessing Bickle's uncomfortable anguish but also works from the point of view of the overall story. This not a movie about a romantic relationship. This is a movie about a deranged lonewolf walking the mean streets of NYC. He doesn't even have a choice at this time. It is waiting for him. And as uncomfortable for us to watch right now...what is coming will be far worse.
I saw this in the theater in '76 and everyone within a week of release was spouting the, "You Talkin' to me?" Line. John Hinkley Shot President Reagan and was obsessed with Foster and her role in this movie.
It was John Hinckley, Jr. who was obsessed with Jodie Foster. On March 30, 1981, he shot President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress her (it did make an impression, just not the one he wanted). The obsession and the shooting seemed inspired by this movie. Hinckley also hit Reagan's press secretary James Brady, which left him paralyzed and contributed to his death 33 years later. Hinckley was charged with several crimes, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was institutionalized. He was granted a conditional release in 2016. The "you talking to me" scene is the most memorable part of this film. It tells you so much about the character and the terrible path he's traveling. To me, the story is about the difference between Travis Bickle's conception of himself and who he really is. He seems himself as an avenger who is cleaning up a decaying society, but he's actually an unhinged, obsessive creep. There's even a question of how much the events of the movie happened as they were portrayed, or we're being shown them as he saw them from his deranged mind, particularly at the end when he's seen as a hero. The casting of Jodie Foster was controversial at the time. She was only 12 when the movie was made.
I love the score in Taxi Driver. Its mindblowing to me that it was done by someone who started their career with Citizen Kane then ended it with this film.
The guy who was obsessed with Jodi Foster was John Hinckley. Just like in the movie, he thought he could impress her by killing a politician, so he shot President Reagan. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was institutionalized for several decades, but is now free, and makes TH-cam videos of himself playing music. BTW, I took a film class in college and the teacher was the second unit director of photography for this film. He drove around in a cab and took all of the shots of the NYC streets.
I love the role of Easy Andy, played by Steven Prince. "Cadillac, I'll get you a brand new Cadillac!". Scorsese even did a mini documentary on the actor called "American Boy".
I met Jodie Foster while working in her movie, The Accused. We were filming the hockey game scene ( not a spoiler). It was her day off from shooting. This was in Vancouver. She dropped by the set to say, "Hi," to us and watch a but of the Hockey.
The other Scorsese/DeNiro film that Joker lifted heavily from. Joker is basically 90% based on those two films. Very underrated and not your usual DeNiro role.
Forgive me. I posted this when we were 3/4 into the movie and both of you were agreeing that if he kills Keitel that that wouldn't be so bad. So I listened to you talk at the end and I see that you didn't see Travis as a hero. So read this with that in mind. I interpreted the ending like this: I think Scorcese/Schrader is saying because Travis redirected his violence away from Palantine and/or those working on his campaign and toward the pimp and the slimebag hotel owner, as a society we now see Travis in a heroic light. This is unfortunate. Instead, what we should be examining is what caused Travis to become unhinged in the first place. Remember when he looks into the cab rearview mirror real quick as he's driving away from Betsy in that last scene? Scorcese's telling us that this guy is still dangerous. Only because of that small change of the Secret Service guys foiling his plan to kill Palantine does his status in society's eyes go from a villain to a "hero," but make no mistake, Travis isn't a hero. Also, I know you guys were asking about why Travis might target Palantine versus Sport, etc. I don't think the choice of victim matters that much to someone as unhinged as Travis. Remember the awful time he was having trying to convey to The Wizard what was wrong. He kept saying things like, "I have some bad ideas in my head..." and "I just feel like.... I'm gonna... ohhhh I dunno..." He can't put it into words. He just wants to do SOMETHING. He's not exactly sure the form it's going to take at that point. So I think the choice of victim here is secondary to the fact he just wants/needs to do something. And that something is going to be violent. But the choice of victim doesn't necessarily have to be logical from the viewer's standpoint, IMHO.
From what I understand, the writer, Paul Schrader, had just gone through a divorce and a breakup, was lonely and battling his own demons. He also had been inspired by Dostoevsky's writings, in particular Notes from Underground. That book has a character that is full of contradictions, is himself lonely and against the world, and interacts sympathetically with a prostitute. I probably saw this movie when I was too young to comprehend the themes, but as I've gotten older, I've appreciated them more. Scorsese's direction is so creative and memorable.
Yea, I kind of felt that it was inspired by Dostoevsky. It even has a similar main character to crime and punishment, a total depressed loner neet with a bit of a saviour complex and heavy mental illness.
Schrader has said that one reason he wrote the movie was he felt if he didn’t, he might actually go out and live it. He also reported that he was approached by at least one person who demanded to know how he knew so much about their life. When John Hinckley shot Reagan, Schrader’s first response was, “I bet it was one of those Taxi Driver guys.”
The Composer of the Score, Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane, Psycho) died literally the night after he finished recording it. He viewed the rough cut of what was to be his next film assignment (Larry Cohen’s “God Told Me To”). After dining with Cohen, he returned to his hotel and died in his sleep.
You absolutely nailed it when you said that although Travis is being hailed as a hero for his actions, his true intentions were from a much darker place. Basically, Travis was a socially awkward vet with PTSD who was deeply frustrated about his situation and the world he lived in. He wanted to lash out at something and his target slowly evolved from killing Palantine to get back at Betsy to killing the pimp to free Iris. At the end, although he’s physically recuperated from his injuries, his PTSD is still there, untreated, and it’s only a matter of time before he lashes out at the world again.
You’re making assumptions based on what we know now, not what they knew at the time. It wasn’t that deep, just like how they actually treated ptsd then.
This was one of the most memorable films of 1970s for us who were teenagers at the time. Couple of things to give context to this film: - New York had a major crime problem in late 70s and there were lots of people who thought that some drastic solutions for that were in order. - "The stalker of Jodie Foster" Simone mentioned in the beginning was John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan to impress Foster. - "The war movie with DeNiro" mentioned by George is "The Deer Hunter" from 1978. This is an important movie You guys should definitely watch. It started a flow of Vietnam War themed films like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam etc...
Who woulda thought that almost 50 years later after this movie, Martin Scorcese and Robert Deniro would still work together in movies and to this very day. One of the best movie collaborators ever. Recently this year Deniro starred in Scorcese's latest film Killers of the Flower Moon. Another great movie.
A great primer on mental health and the effects of growing up in a militant life. I know so many guys that went into the military right out of high school and knew nothing outside of that career, so when they get out of the service and try to get a job a lot of them struggle because they don't know how to react in a work environment and have no social skills. This film always reminds me of that. I love the military, I think it's a great experience for most people, but people also going into it at a young age need to understand that it will take care of you, that doesn't mean it knows how to raise you. I entered the service pretty late, so thankfully I already had a lot of that figured out for myself by then. I still got a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds that have a lot to learn, but some of them don't even know what they need to ask. I watched a guy exhaust himself chopping a tree up because nobody ever showed him how to use an axe, he just assumed that you just keep hacking until you get through it, and he never thought to ask what he was doing wrong until I came over and showed him. It's hard to imagine what kind of simple things you don't even realize you have no idea how to do, or things that you are able to do out of habit because you've been performing those actions for as long as you remember; then there's people out there that just have not been programmed that way yet because they put civilian life on hold and had to back track to those steps of maturing and living life years later, and it completely screws them up because they think there is something wrong with them. I love this film because every time I watch it all that comes flying back into my mind and I can almost put myself in that situation after seeing it so many times in other people. Easily one of my favorite movies.
"I'm Micro-dosing pants" cracked me up. Won't answer the question about worst thing seen as a cab driver though. I've worked in a lot of fields, been in a lot of situations, and driving a cab gave me my lowest opinion of humanity I've ever had.
I imagine you deal with worse people than the service industry and retail industry. It must suck, because I've worked in both of those and it's amazing how fucked up people treat those workers.
This movie is a commentary on how society can glorify violence. Travis is a duranged killer but because he killed "the right people" we call him a hero. The red flash when he catches his reflection at the end is a hint that he is still the same, he will kill again.
It's interesting that no reaction video producers recognize the name Harvey Keitel. He's been in so many memorable roles. Simone and George must remember him as Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction?!
