Robert De Niro's surprisingly bogus Mohawk hairstyle is certainly not as attractive as say, Marilyn Monroe's wind-blown skirt or Sean Connery's fully-suited and booted James Bond, but to universal filmgoers it's a striking piece of movie iconography. In fact, all 114 minutes of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver are remarkable and the chef d'oeuvre will indeed stay with you forever - every time the Big Apple's finest (Bobby and Marty), taxicabs, or even New York are mentioned in your daily routine, flickers from the chronicle of God's Lonely Man will surface.
Travis Bickle (De Niro) is cinema's best-executed and most famous anti-hero. With so many sensational turns during his extraordinary career, one should be excused for labelling Bickle as De Niro's greatest performance because it is seemingly an impossible and immeasurable task, but the Vietnam-vet-turned-chronic-insomniac-cabbie plants the seeds of über violence, alienation and indistinct subjectivity future De Niro characters came to perfect. De Niro makes Bickle into a person uncomfortable to watch - an attribute screenwriter Paul Schrader wanted to inflict upon the viewer as the loner's story is a nightmare without background answers. Why does he want to venture into the ugly societal underbelly of New York? Murder, prostitution, firearms, drugs, and pornography are all explored as Scorsese invites personal interpretation - scars from 'Nam, mental instability, and cultural disillusionment are all subconscious suggestions but are never fully justified causes for his chaotic mind and frenzied actions.
If you didn't realise already, Taxi Driver isn't simply a masterclass in acting. With assistance from the other half of the film's majestic partnership, Bickle isn't just De Niro's creation. Borrowing from Antonioni, whilst Bickle is trying to ask Betsy (a hearty Cybill Shepherd) on an unlikely date, Scorsese draws the camera away to focus on an empty hallway. The maestro is symbolically turning away from Bickle's plight and treating his existence as a pathetic lost cause in addition to indirectly saying how using camera time on an empty space is more appealing than watching a loser do what he does best. Every directorial flourish Scorsese contributes is a dazzling triumph. The haunting darkness of the urban mise-en-scène complements Bernard Herrmann's chilling score magnificently, the cadence of Bickle's increasingly eccentric actions matches the intensity of his downward spiral into insanity, his secondary players (Harvey Keitel's Matthew, Jodie Foster's Iris, and even Albert Brooks' Tom) all ooze distressing comedy in different ways and upsetting naivety in the latter two cases, and Marty's knowledge of New York's geography shines through. Sun-kissed 1970s New York has been captured astonishingly - America's premier city is certainly cosmopolitan but Scorsese illustrates an applicable and yet agonising sense of inequality, friction and strife below the tourism guidebooks.
Kudos should also be bestowed upon Schrader's excellent script. Granted, Marty and Bob took the bull by the horns and worked to make Travis and his plight their own, but the talented UCLA alumnus dished up the curveball of originality in the first place when his pen rendition of God's Lonely Man was caressed upon the hit-or-miss format of paper - every screenwriter has a nightmarish headache when he cannot fully express 'faultless' ideas onto the hallowed turf. Luckily for the annals of filmdom, Schrader's determination ran straight over any minor glitches and he punched out movie gold in a few rapid weeks.
With the wisdom of hindsight, Taxi Driver solidifies Scorsese's reputation as one of cinema's greatest ever auteurs with his talents shining through in one of cinema's greatest ever works. De Niro justifies his unchallenged position as one of film's super heavyweight players, and Taxi Driver also kick-started a young Miss Foster's illustrious career. All in all, Marty's case study of Travis Bickle is one of budding torment. The urban psychological drama should be painful to view but it's utterly unmissable.
Release Information
Country: USA / Region: Free / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: Sony
Presentation
Taxi Driver, with its gritty urban milieu, hardly strikes you as a film that would really clean up that dramatically for high definition. Such suspicions are initially borne out by the film's opening credits on this Blu-ray, which are soft, hazy, and generally look rough. But, once the credits are over, and the associated problems of optical compositing no longer intrude, the picture becomes a revelation. The painstaking restoration work that has been done for this release is absolutely visible – Scorsese's masterpiece has never been seen in such clarity. The lurid neon colours of 1970s New York come to all their seedy life, while the grubby environs of Travis' apartment and the taxi office can be inspected in minute detail. For a film of its era, this looks simply incredible; grain is present but never distracting, and shadows remain inky throughout. The Grand Guignol finale, with its desaturated colours (making the blood less pronounced, by decree of the MPAA at the time of the film's release) doesn't quite look as crisp or defined, but that seems fitting given the disturbing events portrayed.
The soundtrack is in DTS-HD 5.1 – expanded from the original stereo recording sensitively rather than distractingly. The surrounds are used subtly to enhance the ambience of the city and to expand Bernard Herrmann's final, brilliant score. Dialogue remains mostly centred, though perfectly audible, while gunshots deliver an appropriate punch.
Sony have done themselves proud – this is a classic given the treatment it deserves.
Extras
First impressions of the packaging are good. Eschewing a normal plastic case, Sony instead present Taxi Driver in an attractive fold-out case made from thick rigid card, adorned with stills from the film. Inside you'll find the single Blu-ray disc and a pocket containing art cards.
In terms of the actual disc contents, this release contains everything found on the previous Special Edition DVD, as well as a couple of welcome additions. The main one is a commentary by Martin Scorsese – recorded by the Criterion Collection for their Laserdisc release in 1986. Also featuring Paul Schrader, the two participants are sadly only edited together rather than engaged in a single simultaneous discussion, but it's still a fascinating listen that fills the track with insight from beginning to end. The other new feature is more of a gimmick but of some interest nevertheless: you can choose to display the script alongside the film as it plays, allowing you to compare and contrast.
The rest are the same as the 2006 DVD, so I'll repeat below, in slightly edited form, Joel's comments on the rest. Incidentally, all the extras made for the Special Edition release are here presented in 1080i HD.
The excellent 70 minute 'Making Of' [from the first DVD release] featuring all of the main players is still a fixture. The two [further] commentaries are admirable - Schrader obviously knows his stuff with his effort and Robert Kolker (author of "A Cinema of Loneliness") adds yet more information on proceedings with an intellectual edge. "Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver" is fine as one learns how the director's vision was influenced by Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, "Producing Taxi Driver" has a nice interview with director Michael Phillips, "God's Lonely Man" is a wonderful exploration of the protagonist's actions and psyche, "Influence and Appreciation" is a grand admiration of Marty's filmography, "Taxi Driver Stories" are fascinating tales from former and current New York cabbies, "Travis' New York" has some good contributions from former mayor Edward Koch about 1970s New York, "Travis' New York Locations" is a decent then-and-now look at the film's Manhattan sites, and the storyboard feature is of interest to view the filmmaking process. This is a great package with everything included that you could ever ask for.
Sony are due to release the film on Blu-ray in the UK (and in cinemas, for a limited time) in June.
Summary
Taxi Driver is absolutely crucial, outstanding, and chilling must-see cinema. Travis Bickle's descent into homicidal madness becomes ever more gripping on repeat viewings. The Blu-ray is a brilliant example of how classic films should be treated, and is exceptional in every department.
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