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Actors: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Taxi Driver |
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Paul schrader's 'Taxi Driver' shows the sleazy filth ridden streets of New York as seen by cabbie Travis Bickle. Travis Bickle is a man who is annoyed when he meets a young prostitute who has been subjected to the evils of New York. Bickle decides o take revenge on the people who have entered this young girl into her life as a hooker. This is a great film which depicts the ugliness of a society that houses pushers and pimps and a mans fight against it. Directed by Martin Scorsese
--MR RED, Resident Scholar
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An ex-marine decides to clean the streets of a filthy town. He does this by taking his own violent measures. Several die, but in the end the otcome is excellent.
--Michael, Resident Scholar
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Martin Scorsese's disturbing classic stars Robert DeNiro as psychotic cabbie Travis Bickle. One of the best films of the 1970s.
--Phil, Resident Scholar
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With a screenplay by Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese directing, and De Niro giving it his all, this 1976 film tore up the screen. De Niro plays a burned out Vietnam vet driving a cab in New York City and smoldering about everything he sees around him. Lonely and rootless, he tries to date unattainable blonde Cybill Shepherd (a political campaign worker) and considers some grand and possibly violent gesture to "sweep away all the scum from the streets." The film won the Golden Palm at Cannes and received four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (14-year-old Jodie Foster got attention as a child prostitute but had already been in more than a dozen movies), and Best Original Score (for the great Bernard Herrmann, who died on Christmas Eve just hours after completing the recording sessions).
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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Travis Bickle drives his cab day after day in Manhattan, mostly to places other cab drivers won't go. He becomes an expert in the seamier sides of the city, as well as its seamier denizens! In “Taxi Driver,” Robert De Niro launches his career primarily on this one role,
as Director Martin Scorcese takes the story of a psychotic cab driver bent upon “rescuing” a teen aged prostitute (young Jodie Foster!) from all this malevolence. It's a long drive and before you know it, De Niro is up to his chin in political involvement. Due to his obsession
with Foster and a beautiful Cybil Shepard (who works for a political campaign), DeNiro's violent path of rage ends with an attempted assassination of a presidential candidate.
The team of Scorcese and DeNiro knows well the roads of violence (they paired togetheer earlier in “Mean Streets” and subsequent films). Released in 1976, the movie is more
socially significant that first glances may have warranted. Terse dialogue (“Are you talking to ME?”), electrifying direction, a sound musical score, “Taxi Driver” is one of film's classics.
--Bill Hobbs, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Taxi Driver |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1960's-1970's
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Struggle with
- (General) search for meaning/identity
Crime & Scandal
Yes
Story of
- citizens fighting criminals
Vigilante/Revenge?
Yes
Brain/Body not working?
- mental illness
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- blue collar
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- obsessed
- emotionally unstable
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
- (man) short/standard wavey
Body type
- (man) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- aggressive
- irritated
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) very skinny
How much in movie?
- 20%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- thief/con artist
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
unclothed?
- partially transparent clothes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
- dirty, grimy (like New York)
- dangerous
Misc setting
- sewers/subways
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Movie makes you feel...
- depressed/sad
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- actual description of sex
Any profanity?
- A lot of foul language
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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