A proper film. One that stays in your head, has you asking questions about people and that you can chew on for decades. When I was a young, lonely man in my 20's it was among the scariest films I knew because it showed what confused, bad thinking can do to a person and where it can lead.
Fun fact: I saw Jodie Foster on an interview, where she said that when they made Taxi Driver, both Scorsese and Deniro had less experience in movie making than she did. She said they were both a little intimidated by her, a 12 year old at the time, but she was more experienced than either of them. I found that kind of funny.
Scorcese directed four full length movies before this. Including Alice Doesnt' Live Here Anymore, and Mean Streets. Both critically and commercially successful. Not exactly unexperienced.
@@t-bone3599Believe it, she had worked with Scorsese before. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore was Jodie Foster’s 8th film and she had been in 70+ tv episodes on 26 different shows in the 7 years before Taxi Driver.
everythings referenced or inspired by something that came before. so base on your logic the only way to read or watch anything is to start by reading ancient Mesopotamia stories and work your way through every piece of fiction before even entering the first movie ever made.
Jodie Foster worked with Scorsese on the movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," which came out a year before this, so she had a certain comfort level with him for what was a much more difficult role in Taxi Driver.
I can't help feeling there were a LOT of moments in this film that Simone and George didn't understand, e.g. when Sport calls Iris his "little piece of chicken", or how Travis accidentally destroying his TV is supposed to be funny.
That's what I felt. I saw this in 1977 when it was released in the cinema. There is no better portrait of alienation from the rest of society. Whenever there is a mass shooting I always think Travis Bickle.
Do you have more examples? those don't seem too clear-cut to me lol, also do you mean that they are meant to be funny or that they aren't? when I first watched the movie I did think the TV scene was weirdly goofy, like he does it and regrets it immediately, but I didn't know if that was intentional or accidental, I think it could also just be one of the many examples of how bipolar his behaviour is.
Or is it a tragedy? TV connects him to what "normal" people do. Now he's got plenty of time to crawl around in his own mind and obsess. But yeah, I think they missed the boat on this one. Given their track record, I had such great expectations.
@@ThreadBombI can see that, though it plays slightly tense music right after he does it, which doesn't read to me as "he did something that he thought was cool but backfired" like when he flirts with the movie theatre girl and she threatens to call someone (and no background music is playing at that scene at all, which is the case in most of the movie's "funny" scenes), but instead as another example of his mental deterioration. It's a weird clash between the scene and the music, at least if we take it for granted that it's meant to be comical, there's movies where they do stuff like this but most scenes in Taxi Driver don't give off that ironic vibe.
'70s New York grime is primo chef's-kiss grime. Anytime you want to revisit this environment, the people who made The Wire made a show called The Deuce that takes place then and there. Grimy af, but epic.
Yeah, and along with The Warriors, which a lot of people often mention as a great snapshot of NYC during this time, one of my favorite movies from the 80’s - which also happens to be a Scorsese film - is After Hours. It totally nails what the city felt like in those days, and is possibly one of his most underrated films. A lot of people have never even heard of it.
This film perfectly captured the 1970's; when I think back to that era I recall the grittiness, the choking thick smog, body odor, cigarette smoke EVERYWHERE, alcoholism and drug abuse rampant, the loudness of people and streets, the angry, pent up directionless hordes of people in a hurry to go nowhere. On the flipside such an environment led to some of the most riveting, gut punch films (particularly in the genres of horror and heavy drama) ever made.
Guns. The gun laws vary by state. In NY, it is always more difficult to get a gun and anywhere you want to get a gun that can't be traced, you are doing something illegal.
Something to keep in mind about the movie is that in the 70s, a lot of action movies were revenge fantasies or somehow about cleaning up the streets because the law was too constrained to get the job done (e.g., Dirty Harry, Death Wish), which a lot of critics felt was morally degenerate because they felt the movies promoted fascist fantasies. So Taxi Driver is basically a deconstruction of that trend, digging into what kind of person might really have such fantasies, how they get there, and how ugly their actions can get.
@@zzDarkwingDuck That has always been the fascist fantasy. Use force to make the world you want, sweep the weakness of democracy, understanding and discussion aside.
I think that's a spot-on interpretation. That movie and the vibe from it is probably one of the more effective pushes toward Reagan this country experienced.
@@zzDarkwingDuck Because (a) it views individuals or groups as savages or subhuman and (b) proposes that there must be a 'cleansing' to protect society and (c) that the regular law is ineffective in doing so and (d) that the only effective solution is extreme violence. Violent authoritarianism, doing unlimited harm against certain people, unrestrained by normal codes, that's the core of the fascist mindset ( while paradoxically insisting that it's done on the side of law and order).
Bernard Hermann came out of retirement to write the score. He flew from London to LA to conduct the orchestra for the two day recording session. He conducted the first day. And then died that evening before the second day session. Scores from Citizen Kane to Taxi Driver. He was awesome
Palantine, the pimps, it didn't matter. Travis was a bomb looking to explode, he didn't care where. He felt helpless and powerless and blowing up was the only way he could think of to gain control over his environment. Scorsese was messing with the audience by making Travis seem like a good guy at the end. He's not. He's going to go off again at some point.
I'm not from the US but I believe if you buy a gun from a store that gun, including serial number and type, is registered to your name and can be traced back to you whereas if you buy it in the black market there's no trace of you buying or owning a gun
No. You are 100% incorrect. Federal agencies are prohibited from maintaining a database of firearms, serial numbers and gun owners. But if a firearm is used in a crime, the firearm and serial number would appear in the investigation records. So yes, if you possessed a firearm used in a crime, that could lead to an investigation and possible arrest.
@@Dularr Apparently not 100% incorrect: "Eight states prohibit state-level gun registries. Only Hawaii requires registration of all firearms, while only a few states require registration of certain firearms. Only three states (Ill., Mass., and N.J.) require a license for all guns." Notice they are also talking about "state-level gun registries" not "city/county-level registries" You're also talking about federal agencies, not local ones or the owners of gun shops who do in fact keep registries of who they sell guns to and which guns they sell. Otherwise how would they know who owns a gun that has been used in a crime? Because they already used it, got caught, kept it and used it again in another crime? Why would people scrape off serial numbers?
@@ragnar97 fantastic, now we are in the weeds. Gun laws are all over the place. The big question is the ATF and FBI. So while local laws may require registration. It's debatable if the police can use this data to investigate firearm ownersship.
I wouldn't be so sure to say that Travis is a hero in the movie but WE KNOW otherwise. He did save an underage girl from a world of prostitution and it wasn't a mistake. Yes, he had a desire to vent his frustration ('I got some bad ideas in my head') but he also wanted to do something good. The ambiguity is what makes the film brilliant as well as being one of the most honest movies about masculinity (we all go around with bad ideas in our heads, the only difference being Travis acts on it but, then again, for a good cause).
Drove a taxi for three years. No major (violent) incidents, just the "usual" weirdness of people. - Had a couple in the backseat who discussed the nutritional value of light. Along the lines of "the body can take up stuff through the skin and process it", they actually thought the human body was capable of photosynthesis, to an extent that it could survive with light as a food source. Yes, they were dead serious about it. They even started doing the math on how much sunlight it would need to take up as many calories as with eating a banana. - Price for the biggest fare went to a German guy. His train from Munich to Vienna broke down shortly before reaching its destination. He was so mad about it that he decided to take a taxi straight back home, 320 miles (€1,300.-), cursing Austria for at least 2 hours of the 4-hour drive.
Light does have nutritional value, though. Sunlight (UV-B) is the primary natural source of vitamin D. That's one of the reasons people living up north have a lighter skin: so they can get enough vitamin D in the winter.
@@blechtic I know. But you can't survive on vitamin D alone. They way they were talking, they thought of themselves as vegans lv. 99, on the brink of transforming into something celestial, afraid of exploiting anything provided by nature. I bet they even felt bad for the sun while talking about it.
10:56 Scorsese gives me chills in this scene every time. He’s legit scary describing how he’s gonna mutilate his wife. One of the best director performances in a film.
Paul Schrader wrote the film was living this life as a taxi driver and said he was in a dark place at the time so decided to write and that probably saved his own sanity. The way it ends with the backwards notes and glances himself in the mirror we know he's still disturbed. It's a masterpiece.
