Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #399 in VHS
• Released on: 2002-07-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Swedish
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Taxi Driver is the definitive cinematic portrait of loneliness and alienation manifested as violence. It is as if director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader had tapped into precisely the same source of psychological inspiration ("I just knew I had to make this film", Scorsese would later say), combined with a perfectly timed post-Watergate expression of personal, political and societal anxiety. Robert De Niro, as the tortured, ex-Marine cab driver Travis Bickle, made movie history with his chilling performance as one of the most memorably intense and vividly realised characters ever committed to film. Bickle is a self-appointed vigilante who views his urban beat as an intolerable cesspool of blighted humanity. He plays guardian angel for a young prostitute (Jodie Foster), but not without violently devastating consequences. This masterpiece, which is not for all tastes, is sure to horrify some viewers, but few could deny the film's lasting power and importance. --Jeff Shannon

Synopsis
A Vietnam veteran on a late night taxi shift, disturbed by all the violence around him, decides to clean up the streets his own way.

Customer Reviews

One of the greatest films of all time
My mum lent me this film when I was bored one day, I hadn't seen it before. I was adamante of watching a film made in the 70's (a silly but corrected mistake)but it blew me away on so many levels. Martin Scorsece's portrayal of an ex-Vietnam soldier trying to adjust to every day life is superb. He is throwing into a society that completely sickens him, he suffers from insomnia and can't sleep so he becomes a Taxi Driver. The brilliant thing about this movie is that you can see the mental decomposition of Travis Bickle's character through a series of events. Through I believe no fault of his own Travis messes up a possible relationship with Betsy. (Cybill Shephard) He find's something to live for through Iris(Jodie Foster)a 13 year old prostitute. You understand why he does what he does at the end of the film. At some point in everyone's life we get really lonely, Travis Bickle is going through this stage, and you recognise it instantly. I have to admit the most chilling thing about Travis Bickkle's character is that he pauses during conversations! Martin Scorcese's use of cinematography and his filming style in this film is superb! I dont' want to go on, PLEASE WATCH THIS FILM, YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

A fine film about alienation.
Travis Bickle (De Niro) is an ex-Marine with a problem, he cannot sleep. So, he gets a job driving a taxi in the New York night. He is a man without fear so he will go anywhere anytime and of course, this means that he always sees the worst of the city.

Travis is almost totally lacking in social skills and this leads to a disastrous date with Betsy (Shepherd) and an ever increasing sense of alienation from and disgust with the world around him.

A chance encounter with Iris (Foster) a child prostitute, increases Travis' sense that he must do something about the city. He wavers between taking action against the man in control of Betsy, politician Charles Palantine for whom Betsy is a campaign worker and the man in control of Iris, Sport (Keitel) her pimp.

A close brush with secret service men who spot him in a crowd makes his decision and Travis decides to free Iris in a bloody shootout.

It's not a bad plot but the movie is really about the alienation of one man from the city around him. In this, De Niro is totally convincing he is in the city but not of the city. He has a hard job too. A social misfit cannot be given a sharp snappy script. Instead, such a person will at times be an embarrassment to those around him and De Niro portrays this perfectly.

This definitely a "must see" film. It is well paced and keeps the audience's attention throughout. The settings and the atmosphere of the dark side of the city are convincing. My only reservation is the ending. I cannot see how Travis' action would have been viewed in the way that the film showed.

A very psychological film
I have no idea how anyone can say this film disapointed them, it was the first of its kind when released; and is still up to the standards of modern psychological dramas and beyond most of them. Aparently, when it was first released it scared alot of pimps and peadophiles; its got such a realistic impact and takes you so deep inside the character of Travis Bickle. He is basically a man who is tormented by his existance, he cant sleep and his mind is always active; he tries to take his attention of himself, but nothing works; so he becomes a taxi driver. And from here on the film bascially depicts the increaseing pressure he feels under.
The film is full of great little moments that you probably wont understand the first time round, the screen play is exellent; thier little moments but their shot in such a way as to give you some idea of the impact that they have on Travis; the paracetamol in the glass or the gangsters in the cafe are an example of this; Travis is like a puppet on the stings of his surroundings, hes got no control over his emotions and things get evermore intense.
The ending is incredible for its psychological impact, not necassarily for the blood and gore you see; for that its nothing special and their are plenty of other better films for that to see; if you havent been following the film the whole time you wont appriciate it. But this is certainly one of my favorite films; the cast is exellent and so is the directing and screen play