Taxi Driver: CE / SE R1 & R2

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TedW
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#76 Post by TedW » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:43 pm

Well, it's pretty much in the doc on Schrader that's in the new DVD, if I recall (I breezed through it quickly). But maybe it is better to look at it as Travis imagining it.

My only other quibble with the movie is that some of the voice-over is a little too erudite for Travis' level of education -- using a word like "venal," referring to himself as "God's lonely man," etc. Schrader gets a little out in front of the movie in those places.

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Luke M
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2007 9:21 pm

#77 Post by Luke M » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:13 pm

Cronenfly wrote:
TedW wrote: it does violate the all-from-Travis'-demented-POV structure of the movie.
This might be off the mark, but could it be Travis' imagining the encounter?
I interpreted the scene that way. That might be because I refuse to believe that such a great film as this would suddenly derail if only for a few minutes.

you gotta be kidding me

#78 Post by you gotta be kidding me » Sun Aug 19, 2007 8:53 pm

TedW wrote:My only other quibble with the movie is that some of the voice-over is a little too erudite for Travis' level of education -- using a word like "venal," referring to himself as "God's lonely man," etc. Schrader gets a little out in front of the movie in those places.
Is keeping a journal beyond his intellectual reach as well? I figure if he writes a diary, he reads, or has read... and is his education ever clearly established? Or is it truly "Here, there, you know..."? His imagination and experiences certainly suggest he's capable of a reasonable vocabulary... whereas his equal today would likely be nearly illiterate, playing videogame power fantasies and text messaging unreadable codes...

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Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
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#79 Post by Feego » Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:57 pm

TedW wrote:My only other quibble with the movie is that some of the voice-over is a little too erudite for Travis' level of education -- using a word like "venal," referring to himself as "God's lonely man," etc. Schrader gets a little out in front of the movie in those places.
To me, this is part of the "walking contradiction" idea that Travis embodies through most of the film. Just as his distaste for the "scum" of society is contradicted by many of the things he does on a daily basis (going to porn movies with said "scum"), his journal writings contrast greatly with his speech. I think this was intentional on Schrader and Scorsese's part, and I seem to recall Kolker mentioning something about it in his commentary.

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Petty Bourgeoisie
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:17 am

#80 Post by Petty Bourgeoisie » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:48 pm

Lastnight was the very first time I viewed Taxi Driver. All I could think of during the dancing scene was another great film, Idiocracy. You know, that scene of the army general giving his presentation of the soldier preservation experiment - "You see, the love of a pimp is very different than the love of a square".

Seriously though. It wasn't just the dancing scene that inadvertently jolted me out of the movie. It was Keitel's entire performance. In the extra's Schraeder stated it was a good idea they changed the pimp casting from a black man to a white man, because the original casting would have appeared rascist. In other words they chickened out and the film suffered for it. From the very first second I saw Keitel in a muscle shirt with long hair and a fedora, I groaned and rolled my eyes.

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Cold Bishop
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#81 Post by Cold Bishop » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:10 pm

Alright, other than the break with the first-person p.o.v. in the one scene, and more importantly, the fact that keeping the character black would have been more true to the story, can anybody explain to me what so wrong with Keitel's performance? Because Petty Bourgeoisie is definitely not the first time I've seen someone criticize his performance, and I always thought he did a great job with the role, granted it was a mistake to rewrite it in the first place.

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Petty Bourgeoisie
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#82 Post by Petty Bourgeoisie » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:22 pm

Speaking for myself, it added camp when the movie needed grit. Brooks (and to a lesser extent Boyle) provided the perfect amount of comic relief. From the point where Travis started working out and swore off junk food, everything in the film should have been rock hard, gritty and real as hell. Keitel's part just seemed campy.