Dick Smith is credited for doing special makeup. He is known as the Godfather of Makeup Artists. He did tons of other movies, including Godfather and Godfather II, Deer Hunter, and finally won an Oscar for doing the makeup on Amadeus.
33:46 This was a real guy who used to drum on the streets. His name was Gene Palma, and I saw him a few times when I was a kid. He was so ubiquitous on the streets of NY that this ain’t even the only movie he was in.
😎👍 For awhile, in the early 1990s, the scene in "Back To The Future 3" where Michael J. Fox goofs on the "You Talkin' Ta Me?" bit was nearly as famous as the original scene.
Palantine is a hill in Rome where Emperors lived. George Lucas intentionally invoked the evilness of the Roman Empire by calling his Emperor Palpatine 😊
Made in 1976. The music was the last score of Bernard Hermann (Scorsese dedicated TD to him) whose body of work goes from Citizen Kane to Psycho, Vertigo, and a whole lot of other Hitchcock films.
was taxi driver Long Island Ny, 2004-06, 6pm to 6 am shift. People'd talk to ya like a bar tender i guess or therapist. lotta stories, crazy circumstances, drugs. most ppl just tryna get by. People i found to be most indifferent from everyone else was airplane pilots. always had flight crews -hotel - airport trips.
@@kipperlings123 his voice & the way he talks is very distinctive. He's been one of the most recognizable director for decades now & doesn't look that different here except for the darker hair. They recognized Albert Brooks with that hair! lol
@@hannahprose You have to go out of your way to listen to a director. For example you can watch every Christopher Nolan film but that doesn't mean you know what he looks like or sounds like.
If you ever do Angel Heart (1987), you will note that De Niro plays his character to look like his friend Scorsese, the passenger who gives him ideas here.
Are you guys serious!?!??!! We’re doing classic 1970’s masterpieces now! Keep it up guys!!5$3 70’s has some of the best films in cinema history. Gotta do Raging Bull next or soon-ish …and I know Raging Bull came out in 1980 lol, but they filmed it in 1979 so it counts as 70’s cinema
A fascinating movie with a great, nakedly vulnerable performance by Harvey Keitel--arguably his best. And that's saying something. An incredibly decadent movie (originally rated NC-17) that takes religious themes of belief, grace and forgiveness seriously. I double dog dare Cinebnige to react to it. When asked if they've ever seen it, no one has ever said, I don't remember.
Spot on with noticing how unsure the film makes you about where it's heading. Always thought the difference between Travis being a hero or a villain is down to pure chance.
Exactly, and I like the interpretation that the final scene is real, and that it’s commenting on society not having a problem with killing people who “deserve it” (obviously those guys were all pdfs, but still)
The Deer Hunter is an excellent film about Vietnam with Robert Dinero. Highly recommend. Btw, the passenger in the taxi talking about killing his wife was Martin Scorsese. This is along with Raging Bull ( highly recommend as well) are my two favorite Scorsese films.
The way I look at the ending is that when Travis quickly glances in the rear-view mirror after driving off into the night, it actually dovetails with the opening shot of the film where you see the taxi cab emerge out of the fog. The implication being that Travis is a time bomb on a constant loop and it is a question of when not if something will set him off again. I mean you both said as much at the end about how everyone thinks that Travis is a hero for a brief moment in time after rescuing Iris, but we know the truth about who he really is because we've been following him since the beginning. This is why I don't believe the theory that the epilogue is all just a fantasy that Travis sees while dying after the shootout. It makes more sense to me that Travis survived because now he has a taste for the glory that comes with being a vigilante, which gives him a sense of purpose that he wanted all along by his own admission: "All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go". In his mind, there are plenty of Iris' out there who need saving from the Sports' (Harvey Keitel) of the world, and if he can save as many as he can while also punishing the "filth" in his words at the same time, maybe he'll stop feeling like God's lonely man.
Firearms laws differ from state to state in the U.S.A.. In Texas, you can own a machine gun or a cannon. In some other states you cannot own any firearm. Although recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have declared a number of laws restricting firearms unconstitutional.
24:24 honestly NYC in the 70s was a much darker, violent place… at one point it was statistically close to being the murder capital of the Country. A lot of the crime, and deviance expressed in this film was real-- very real if you lived in the low to no income hoods and ghettos of NYC. However, the thing is, this movie paints a profound Portrait of a man who is, without a doubt, mentally deteriorating, before our eyes, and most likely his military experience contributes to it, but also, and mainly, it’s suggested that this mental illness was there before he served, but was undiagnosed. This was a time in America where, despite leaps and bounds in mental health treatments, mental health awareness and proper diagnosis was still on the back burner of American social consciousness. Ppl who were actually suffering from severe mental/psychological illnesses or disorders had been dismissed by medical professionals or mistreated from errors in diagnosis. As a result, myths and unfounded theories about mental health issues, diseases and illnesses were widely accepted and spread throughout the American medical community, and even became popular among pop culture and politics. It wasn’t until the mid- to late seventies where more awareness and attention to sound progressive research in to mental health, became more of a socially ethical and moral imperative, but even then, still took decades more to get to the point where are at now, currently-- especially in NYC.
George, Simone, in The United States gun laws vary state to state but the overarching federal law prohibits the sales of firearms to only come from vetted, licensed salespersons or companies. This license we refer to as the Federal Firearms License which controls the sales, manufacture or importation of firearms and ammunition in the USA.
They were watching a Swedish p*rn movie disguised as a sex ed movie. They actually did that, making a p*rno disguised as an educational movie, and by doing that made it easier for it to be allowed to be shown in the theaters because it wasn't just a "dirty movie", it was an "educational movie". Another example is Black Love, an "educational movie" about the love between an African American male & a female 😜 And I believe it was directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the "Godfather of Gore".
No, that is definitely not true at all! It's not a porn movie in any respect - it was in fact regarded by us Swedes as an "educational" movie, showing different aspect of sexuality with very explicit scenes. It was a sensational movie upon it's release in 1969 - even to Swedes who already back then were known for having an open mind towards nudity and sexuality. In other countries it was regarded as shocking and used as "proof" that Sweden was a land of porn, suicide, alcoholism and gonorrhea. I saw this film upon its release here in Sweden - it was titled "Kärlekens språk" (The Language of Love) and it also got a few sequels the following years. So once again - definitely not a "disguised porn movie!
@@JW666 What is it you don't understand? I told you it is neither a porn nor sexploitation film - it was a natural consequence of the liberation and equality we saw in the 60's. Swedes have traditionally had a "natural" attitude towards issues related to the human body.
This is pure New Hollywood cinema, when filmmakers had full reign to make the projects they wanted and they pushed boundaries that others were afraid to push. Plenty of other excellent films from this decade that were serious crime thrillers: Dirty Harry (1971) Death Wish (1974) Rolling Thunder (1977) Serpico (1973) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Shaft (1971) Coffy (1973) I haven't seen Walking Tall (1973) or Billy Jack (1971), but both are also major vigilante films.
During the commentary track, Scorsese spoke about how Travis is basically trying to remove a "father figure" from the lives of Betsy and Iris. It was lucky for him that the Secret Service chased him away from shooting Palantine, forcing him to focus on Sport and Iris. BTW, I didn't learn Emperor Palpatine's name until many years after seeing "Return of the Jedi", so for me Senator Palantine's name merely reminded me of Palatine, a perfectly nice suburb near where I grew up. Since I usually associate saxophone music with a romantic or sexy mood, it's always weird for me to hear the sax theme kick in during Travis' first close-up as he's scanning the streets for trouble.
On the Late Show with David Letterman, they occasionally did a comedy bit in which the announcer, Alan Kalter, would talk seductively to the camera, addressing the viewers in a way which became increasing deranged as he went on. It was years before I realised that the "sexy" background music they used for this segment was from Taxi Driver.
Palantine could be a play on "palatine" - a type of official in late Roman empire (originally they were guards named after the Palatine hill in Rome), which carried on into post-Roman Europe. (get it? Palantine the politician?) It's where the word "paladin" comes from.
