Taxi Driver made Martin Scorsese's reputation as a director. This book provides a personal commentary on the film, a brief production history and a detailed filmography. In the "BFI Film Classics" series.
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"Sight and Sound is the last word on Scorsese's powerhouse." -- Film Comment
About the Author
Amy Taubin has been a film critic for the Village Voice since 1987, and is contributing editor of Sight and Sound. She started her professional life as an actress, appearing on Broadway, most notably as Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968), and in avant-garde films, among them Michael Snow's Wavelength (1967) and Andy Warhol's Couch and The Thirteen Most Beautiful Women (both 1964).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the better BFI Film Classics,
By Michael J. Krieger (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Taxi Driver (BFI Film Classics) (Paperback)
With this entry in the BFI Film Classics collection, Amy Taubin has written a very well-researched, entertaining and informative examination of this indisputable American film classic. In addition, this book isn't too literate or hard to understand, as some of these type of film analyses can be. It is written clearly and with a great deal of detail. A must for any fan of this film, anyone interested in American cinema of the 70's, or fans of legendary director Martin Scorsese. Excellent!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent read, but worth the price,
By
This review is from: Taxi Driver (BFI Film Classics) (Paperback)
So, I honestly love Amy Taubin. All her reviews I've read, and the essays she's done for Criterion Collection releases, and even her shared love for My Own Private Idaho sold me on buying this book.
I ended up coming away a bit dissapointed. The book doesn't really shed anything new on the film. Almost everything she's discusses it mentioned by either Scorsese or Schrader on the old Criterion laserdisc commentary of this film. There were only a couple of new ideas I gathered from this book. First, the heavy handed sexual themes. I always knew they were there, but not in the way she brings it up. The scene on the cover of the book, I never really put together in my head that he's trying to reinact a fantasy of killing people performing intercourse. Even the scene where he kills Keitel, he whips out his gun and says "Suck on this!". The sexual connotation never hit me. The other thing this book shed light on was the parallel between cowboys and indians. She brings up many parallels to The Searchers and how Jodie Foster is the Natlaie Wood character, Sport is the indian dresses in beads and feathers, and Travis with his boots is the cowboy who thinks he'll save the day. Aside from that, it offers nothing new. To those who lack a laserdisc player, I would suggest this book. You honestly can't beat the price.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling,
This review is from: Taxi Driver (BFI Film Classics) (Paperback)
I thoroughly enjoyed this insightful little book, especially it's satisfying psychological portrait of Travis Bickle, "Taxi Driver's" disturbed and fascinating protaganist, deftly played by Robert De Niro. Amy Taubin is a gifted writer, whose acute sensitivity--perhaps a bit too acute regarding some of her comments about Bremmer--makes for an engrossing read. It's inconceivable to me that anyone who reads this work could put it down without a deeper appreciation of this seductive, volatile film.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Perhaps the place to begin is with John Hinckley III, the man who, in 1981, tried to shoot President Ronald Reagan so that, as the defence explained at his trial, 'he could effect a mystical union with Jodie Foster', the actress who played a preteen prostitute in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and who, at the time of Hinckley's assassination attempt, was a freshman at Yale University. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
porn movie Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Times Square, Travis Bickle, The Searchers, Mean Streets, Arthur Bremer, Columbus Circle, Robert De Niro, World War, Bernard Herrmann, Cape Fear, Robert Warshow New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Perhaps the place to begin is with John Hinckley III, the man who, in 1981, tried to shoot President Ronald Reagan so that, as the defence explained at his trial, 'he could effect a mystical union with Jodie Foster', the actress who played a preteen prostitute in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and who, at the time of Hinckley's assassination attempt, was a freshman at Yale University. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
porn movie Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Times Square, Travis Bickle, The Searchers, Mean Streets, Arthur Bremer, Columbus Circle, Robert De Niro, World War, Bernard Herrmann, Cape Fear, Robert Warshow New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 8
books:
See all 8 books this book cites
20
books
cite this book:
See all 20 books citing this book
- Taxi Driver (Faber Film) by Paul Schrader on 21 pages
- The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey on page 19, and Back Matter
- An Assassin's Diary by Arthur Bremer on page 38
- - Davy Crockett (The Virginia Experience) by Carole Marsh on page 37
- Queen Christina (BFI Film Classics) by Marcia Landy in Back Matter
See all 8 books this book cites
- Theatres of Human Sacrifice: From Ancient Ritual to Screen Violence (SUNY Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture) by Mark Pizzato on 8 pages
- Faith In Film: Religious Themes In Contemporary Cinema by Christopher Deacy on page 69, and Back Matter
- Jazz Noir: Listening to Music from Phantom Lady to The Last Seduction by David Butler on page 166, and page 185
- New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction by Geoff King in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Scorsese on Scorsese: Revised Edition by David Thompson in Back Matter
See all 20 books citing this book
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