TAXI DRIVER is an iconic film, considered by many to be a masterpiece and the crowning achievement of both Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Whatever your opinion this is a powerful film that starts strong and never lets up that has also stood the test of time. Everything in the movie is done so realistically that the story could still be told today. Robert Deniro plays Travis. We know little about him other than that he is an ex marine and a deep insomniac. He also sees the world as a dirty place that needs to be cleaned up. He becomes a taxi driver in the city of New York which takes on a realistic role of its own here. We see the two sides of everything and the same goes for New York. Nothing is held back on showing the realistic gritty underside of the city. But what of the transfer of this movie classic to blu ray. Seems like all the classics are being brought to blu ray, some more succesfully than others. The questions are always how does it look, is it an improvement over the dvd and does it bring the film to new life. TAXI DRIVER was the first film to receive an enhanced 4k restoration and what it does is perform magic on a decades old film. The video presentation is purely amazing. It is funny for when the film starts the Columbia logo is very fuzzy and then the movie starts. It is clear, crisp with colors strong. The film is very definitive in that scenes are either nighttime or daytime, dark or light. The blacks and dark colors are brilliant and all color ratios amazing. Whites contrast perfectly. No matter what the scene everything pops. The night scenes are very realistic and when colors are introduced they are vibrant and real. Nothing is overenhanced. Instead the film looks the way it must have when released originally in theaters. It is leaps and bounds over any dvd version. The climactic scene at the end is brought to new devastating life with this new restoration. Flesh tones are also perfect. Blu ray is put to amazing use here restoring this classic film to all its glory. The graininess here is meant to be here. It represents New York City in full detail. And the audio is just as perfect. The DTS 5.1 audio allows the amazing soundtrack to fully blossom and soar over the entire film. The score here tells the story as much as any character or visual. And dialogue is strong and present. Nothing is wrong here. The film itself is told in a way that it is open to many different interpretations but the blu ray itself needs no debate. It is spectacular. I will reiterate again. The film looks as pure and original as when in the theaters restored to its true glory. Do not hesitate to double dip if you own the dvd. This blu ray shows the movie as a whole new experience. I give this blu ray my highest recommendations. Read more
Last saw this on cable about 15 years ago for about the 5th time, and liked it after every viewing, spaced about 3 or 4 years apart. Fast forward to day with a longer gap between views, coupled with higher quality blu-ray this time, and I now love it more than ever. This film has aged very, very well for me. I'm telling you a quality transfer to blu-ray from original film elements improves the color depth and contrast and audio so much so that it's like watching with a new perspective. Especially watching on a good quality big screen tv, in a dark room, sitting close to get a cinema theater type experience. Trivia that I learned in the extras: A big scene with blood late in the film looked oddly brownish to me, instead of dark crimson red. I was thinking a defect in the color from a damaged film element. Turns out the brownish blood was by design, via censorship from the powers that be. The scene was so graphic for the time that the only way the censors would let the scene remain was to alter the blood's color in post, to make a little less graphic. A deranged DeNiro is at his height as a young actor, and Cybil Shephard's sizzling good looks and decency create a dynamic contrast that bodes so well for the story line. This is pure cinema and story telling at its finest. Read more
One of the greatest Martin Scorsese movies ever!! The frustration and angst of a late-20’s Vietnam veteran about the filths of 70’s New York City and America in general with internalized hatred toward then politicians, portrayed with De Niro like skillfulness. A MUST WATCH for all generations!!! Read more
I don't know how you sum up such a perfect, artful, thoughtful film. It's important to note that introverted males are likely to click with this more than any other demographic, but the character portrayals are so strong and realistic that most of the message will shine through regardless. This is a film about emotions, about finding yourself, about seeing all the good and bad in the world, not even quite realizing your part in all of it but you desperately want to. It's about finding realistic meaning for your life, about taking chances, and about learning to be functional in difficult situations. The food in the film-- any time anyone purchases or eats food-- it's symbolic of how they're living their life or feeling inside. This is a really good movie and anyone feeling lost could benefit from watching it. You don't get any grandiose answers, just the simple ones you needed all along. People are important, and the little things you do impact everyone around you. Read more
Taxi Driver is not an easy film to watch, it's both gritty and confronting at times, and the depiction of New York as an "open sewer" is pretty depressing. That said it is an important film in the history of cinema, not the least because it serves as an interesting glimpse of society in the time in which in was made. De Niro's performance is a standout, but all the actors play their parts extremely well. It's hard to come away unaffected by Taxi Driver, and to me that's the mark of a great film. The Blu-ray edition looks great considering the age of this film, though it's obviously not as sharp as recent releases. This Blu-ray worked fine in my region B player. Read more