I am a rideshare driver with 17,000 trips. I’ve had a knife pulled on me twice. I’ve been punched in the face once. I’ve had two passengers go to jail during the trip, both at stops. One punched a cop in the face the other trashed a gas station. I’ve had two people leave a baby in my car to extort another ride, both said “ you won’t leave with my baby in the car.” I’ve had three people try to get in my car, still holding a meth pipe in their hand. A guy started watching porn on his phone with the volume turned all the way up. He was so high that he would only look up to see me speak, but he wouldn’t change his actions or reply. I was asking him to turn the volume off or get out of the car. Longest three minute ride ever! I had a guy order a ride to get help moving. I heard a phone conversation between a witness to a murder and the murderer trying to get the story straight. I could go on forever.
@@Mozokuni I'm a taxi driver in a smallish New England city, I've seen a few things, I can scratch high-speed chase off my bucket list(not the cops), I've had a few threats, a few, much too vigorous punches to the shoulder, the one guy that legitimately tried to punch me, well, it might've landed if he were less drunk. Knock on wood, I haven't had anyone try to rob me besides trying to pass a bad bill(only fell for that once with a $50), a couple of flim-flam idiots I learned to shut down quickly, and you will get the occasional runner no matter how hard you try. For the most part, people up to no good will leave you out of it, they aren't going to screw up their ride home. Sometimes people are a little too honest about the drugs they're after, and that's a drag, plausible deniability, we love NOT knowing. On the upside, you get to help people, and sometimes you get some cool people with interesting conversations, sometimes that's enough to put up with the downsides.
What city is this?
And? Is there a point or a conclusion you want us to draw from reading all that?
I was a Lyft / Uber driver for 6 years and I did 31,000 rides in Minneapolis St Paul. I was picked on fairly frequently because of my car (a 2015 Prius) and my appearance (long gray pandemic hair in a ponytail) - it must have screamed libtard to a lot of passengers. And by picked on, I mean the passenger was the one who started the verbal dog-whistle probing, exploring what could get me going.
Never had a weapon pulled on me. I was tipped $100 once for offering good liberal politics arguments to a conservative passenger who enjoyed the conversation.
I was assaulted (relatively mildly) once in the suburbs by a very conservative and very angry drunk guy 30 years my junior who had a chip on his shoulder as he got into the car, while his wife watched his performance from the backseat. I got away from that with a minor cheek bruise and no damage to the car. All I could think of during his outrageous attack was "I don't want to hit him. Need to shove him down so I can get in the car and run", which is what I managed to do. Filed a police report, no arrest, no charges.
What I want you all to take away from this is that people have wildly varying experiences in public, probably depending entirely on where they are and what their persona / vibe is.
What city do you live in?
Just so I never go 👍
Have you considered writing a book of your taxi driver experiences?
He's a man so alienated that a movie is just a movie. He didn't register that a porno isn't just another movie. People go to movies on dates. Why not first date at a porno. To me that's a huge insight into his character. Also that pan shot from the phone to the empty hallway is maybe my favorite shot in any film. The isolation is agonizing.
“This reminds me of Rocky.” The dude he’s talking to at the beginning about getting a job driving taxi is the guy that played the bookie/mob guy that Rocky worked for at the start of the first one.
He was also the button man that testifies in The Godfather 2 and takes the gun from Tessio in The Godfather 1.
@@russellward4624 There were a lot of buffers.
excellent catch
Joe Spinell is incredible in Maniac
Also Rocky beat Taxi driver to win best picture at the Oscars.
I was there and I can tell you this film paints a very accurate portrait of New York City at that time. Scorsese didn’t need to exaggerate anything.
It hasn't changed much since then. Still a toilet bowl I try to avoid visiting.
So true! The movie Death Wish starring Charles Bronson, which came out a couple of years before Taxi Driver, I would also put on the same shelf.
@@groothewanderer3710these films made me really want to lash out at these awful people. But I'm too much of a coward to do anything about it.
The Warriors.
NYC was a horrible place. It got a bit better in the 90's but now it's going back again to what it was in the 70's. Maybe even worse.
@@John_Locke_108 I live here, it’s changed significantly since then. There’s no way anyone can honestly say it’s the same city as it was in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s safer today, cleaner today, way more gentrified (for better or worse), and there are very few corners of the city left that are truly “dangerous”, and even those are typically fine as long as you’re not actively looking for trouble. It’s so drastically different that most New Yorkers say the city has been “Disneyfied” since then, and some oddly miss those days despite also admitting things are mostly better now. But while it’s a way safer place than it was, some of the flavor and character is definitely gone today.
Strong contender for best film of the 70's. I really wish your outros were longer.
John Hinckley became obsessed with Taxi Driver and had severe mental health issues. Soon he blurred the lines of fiction and reality. His grip on the real world collapsed. He began writing Jodi Foster letters and became increasingly more unhinged and disturbing. Hinckley saw himself as the
Bickle character eventually so fully he vowed to assassinate a presidential running candidate in Jodi's honor to 'save' her. John Hinckley Jr. wrote Jodi letters from 1976 to 1981. He stalked her for years, but she was pretty unattainable to get to until she elected at 18 to do a play. This was Hinckley's opening. He attended the play opening night, told Jodi in a letter he would be there to see her and meet her back stage and decided on newly elected president Ronald Reagan as his target to assassinate as a tribute to Foster. Security details and a high police presence thwarted Hinckley's attempt to make contact with her opening night at the play, but wrote her a letter including proof he was there. He put in writing proclaiming he was going to shoot Reagan in the next day or so. On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan when leaving a speaking engagement in Washington, DC, was shot and wounded by Hinckley as Reagan was returning to his limousine. Four other people were wounded by Hinckley's shooting rampage including a police officer, secret service agent and press secretary James Brady who was struck in the head and left paralyzed by the attack where 33 years later would finally pass away as a result of his wounds.
The fallout effect for Jodi Foster was immense and life-altering. Just 18 years of age at the time of the assassination attempt and left shaken by the knowledge Hinckley was present at her live performance armed, she never did any live theatre or a play ever again as a result of that traumatic experience. Jodi chose to take a four year sabbatical from acting and Hollywood instead enrolling into Princeton University where she was flanked with a security detail every day to escort her to class and home the entirety of her university time. She also did this as a way to go underground from the press that were vultures about the life imitating Scorsese spectacle of the insanity all this was. Even Robert De Niro wasn't sparred the hassle of low brow sensationalistic press hounding him. When he won best actor for Raging Bull on March 31, 1981 at the Oscars, the Academy Awards were literally held the very next night after Reagan had been shot just the day before. What should've been a happy evening for De Niro was one of frustration and ultimately anger as the press only wanted to talk about the Hinckley-Taxi Driver connection. Holding his Oscar, one reporter asked if he felt remorse for doing Taxi Driver and responsible for all those wounded. That's when De Niro finally snapped, lost his cool, screaming at the entire foreign press corps which then all culminated in Robert throwing the mic stand and storming off stage into the night.
He was innocent by reason of insanity.They let him free from the hospital a few years ago.
I can't believe they let this psycho free.
@@AI_Image_MasterNo, they didn't. He was incarcerated in a high security mental hospital (think Arkham Asylum) until 2016.
@@overdrive7349People who are "criminally insane" spend more time away from society than "normal" murderers.
@@TahoeNevadahe's got a TH-cam channel where he makes music
The bald headed taxi driver is Peter Boyle who was the monster in Young Frankenstein and the father in Everybody Loves Raymond
His character in Raymond recites a portion of his monolog in one episode.
didn't recognize him without him screaming out "puttin on the ritz!"
Wrong Brooks!
and the lawyer in Where The Buffalo Roam
He also played Clyde in the very good X-Files episode 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." That show was just an embarrassment of riches when it comes to great character actors.
11:07 "What the hell is wrong with this guy?"
That's director Martin Scorsese, so my first guess would be... a lot 😅
Nailed the role tho.
Filling in for the actor who didn't/couldn't show up to the set that day.
The last shot when he moved the mirror and there’s a reversed music sting, according to writer Paul Schrader, means that Travis is a ticking time bomb again and will do something like he did again.
I think Schrader and Scorsese agree on that. Taxi Driver 2! Too late?
@@cgbleak Too late, though I saw in a documentary about the late Anton Yelchin that he was planning to get ready to direct a script he wrote about Travis Bickle but before the contract could be signed, he died.
@@cgbleak Joker is Taxi Driver 2
I saw this film on the second weekend of its run. After the movie I walked back to my car and sat there for about half an hour totally stunned. I couldn't start my car and drive away because I was so shook. I've never had a movie affect me the way this one did.
