Taxi Driver (BFI Film Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "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..." (more)
Key Phrases: porn movie, New York, Times Square, Travis Bickle (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sight and Sound is the last word on Scorsese's powerhouse." -- Film Comment

Product Description

Illustrated Paul Schrader was in meltdown in 1972. Drinking heavily, living in his car, he was hospitalized with a gastric ulcer. There he read about Arthur Bremer's attempt to assassinate Alabama Governor George Wallace. This story was the germ of his screenplay for Taxi Driver (1976). Executives at Columbia hated the script but when Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, who were flying high after the triumphs of Mean Streets (1973) and The Godfather Part II (1974), signed up, Taxi Driver became too good a package to refuse. Scorsese transformed the script into what is now considered one of the two or three definitive American films of the 1970s. De Niro is mesmerising as Travis Bickle-pent up, bigoted, steadily slipping into psychosis, the personification of American post-Vietnam masculinity. Cybill Shepherd and Jodie Foster give fine support and Scorsese brought in Bernard Herrmann, the greatest of film composers, to write what turned out to be his last score. Crucially, Scorsese rooted Taxi Driver in its New York locations, tuning the film's violence into the hard reality of the city. Technically thrilling though it is, Taxi Driver is profoundly disturbing-finding, as Amy Taubin shows, racism, misogyny and gun fetishism at the heart of American culture.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 79 pages
• Publisher: British Film Institute; illustrated edition edition (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851703933
• ISBN-13: 978-0851703930
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #532,138 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better BFI Film Classics, October 3, 2000

By	Michael J. Krieger (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews

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!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A brief look at Scorsese's 1976 film, November 22, 2003

By	SPM "scott_maykrantz" (Eugene, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This is a very short book that summarizes the plot of Taxi Driver. The author adds a handful of ideas along the way, ranging from the obvious (Travis Bickle is a borderline personality) to the questionable (when buying guns, he's choosing from a wide range of penises). It helps that the author is a woman. Her take on the violence and sexuality of the story is slightly different from the other (male) reviews I have read. However, there's so little here that is new, it's not worth buying. This would be better as a chapter in a larger book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, January 22, 2007

By	Terri Fawn Howard - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.