[greedrex]

believe it or not, i watched Taxi Driver for the first time yesterday night, bought a nice 2DVD edition for a couple of bucks off ebay.
My expectations were pretty high on this one as i'm the typical Scorcese/De Niro fanboy, but i reallythought this was huh disappointing. I mean it's young De Niro, he always kicks ass in a way or another but you know that plot is a bit minimalistic to my liking. So i kinda liked it and it's a nice in my collection and i will go back to it BUT i will hardly consider this one of my classics...

so the question is
Does everybody think that Taxi Driver is an untouchable CLASSIC film?

+ any thoughts about Mean Streets? Have never seen this one either...

[pbradley]

You wanted it to be disappointing.

[greedrex]

not at all, i was eager to LOVE this.

[pbradley]

You resent being told it is an untouchable classic so you use this to inflate your expectations to unreasonable heights. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, the film fails these expectations and you feel vindicated. You weren't missing out at all, it was all just hype.

[alteredcourse]

I relate to it on an everyday level, in that core of me that feels like apart of me is robbed to have to endure public metropolis traffic (like when he realizes it wasnt quite right to bring a date to a porno. On which level is it acceptable?)

And just the entire alienation. I would elucidate it better if I could. It is just so sad for the spirit to be beaten down, drowned out, anonymously.

[pbradley]

Also, I'm kidding. Just wanted to give the old deconstructive rhetoric a whirl.

I trust you were legitimately let down by the movie though I do suggest that you try at least to limit your expectations, as impossible as that sounds, in the future.

I personally like the film. Not enough to watch it often but the film delivers everything I would want with out being too bogged down with plot.

[alteredcourse]

Taxi driver's easy.

[Florya]

Taxi Driver was pretty groundbreaking for it's time.
My guess is that you've seen alot of movies that emulated its style and content since it was made, and that's why it didn't have the punch you were hoping for.
I saw it at the movies when it first came out, and it was all me and my friends talked about for weeks afterwards - it hit us that hard.

[fugazifan]

i say see it again. it gets better with each viewing

[pbradley]

What I like is that Travis Bickle stands as another kind of hero. Neither a true hero nor an antihero but a vigilante that teeters between the two without the idealization of either.

[gualbert]

I watched it for the first time a few months ago: I thought it was ok, not great.
Some dialogues are rather cheap ( lots of impro I guess ).

[Derek]

Taxi Driver is like the best film ever made.

[jetengine]

For young Gen-Xers who dug rock 'n' roll and everything that was cool in the mid to late '70s/early '80s, Jodie Foster was the coolest female on the planet and Taxi Driver and The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane were like the Old and New Testaments!

[Youth_Against_Facism]

Never seen it.

It is a classic for sure, but I don't like this movie at all.

De Niro is an overrated actor too. Dennis Hopper always did it for me when it comes to movie psychos.

[atsonicpark]

This is my favorite movie of all time (though I constantly alternate it out of the top spot and replace it with El Topo or Hana-Bi but it's been in the top spot longer than any other film so...). I heard all about it before I saw it, people going on and on about it. Then I saw it and it was even BETTER than what people had said. Jesus what a film! A truely groundbreaking, daring, innovative, moving, brilliantly-filmed, hypnotic, unbelievable film. Seems ahead of its time even today and is still being ripped off today (did anyone see the Brave One? Ugh...). Regardless of all that mumbo jumbo.. because to be honest, a film's "importance" really has nothing to do with how much I love it.. I love it because it's real. It doesn't apologize for anything. Travis is a likeable-enough guy, but he's a fucking psychopath!

Brilliant acting, I mean what a cast.. DeNiro and Keitel are just amazing as always. The soundtrack is amazing. I mean, I really can't even think of anything wrong with this film. That scene when Travis is on the phone and the camera pans over and shows an empty hallway is probably my favorite scene.

I think you were just expecting something different. Watch it again.

[Trasher02]

Saw it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it was ace.

[greedrex]

interesting to see the different perspectives here. i totally have to evaluate this according to its context and place in time.
I like the aesthetics of the film. and really am into its main themes : alienation, frustration, like the screenwriter puts it "not being able to have what you want and not wanting what you can easily get".
My fave scene is the small talking with the fellow cabbie where you can see him losing entirely " you know i really wanna... i wanna... you know sometimes i have bad ideas in my head, like i really wanna... do something you know".

i can see myself in a similar state of mind in my very early twenties.
i didn't kill anybody though.
not yet.

[gohleekwang]

good movie. mean streets is good too.

[Dead-Air]

As movies looking into the head space of somebody going psycho and giving us the chance to identify with them a bit it's pretty effective. I'll buy that for it's time there was nothing like it and it landed like a Titan missile, forever changing the landscape. So yeah, I guess that all makes it a classic. I saw it maybe ten years ago, and it made me want to get a drink. I can't say I particularly want to watch it again though, and I think if I did, I'd probably pick it apart and think less highly of it in the end.