There are movies that entertain, movies that shock, movies that inspire. Taxi Drive is a movie that is the closest thing you'll ever see to the mind of a man dealing with his shadow self.
My dad tells me that between Midnight Cowboy, Mean Streets, and Taxi Driver, nobody who watched movies wanted anywhere NEAR the city of New York for the entire 1970s.
You have to see "King of Comedy" now. It's the other film that inspired "Joker." It stars Deniro again, and is directed by Scorsese. It was made in response to the controversy behind John Hinckley being inspired by "Taxi Driver" to assassinate Reagan.
"You're being penalised for competence!"
Bill Hader described the camera pan to the hallway when he's on the phone as "Even the movie was so uncomfortable it didn't want to watch anymore". Personifying the cringe of experiencing him.
I think even martin said something similar...
@@chandumanoj2656I believe it was inspired by a similar pan in a Fellini film, but it can't be denied, there's a lot in this movie that would inspire turning away.
Not only does that shot work as a way to spare the viewers from witnessing Bickle's uncomfortable anguish but also works from the point of view of the overall story. This not a movie about a romantic relationship. This is a movie about a deranged lonewolf walking the mean streets of NYC. He doesn't even have a choice at this time. It is waiting for him. And as uncomfortable for us to watch right now...what is coming will be far worse.
The point of that scene, having all the older and vintage phones on the wall, highlight that this is not a new mental condition
@@terryburns184Now that's interesting
I saw this in the theater in '76 and everyone within a week of release was spouting the, "You Talkin' to me?" Line.
John Hinkley Shot President Reagan and was obsessed with Foster and her role in this movie.
8:34 "It feels like he's on the halfway to writing a manifesto." Well spotted, George. Nailed it!
It was John Hinckley, Jr. who was obsessed with Jodie Foster. On March 30, 1981, he shot President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress her (it did make an impression, just not the one he wanted). The obsession and the shooting seemed inspired by this movie. Hinckley also hit Reagan's press secretary James Brady, which left him paralyzed and contributed to his death 33 years later. Hinckley was charged with several crimes, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was institutionalized. He was granted a conditional release in 2016.
The "you talking to me" scene is the most memorable part of this film. It tells you so much about the character and the terrible path he's traveling.
To me, the story is about the difference between Travis Bickle's conception of himself and who he really is. He seems himself as an avenger who is cleaning up a decaying society, but he's actually an unhinged, obsessive creep. There's even a question of how much the events of the movie happened as they were portrayed, or we're being shown them as he saw them from his deranged mind, particularly at the end when he's seen as a hero.
The casting of Jodie Foster was controversial at the time. She was only 12 when the movie was made.
Thank you for telling that story. I completely forgot he tried to assassinate the president.
What's wrong with her? That was awesome
Hinkley also followed Jodie Foster to Yale in attempt to meet her i.e. stalk her.
I love the score in Taxi Driver. Its mindblowing to me that it was done by someone who started their career with Citizen Kane then ended it with this film.
Bernard Hermann was a genius.
It's very Jazz Noir and such an evocative score.
The guy who was obsessed with Jodi Foster was John Hinckley. Just like in the movie, he thought he could impress her by killing a politician, so he shot President Reagan. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was institutionalized for several decades, but is now free, and makes TH-cam videos of himself playing music. BTW, I took a film class in college and the teacher was the second unit director of photography for this film. He drove around in a cab and took all of the shots of the NYC streets.
I love the role of Easy Andy, played by Steven Prince. "Cadillac, I'll get you a brand new Cadillac!". Scorsese even did a mini documentary on the actor called "American Boy".
I met Jodie Foster while working in her movie, The Accused. We were filming the hockey game scene ( not a spoiler). It was her day off from shooting. This was in Vancouver. She dropped by the set to say, "Hi," to us and watch a but of the Hockey.
The King of Comedy is an interesting companion piece to this. Doesn't get the attention it deserves
Absolutely. It's an incredible film.
The other Scorsese/DeNiro film that Joker lifted heavily from.
Joker is basically 90% based on those two films. Very underrated and not your usual DeNiro role.
I say it quietly, but I’ve always liked The King of Comedy more than Taxi Driver…
@@Chip_ChapmanYeah, me too.
@@Chip_Chapman It's certainly less depressing
11:03 That guy is young Martin Scorsese
Well...younger...he is 34 here.
@@USCFlash You think 34 is old?
@@Flup2
I did not say that, but it is not young.
@@USCFlash
Compared to 81 it's young.
@@growingislife2148
"compared to 81".
Compared to 81, 51 is young, but it is still not young.
i34is still not young, it is younger.
Forgive me. I posted this when we were 3/4 into the movie and both of you were agreeing that if he kills Keitel that that wouldn't be so bad. So I listened to you talk at the end and I see that you didn't see Travis as a hero. So read this with that in mind.
I interpreted the ending like this: I think Scorcese/Schrader is saying because Travis redirected his violence away from Palantine and/or those working on his campaign and toward the pimp and the slimebag hotel owner, as a society we now see Travis in a heroic light. This is unfortunate. Instead, what we should be examining is what caused Travis to become unhinged in the first place.
Remember when he looks into the cab rearview mirror real quick as he's driving away from Betsy in that last scene? Scorcese's telling us that this guy is still dangerous. Only because of that small change of the Secret Service guys foiling his plan to kill Palantine does his status in society's eyes go from a villain to a "hero," but make no mistake, Travis isn't a hero.
Also, I know you guys were asking about why Travis might target Palantine versus Sport, etc. I don't think the choice of victim matters that much to someone as unhinged as Travis. Remember the awful time he was having trying to convey to The Wizard what was wrong. He kept saying things like, "I have some bad ideas in my head..." and "I just feel like.... I'm gonna... ohhhh I dunno..." He can't put it into words. He just wants to do SOMETHING. He's not exactly sure the form it's going to take at that point. So I think the choice of victim here is secondary to the fact he just wants/needs to do something. And that something is going to be violent. But the choice of victim doesn't necessarily have to be logical from the viewer's standpoint, IMHO.
From what I understand, the writer, Paul Schrader, had just gone through a divorce and a breakup, was lonely and battling his own demons. He also had been inspired by Dostoevsky's writings, in particular Notes from Underground. That book has a character that is full of contradictions, is himself lonely and against the world, and interacts sympathetically with a prostitute. I probably saw this movie when I was too young to comprehend the themes, but as I've gotten older, I've appreciated them more. Scorsese's direction is so creative and memorable.
Yea, I kind of felt that it was inspired by Dostoevsky. It even has a similar main character to crime and punishment, a total depressed loner neet with a bit of a saviour complex and heavy mental illness.
Schrader has said that one reason he wrote the movie was he felt if he didn’t, he might actually go out and live it. He also reported that he was approached by at least one person who demanded to know how he knew so much about their life. When John Hinckley shot Reagan, Schrader’s first response was, “I bet it was one of those Taxi Driver guys.”
@@BEBruns do you think incel culture has actually been around longer than we have thought?
You should do "Dog Day Afternoon" with Al Pacino, another 1970's classic set in New York City.
After Charlie Day's Pacino impressions on Always Sunny I can't help but laugh at certain very unfunny scenes in Dog Day Afternoon 😅
3:30 that is de nero's first wife selling popcorn.
She also plays his love interest in King of Comedy, a hugely underrated satire of celebrity obsession.
Who's de nero?
@@asperhes what's de nero, whys de nero?
The Composer of the Score, Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane, Psycho) died literally the night after he finished recording it. He viewed the rough cut of what was to be his next film assignment (Larry Cohen’s “God Told Me To”). After dining with Cohen, he returned to his hotel and died in his sleep.
I can't believe Herrmann ever considered working on “God Told Me To”. What a cheap piece of junk that movie is.
@@ThreadBomb He saw that rough cut and every fiber of his body decided to nope out.
Bernard Herrmann is easily one of my favorite film composers. I love so much of his music.
And this movie is dedicated to him (can see at end credits)
One the all time greats.
