Customer Reviews

Taxi Driver (Faber Film)

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This positively has to be one of the best written screenplays of all cinematic history. In this text lies a story of desperation, loneliness, and insanity. Paul Schrader has not only captured the mentaility of a sociopath, but the emotions and profound thoughts of a man, driven to insanity by not being able to understand a world unlike his own. If you love well written screenplays, Taxi Driver is a must have!

Filmmaking is a collaborative art. And one of the world's finest examples is the 1976 masterpiece, TAXI DRIVER, and how director Martin Scorsese and his cast enhanced Paul Schrader's "novelistic" script, via improvisation, into the classic that it is. This fact, is lost on a lot of the film's fans and more specifically, the reviewers here.

One of filmdom's most famous set pieces, the "Are you talkin' to me?" scene in Bickle's room, was lifted directly from a heretofore anonymous New York stand-up comedian. This and other pieces of information are revealed in the Schrader-Scorsese interview (or is it the Scoresese-Schrader interview?) which precedes the screenplay. It is also very interesting to read what was going through the minds of both Scorsese and Schrader: their cinematic influences, their religious influences and the nods to Dostoevski's "Notes" and Sartre's "Nausea. (Dostoevski's Underground Man says something like "I believe my liver is diseased" while Bickle utters "I think I have stomach cancer.")

As a final reminder, I want to say that the script here is just as it is in those cardstock-covered screenplays that they used to sell in places like Hollywood Scripts. (Are those places still around?) The difference, of course, is that the format is altered to fit printing specifications. And a final note to novice screenwriters, don't use this as a format example.

Compare the printed script here to not only the film, but also to Paul Elman's all but forgotten movie-tie novelization with the same title.

O.K. we all love the film. Martin Scorcese's portrait of a loner slowly slipping into his own obsession with the horrors of inner-city life is seminal, and is still great viewing. De Niro's performance is brilliant as are his supporting actors. However...it is not until one reads the screenplay by Paul Schrader that the film comes to life. It is written almost like a novel, with directions that give the reader new insight and appreciation into the workings of the film and Travis' state of mind. Not only is it a great compliment to the film, it is actually better than the film. When I first saw 'Taxi Driver' I was blown away (along with all those pimps and drug dealers at the end), when I read the screenplay a new appreciation of the art of screenwriting was revealed to me. If you ever want to give someone who is interesting in writing films a present, give them this. Give them the film too. Make them watch the film, then make them read the screenplay, then watch them weep.

Taxi Driver was one of the seminal films of the seventies. It broke many boundaries with its use of violence, and it was critically applauded. It was, in my opinion, one of the best films ever made. The script is fascinating, especially to read the bits which were left out of the film.

Travis Bickle is fed up with the world he lives in.He takes a job as a taxi driver to escape from his world of sleeplessness and disgust.His rage fuelled by his doomed relationship with a campaign worker Betsy,leads to an inevitable decent into psychosis and violence.A magnificent peice of work created by Paul Schrader

taxi driver by martin scorsese is a true masterpiece of american cinema.the screenplay written by paul schrader,is one of the best screenplays ever written.the story is about a new york city cabbie who gets tired of seeing all the criminals and scum that the city has to offer.he's a loner who is just trying to make friends and help people out.as a result of all the madness he sees on the sreets,he grows violent and courageous.recommended.