You absolutely nailed it when you said that although Travis is being hailed as a hero for his actions, his true intentions were from a much darker place. Basically, Travis was a socially awkward vet with PTSD who was deeply frustrated about his situation and the world he lived in. He wanted to lash out at something and his target slowly evolved from killing Palantine to get back at Betsy to killing the pimp to free Iris. At the end, although he’s physically recuperated from his injuries, his PTSD is still there, untreated, and it’s only a matter of time before he lashes out at the world again.
A lot of people think that Travis was never a marine. He just said that to get respect.
And the fact he tries to kill himself after saving her just shows he was doing it for selfish reasons
@@ThreadBombwell he does wear a jacket with and scars and his back
@@ThreadBomb Such as Quentin Tarantino, who blatantly said, "NO CHANCE that kook was in the army. He bought that jacket in an Army Surplus store."
You’re making assumptions based on what we know now, not what they knew at the time. It wasn’t that deep, just like how they actually treated ptsd then.
This was one of the most memorable films of 1970s for us who were teenagers at the time. Couple of things to give context to this film:
- New York had a major crime problem in late 70s and there were lots of people who thought that some drastic solutions for that were in order.
- "The stalker of Jodie Foster" Simone mentioned in the beginning was John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan to impress Foster.
- "The war movie with DeNiro" mentioned by George is "The Deer Hunter" from 1978. This is an important movie You guys should definitely watch. It started a flow of Vietnam War themed films like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam etc...
For a great Cybil S. movie, "The Last Picture Show."
Bogdanovich.
That newspaper clipping photo "Parents Express Shock, Gratitude" is a picture of Martin Scorsese's parents.
Scorsese narrowly avoided an X-rating by desaturating the color in the shootout scene, so blood wasn’t so vivid.
Who woulda thought that almost 50 years later after this movie, Martin Scorcese and Robert Deniro would still work together in movies and to this very day. One of the best movie collaborators ever. Recently this year Deniro starred in Scorcese's latest film Killers of the Flower Moon. Another great movie.
$350 a week in 1976 equals $1,934.43 a week in 2024.
$1.80 for theater popcorn in 1976 equals $9.95 in 2024.
When movie tickets went up to $5. I remember calling it a "rip-off."
A great primer on mental health and the effects of growing up in a militant life. I know so many guys that went into the military right out of high school and knew nothing outside of that career, so when they get out of the service and try to get a job a lot of them struggle because they don't know how to react in a work environment and have no social skills. This film always reminds me of that. I love the military, I think it's a great experience for most people, but people also going into it at a young age need to understand that it will take care of you, that doesn't mean it knows how to raise you.
I entered the service pretty late, so thankfully I already had a lot of that figured out for myself by then. I still got a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds that have a lot to learn, but some of them don't even know what they need to ask. I watched a guy exhaust himself chopping a tree up because nobody ever showed him how to use an axe, he just assumed that you just keep hacking until you get through it, and he never thought to ask what he was doing wrong until I came over and showed him.
It's hard to imagine what kind of simple things you don't even realize you have no idea how to do, or things that you are able to do out of habit because you've been performing those actions for as long as you remember; then there's people out there that just have not been programmed that way yet because they put civilian life on hold and had to back track to those steps of maturing and living life years later, and it completely screws them up because they think there is something wrong with them.
I love this film because every time I watch it all that comes flying back into my mind and I can almost put myself in that situation after seeing it so many times in other people. Easily one of my favorite movies.
"I'm Micro-dosing pants" cracked me up.
Won't answer the question about worst thing seen as a cab driver though. I've worked in a lot of fields, been in a lot of situations, and driving a cab gave me my lowest opinion of humanity I've ever had.
I imagine you deal with worse people than the service industry and retail industry. It must suck, because I've worked in both of those and it's amazing how fucked up people treat those workers.
This movie is a commentary on how society can glorify violence. Travis is a duranged killer but because he killed "the right people" we call him a hero. The red flash when he catches his reflection at the end is a hint that he is still the same, he will kill again.
It's interesting that no reaction video producers recognize the name Harvey Keitel. He's been in so many memorable roles. Simone and George must remember him as Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction?!
Yeah "Joker" just ripped off "taxi driver" and "King of comedy", then just mashed the 2 scripts together.
Pretty much
LOL nope.
A proper film. One that stays in your head, has you asking questions about people and that you can chew on for decades.
When I was a young, lonely man in my 20's it was among the scariest films I knew because it showed what confused, bad thinking can do to a person and where it can lead.
Hm, Incels are likely to make a re cut of this where he succeeds in the end and has a harem with Foster and Sheperd.
Fun fact: I saw Jodie Foster on an interview, where she said that when they made Taxi Driver, both Scorsese and Deniro had less experience in movie making than she did. She said they were both a little intimidated by her, a 12 year old at the time, but she was more experienced than either of them. I found that kind of funny.
Scorcese directed four full length movies before this. Including Alice Doesnt' Live Here Anymore, and Mean Streets. Both critically and commercially successful. Not exactly unexperienced.
@@t-bone3599 Jodie Foster had appeared in at least 6 feature films before this, as well as dozens of TV episodes and animated shows.
@@t-bone3599 Tell that to Jodie, know-it-all
@@t-bone3599Believe it, she had worked with Scorsese before. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore was Jodie Foster’s 8th film and she had been in 70+ tv episodes on 26 different shows in the 7 years before Taxi Driver.
@@longago-igo sure sure a 12 year old intimidated Scorsese lol
It’s fascinating watching folk watch influential movies ‘in the wrong order’. As in, referencing the movies that came after
everythings referenced or inspired by something that came before. so base on your logic the only way to read or watch anything is to start by reading ancient Mesopotamia stories and work your way through every piece of fiction before even entering the first movie ever made.
I appreciate that they are getting the references.
I guess the next step from Taxi Driver is to watch George and Simone reading Notes From Underground
@@kipperlings123 Quite the conclusion jumper...
It's pretty annoying to be honest
The guy threatening to kill his wife with a 44 is Martin Scorscese.
0:40 "Random person" was John Hinckley and the "restraining order" was prison because he kinda shot the President 😂
Jodie Foster worked with Scorsese on the movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," which came out a year before this, so she had a certain comfort level with him for what was a much more difficult role in Taxi Driver.
I can't help feeling there were a LOT of moments in this film that Simone and George didn't understand, e.g. when Sport calls Iris his "little piece of chicken", or how Travis accidentally destroying his TV is supposed to be funny.
That's what I felt. I saw this in 1977 when it was released in the cinema. There is no better portrait of alienation from the rest of society. Whenever there is a mass shooting I always think Travis Bickle.
Do you have more examples? those don't seem too clear-cut to me lol, also do you mean that they are meant to be funny or that they aren't? when I first watched the movie I did think the TV scene was weirdly goofy, like he does it and regrets it immediately, but I didn't know if that was intentional or accidental, I think it could also just be one of the many examples of how bipolar his behaviour is.
Or is it a tragedy? TV connects him to what "normal" people do. Now he's got plenty of time to crawl around in his own mind and obsess.
But yeah, I think they missed the boat on this one. Given their track record, I had such great expectations.
@@emulator1697 The TV thing isn't slapstick, the joke is more that Travis wants to be badass but is kind of a fuckup, making his own life worse.
@@ThreadBombI can see that, though it plays slightly tense music right after he does it, which doesn't read to me as "he did something that he thought was cool but backfired" like when he flirts with the movie theatre girl and she threatens to call someone (and no background music is playing at that scene at all, which is the case in most of the movie's "funny" scenes), but instead as another example of his mental deterioration. It's a weird clash between the scene and the music, at least if we take it for granted that it's meant to be comical, there's movies where they do stuff like this but most scenes in Taxi Driver don't give off that ironic vibe.
One of the greatest films ever made. A genuine masterpiece and Scorsese's best film.
'70s New York grime is primo chef's-kiss grime. Anytime you want to revisit this environment, the people who made The Wire made a show called The Deuce that takes place then and there. Grimy af, but epic.
Yeah, and along with The Warriors, which a lot of people often mention as a great snapshot of NYC during this time, one of my favorite movies from the 80’s - which also happens to be a Scorsese film - is After Hours. It totally nails what the city felt like in those days, and is possibly one of his most underrated films. A lot of people have never even heard of it.
This film perfectly captured the 1970's; when I think back to that era I recall the grittiness, the choking thick smog, body odor, cigarette smoke EVERYWHERE, alcoholism and drug abuse rampant, the loudness of people and streets, the angry, pent up directionless hordes of people in a hurry to go nowhere. On the flipside such an environment led to some of the most riveting, gut punch films (particularly in the genres of horror and heavy drama) ever made.
0:40 That is the understatement of the decade.
The “Joker” movie was very much based on this and another early Scorsese film starring De Nero, “The King of Comedy”.
To decrease the ick factor a little bit, in the more intimate scenes between "Sport" and "Iris", Jodie Foster's older sister stood in for her.
Why would you want to decrease the ick factor in this movie? It's all icky.
"You Talking To Me", what a iconic line, cool reaction as always Simone & George, you both take care and have a nice day
Guns. The gun laws vary by state. In NY, it is always more difficult to get a gun and anywhere you want to get a gun that can't be traced, you are doing something illegal.
I am convinced that last part where Betsy goes into his cab, was all in his mind...
The woman selling refreshments in the theater is actually DeNiro's wife at the time...
This was Filmed in 1975. It was Released in 1976.
Something to keep in mind about the movie is that in the 70s, a lot of action movies were revenge fantasies or somehow about cleaning up the streets because the law was too constrained to get the job done (e.g., Dirty Harry, Death Wish), which a lot of critics felt was morally degenerate because they felt the movies promoted fascist fantasies. So Taxi Driver is basically a deconstruction of that trend, digging into what kind of person might really have such fantasies, how they get there, and how ugly their actions can get.
how is cleaning up the street a fascist fantasy?
@@zzDarkwingDuck I don't know. You'd have to ask Pauline Kael.
@@zzDarkwingDuck
That has always been the fascist fantasy. Use force to make the world you want, sweep the weakness of democracy, understanding and discussion aside.
I think that's a spot-on interpretation. That movie and the vibe from it is probably one of the more effective pushes toward Reagan this country experienced.
@@zzDarkwingDuck Because (a) it views individuals or groups as savages or subhuman and (b) proposes that there must be a 'cleansing' to protect society and (c) that the regular law is ineffective in doing so and (d) that the only effective solution is extreme violence. Violent authoritarianism, doing unlimited harm against certain people, unrestrained by normal codes, that's the core of the fascist mindset ( while paradoxically insisting that it's done on the side of law and order).
Bernard Hermann came out of retirement to write the score. He flew from London to LA to conduct the orchestra for the two day recording session. He conducted the first day. And then died that evening before the second day session. Scores from Citizen Kane to Taxi Driver. He was awesome
Palantine, the pimps, it didn't matter. Travis was a bomb looking to explode, he didn't care where. He felt helpless and powerless and blowing up was the only way he could think of to gain control over his environment.
Scorsese was messing with the audience by making Travis seem like a good guy at the end. He's not. He's going to go off again at some point.
I'm not from the US but I believe if you buy a gun from a store that gun, including serial number and type, is registered to your name and can be traced back to you whereas if you buy it in the black market there's no trace of you buying or owning a gun
True but I am not sure how it worked back in the 70s though. I was just a kid back then.
No. You are 100% incorrect. Federal agencies are prohibited from maintaining a database of firearms, serial numbers and gun owners. But if a firearm is used in a crime, the firearm and serial number would appear in the investigation records. So yes, if you possessed a firearm used in a crime, that could lead to an investigation and possible arrest.
@@johnglue1744not true.
@@Dularr Apparently not 100% incorrect:
"Eight states prohibit state-level gun registries. Only Hawaii requires registration of all firearms, while only a few states require registration of certain firearms. Only three states (Ill., Mass., and N.J.) require a license for all guns."
Notice they are also talking about "state-level gun registries" not "city/county-level registries"
You're also talking about federal agencies, not local ones or the owners of gun shops who do in fact keep registries of who they sell guns to and which guns they sell.
Otherwise how would they know who owns a gun that has been used in a crime? Because they already used it, got caught, kept it and used it again in another crime? Why would people scrape off serial numbers?
@@ragnar97 fantastic, now we are in the weeds. Gun laws are all over the place. The big question is the ATF and FBI. So while local laws may require registration. It's debatable if the police can use this data to investigate firearm ownersship.
I wouldn't be so sure to say that Travis is a hero in the movie but WE KNOW otherwise. He did save an underage girl from a world of prostitution and it wasn't a mistake. Yes, he had a desire to vent his frustration ('I got some bad ideas in my head') but he also wanted to do something good. The ambiguity is what makes the film brilliant as well as being one of the most honest movies about masculinity (we all go around with bad ideas in our heads, the only difference being Travis acts on it but, then again, for a good cause).
He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction
@@TheNeonRabbit - Indeed. I once did a paper on this film entitled 'Here is a man who would not take it anymore'
"the guy in the cab gave him...ideas" is the exact meta meaning of this scene: Scorcese is giving ideas to De Niro to go nuts
Joker was at least partially based on this, but the comic book character who was based MUCH more on this was Rorschach from Watchmen.
Watchmen (the original GN and Zack Snyder film) took a good chuck from this film.
Wouldn't be the same movie without the Bernard Herrmann soundtrack he was kind of a legend
Drove a taxi for three years. No major (violent) incidents, just the "usual" weirdness of people.
- Had a couple in the backseat who discussed the nutritional value of light.
Along the lines of "the body can take up stuff through the skin and process it", they actually thought the human body was capable of photosynthesis, to an extent that it could survive with light as a food source. Yes, they were dead serious about it. They even started doing the math on how much sunlight it would need to take up as many calories as with eating a banana.
- Price for the biggest fare went to a German guy. His train from Munich to Vienna broke down shortly before reaching its destination. He was so mad about it that he decided to take a taxi straight back home, 320 miles (€1,300.-), cursing Austria for at least 2 hours of the 4-hour drive.
Light does have nutritional value, though. Sunlight (UV-B) is the primary natural source of vitamin D. That's one of the reasons people living up north have a lighter skin: so they can get enough vitamin D in the winter.
@@blechtic I know. But you can't survive on vitamin D alone.
They way they were talking, they thought of themselves as vegans lv. 99, on the brink of transforming into something celestial, afraid of exploiting anything provided by nature. I bet they even felt bad for the sun while talking about it.
Missed opportunity. The thumbnail should have had George in the Jodie Foster outfit
He's saving that one for his OF account.
@@rexmundi2986 what is an OF account?
10:56 Scorsese gives me chills in this scene every time. He’s legit scary describing how he’s gonna mutilate his wife. One of the best director performances in a film.
Paul Schrader wrote the film was living this life as a taxi driver and said he was in a dark place at the time so decided to write and that probably saved his own sanity.
The way it ends with the backwards notes and glances himself in the mirror we know he's still disturbed. It's a masterpiece.
Also, you want another Scorsese movie that also inspired Joker, watch King of Comedy 😉🙂
"Shoot the TV", he's not Elvis 😜
Dick Smith is credited for doing special makeup. He is known as the Godfather of Makeup Artists. He did tons of other movies, including Godfather and Godfather II, Deer Hunter, and finally won an Oscar for doing the makeup on Amadeus.
He also did one of the best old age makeups ever in The Exorcist.
@@ThomasStClair-zr2lb Indeed! turned a 40-something man into what amazingly turned out to be just like Max von Sydow would look at 80.
33:46 This was a real guy who used to drum on the streets. His name was Gene Palma, and I saw him a few times when I was a kid. He was so ubiquitous on the streets of NY that this ain’t even the only movie he was in.
It was Martin Scorsese in the taxi. And made an appearance earlier on too
Up next: The King of Comedy
😎👍 For awhile, in the early 1990s, the scene in "Back To The Future 3" where Michael J. Fox goofs on the "You Talkin' Ta Me?" bit was nearly as famous as the original scene.
Palantine is a hill in Rome where Emperors lived. George Lucas intentionally invoked the evilness of the Roman Empire by calling his Emperor Palpatine 😊
Palatine is the name of the hill actually. Sorry to be that guy :)
This film was nominated for Best Picture Oscar along with All The President's Men and Rocky which did win for Best Picture.
I wrote a paper on this movie my senior year of high school (circa 2001). I titled it "God's Loneliest Man." It's a gut-punch even today.
Made in 1976.
The music was the last score of Bernard Hermann
(Scorsese dedicated TD to him)
whose body of work goes from Citizen Kane to Psycho,
Vertigo, and a whole lot of other Hitchcock films.
You should watch "The King of Comedy". That's another movie that heavily influenced Joker. Underappreciated Scorsese movie IMO.
was taxi driver Long Island Ny, 2004-06, 6pm to 6 am shift. People'd talk to ya like a bar tender i guess or therapist. lotta stories, crazy circumstances, drugs. most ppl just tryna get by. People i found to be most indifferent from everyone else was airplane pilots. always had flight crews -hotel - airport trips.
So surprised you didn't recognize Martin Scorsese!!
why is that surprising? the common image of scorses is a white haired old man.
@@kipperlings123 his voice & the way he talks is very distinctive. He's been one of the most recognizable director for decades now & doesn't look that different here except for the darker hair. They recognized Albert Brooks with that hair! lol
@@hannahprose You have to go out of your way to listen to a director. For example you can watch every Christopher Nolan film but that doesn't mean you know what he looks like or sounds like.
If you ever do Angel Heart (1987), you will note that De Niro plays his character to look like his friend Scorsese, the passenger who gives him ideas here.
Oh, watching the first joker before the new film I see 😂
Are you guys serious!?!??!! We’re doing classic 1970’s masterpieces now! Keep it up guys!!5$3 70’s has some of the best films in cinema history. Gotta do Raging Bull next or soon-ish
…and I know Raging Bull came out in 1980 lol, but they filmed it in 1979 so it counts as 70’s cinema
I feel The Joker was more like another DeNiro film The King of Comedy. Maybe it was a combination of both of these movie characters.
It was a combination of both, yes.
Bad Lieutenant is a 1992 American crime film directed by Abel Ferrara. The film stars Harvey Keitel
A fascinating movie with a great, nakedly vulnerable performance by Harvey Keitel--arguably his best. And that's saying something. An incredibly decadent movie (originally rated NC-17) that takes religious themes of belief, grace and forgiveness seriously.
I double dog dare Cinebnige to react to it. When asked if they've ever seen it, no one has ever said, I don't remember.
Spot on with noticing how unsure the film makes you about where it's heading. Always thought the difference between Travis being a hero or a villain is down to pure chance.
Exactly, and I like the interpretation that the final scene is real, and that it’s commenting on society not having a problem with killing people who “deserve it” (obviously those guys were all pdfs, but still)
The Deer Hunter is an excellent film about Vietnam with Robert Dinero. Highly recommend.
Btw, the passenger in the taxi talking about killing his wife was Martin Scorsese. This is along with Raging Bull ( highly recommend as well) are my two favorite Scorsese films.
Deniro was in Deer Hunter (war movie). Highly recommended. Strong cast all around.
The way I look at the ending is that when Travis quickly glances in the rear-view mirror after driving off into the night, it actually dovetails with the opening shot of the film where you see the taxi cab emerge out of the fog. The implication being that Travis is a time bomb on a constant loop and it is a question of when not if something will set him off again. I mean you both said as much at the end about how everyone thinks that Travis is a hero for a brief moment in time after rescuing Iris, but we know the truth about who he really is because we've been following him since the beginning. This is why I don't believe the theory that the epilogue is all just a fantasy that Travis sees while dying after the shootout. It makes more sense to me that Travis survived because now he has a taste for the glory that comes with being a vigilante, which gives him a sense of purpose that he wanted all along by his own admission: "All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go". In his mind, there are plenty of Iris' out there who need saving from the Sports' (Harvey Keitel) of the world, and if he can save as many as he can while also punishing the "filth" in his words at the same time, maybe he'll stop feeling like God's lonely man.
I think Scorsese has said as much that Travis is still a time bomb.
Hinkley shot President Regan to impress Jodie Foster
Firearms laws differ from state to state in the U.S.A.. In Texas, you can own a machine gun or a cannon. In some other states you cannot own any firearm. Although recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have declared a number of laws restricting firearms unconstitutional.
24:24 honestly NYC in the 70s was a much darker, violent place… at one point it was statistically close to being the murder capital of the Country. A lot of the crime, and deviance expressed in this film was real-- very real if you lived in the low to no income hoods and ghettos of NYC. However, the thing is, this movie paints a profound Portrait of a man who is, without a doubt, mentally deteriorating, before our eyes, and most likely his military experience contributes to it, but also, and mainly, it’s suggested that this mental illness was there before he served, but was undiagnosed. This was a time in America where, despite leaps and bounds in mental health treatments, mental health awareness and proper diagnosis was still on the back burner of American social consciousness. Ppl who were actually suffering from severe mental/psychological illnesses or disorders had been dismissed by medical professionals or mistreated from errors in diagnosis. As a result, myths and unfounded theories about mental health issues, diseases and illnesses were widely accepted and spread throughout the American medical community, and even became popular among pop culture and politics. It wasn’t until the mid- to late seventies where more awareness and attention to sound progressive research in to mental health, became more of a socially ethical and moral imperative, but even then, still took decades more to get to the point where are at now, currently-- especially in NYC.
A lot of people think that Travis was never a marine. He just said that to get respect.
George, Simone, in The United States gun laws vary state to state but the overarching federal law prohibits the sales of firearms to only come from vetted, licensed salespersons or companies. This license we refer to as the Federal Firearms License which controls the sales, manufacture or importation of firearms and ammunition in the USA.
They were watching a Swedish p*rn movie disguised as a sex ed movie. They actually did that, making a p*rno disguised as an educational movie, and by doing that made it easier for it to be allowed to be shown in the theaters because it wasn't just a "dirty movie", it was an "educational movie".
Another example is Black Love, an "educational movie" about the love between an African American male & a female 😜
And I believe it was directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the "Godfather of Gore".
They were called " White Coaters" because an actor playing a doctor would open the films.
@@visaman Ah ok. Thanks for telling, didn't knew all the details about it 🙂
No, that is definitely not true at all! It's not a porn movie in any respect - it was in fact regarded by us Swedes as an "educational" movie, showing different aspect of sexuality with very explicit scenes. It was a sensational movie upon it's release in 1969 - even to Swedes who already back then were known for having an open mind towards nudity and sexuality. In other countries it was regarded as shocking and used as "proof" that Sweden was a land of porn, suicide, alcoholism and gonorrhea. I saw this film upon its release here in Sweden - it was titled "Kärlekens språk" (The Language of Love) and it also got a few sequels the following years. So once again - definitely not a "disguised porn movie!
@@VinterfridWouldn't be suprised If that one is on the Sexploitation genre.
@@JW666 What is it you don't understand? I told you it is neither a porn nor sexploitation film - it was a natural consequence of the liberation and equality we saw in the 60's. Swedes have traditionally had a "natural" attitude towards issues related to the human body.
This is pure New Hollywood cinema, when filmmakers had full reign to make the projects they wanted and they pushed boundaries that others were afraid to push.
Plenty of other excellent films from this decade that were serious crime thrillers:
Dirty Harry (1971)
Death Wish (1974)
Rolling Thunder (1977)
Serpico (1973)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Shaft (1971)
Coffy (1973)
I haven't seen Walking Tall (1973) or Billy Jack (1971), but both are also major vigilante films.
During the commentary track, Scorsese spoke about how Travis is basically trying to remove a "father figure" from the lives of Betsy and Iris. It was lucky for him that the Secret Service chased him away from shooting Palantine, forcing him to focus on Sport and Iris. BTW, I didn't learn Emperor Palpatine's name until many years after seeing "Return of the Jedi", so for me Senator Palantine's name merely reminded me of Palatine, a perfectly nice suburb near where I grew up.
Since I usually associate saxophone music with a romantic or sexy mood, it's always weird for me to hear the sax theme kick in during Travis' first close-up as he's scanning the streets for trouble.
On the Late Show with David Letterman, they occasionally did a comedy bit in which the announcer, Alan Kalter, would talk seductively to the camera, addressing the viewers in a way which became increasing deranged as he went on. It was years before I realised that the "sexy" background music they used for this segment was from Taxi Driver.
Palantine could be a play on "palatine" - a type of official in late Roman empire (originally they were guards named after the Palatine hill in Rome), which carried on into post-Roman Europe. (get it? Palantine the politician?) It's where the word "paladin" comes from.