However, that misstep aside, Taxi Driver is undoubtedly a great movie. I don't want to sound like I am dismissing the entire film. The most interesting aspect of the film is how Travis develops a Fascistic view of humanity. The desire for a "new rain" to wash away the flaws in humanity are exactly what propels fascistic, genocidal regimes. In the end we never know if he has overcome his Antichrist point of view, or if it has been set in stone due to the fact that he was viewed as a hero for his killings. That to me, was the most disturbing part of the film. Would Travis move on to additional and more random killings?
Last edited by Petty Bourgeoisie on Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Cold Bishop
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#83 Post by Cold Bishop » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:33 pm

Camp? What's camp? His Fedora, Muscle Shirt, Long Hair combination? His junkie-hipster sleaze attitude? If anything, you could say it's a little dated, but I swear I've met and seen the character Keitel was playing on several different occasions, and I wasn't even born until the 80s.

Granted, the idea that movie should have descended into unrelenting hell is worth an argument, but I don't think it's out of the question to expect Keitel's character the act the way he did.

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Petty Bourgeoisie
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#84 Post by Petty Bourgeoisie » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:41 pm

Perhaps I'm being too rough on Keitel's turn. It would have been tough to cast that movie simply because of the greatness of Deniro's performance.

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Belmondo
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:19 am
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#85 Post by Belmondo » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:54 pm

Cold Bishop wrote:Camp? What's camp? His Fedora, Muscle Shirt, Long Hair combination? His junkie-hipster sleaze attitude? If anything, you could say it's a little dated, but I swear I've met and seen the character Keitel was playing on several different occasions, and I wasn't even born until the 80s.

Granted, the idea that movie should have descended into unrelenting hell is worth an argument, but I don't think it's out of the question to expect Keitel's character the act the way he did.
I agree completely, but I wouldn't even say that it was a little dated. I saw many big city guys like that in the mid-70's. The peace and love stance of half a decade before had given way to individual "attitude". You invented a cool persona for yourself, talked down to everyone, and pretended (or believed) that you ruled the streets. Occasionally, Keitel misses the mark, but not here.

you gotta be kidding me

#86 Post by you gotta be kidding me » Mon Aug 20, 2007 12:18 am

Petty Bourgeoisie wrote:From the point where Travis started working out and swore off junk food, everything in the film should have been rock hard, gritty and real as hell.
I'm not refuting any of your arguments on the basis of this one line, but I think very little of Taxi Driver is "real", nor is it meant to be. It's like a mix of Samuel Fuller and Douglas Sirk.

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HerrSchreck
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#87 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:02 pm

As to the feeling that this was the same transfer as the last disc-- NO CHANCE. There is major color enhancement here, most notable in the reds in the campaign office. My excitement with the enhancements are tempered in but one area: the sound. It seems over-boosted and digitized in parts. In much of Travis' v/o's, particularly the "Loneliness has followed my my whole life... in bars, etc), the soul of the disjointedness, a certain vagery has been lost. It sounds like a digital multiband limiter has been used, causing dips in volume to be heavily compressed, and peaks to have gain reduction, to create an evenness to the delivery, too much compression on plosives & consonants, and therefore a loss of naturalness. The soft, lost, disembodied sound is gone, and now Travis sounds like Cousin Brucie on the radio.

On the plus side of the audio enhancement... fucking score is so much more full, alive... the first time you really get inside of it in 3 dimensions. I've seen this film over one hundred times, many times in the cinema, and watching this issue I heard and saw things I never noticed (including, during Scorsese's 1st cameo on the steps w Shepard, the skinny guy with the 'stache & glasses who smiles at her & exits is wearing a reversed COLUMBIA PICTURES tee). I also loved-- to my surprise-- the taxi stories, particularly thelast story w the guy drove the consultant to the airport and took the Life Advice. I can testify to the differences between the 70s in NYC of my childhood vs now. Like night & day.

TedW
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#88 Post by TedW » Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:11 pm

you gotta be kidding me wrote:
TedW wrote:My only other quibble with the movie is that some of the voice-over is a little too erudite for Travis' level of education -- using a word like "venal," referring to himself as "God's lonely man," etc. Schrader gets a little out in front of the movie in those places.
Is keeping a journal beyond his intellectual reach as well? I figure if he writes a diary, he reads, or has read... and is his education ever clearly established? Or is it truly "Here, there, you know..."? His imagination and experiences certainly suggest he's capable of a reasonable vocabulary... whereas his equal today would likely be nearly illiterate, playing videogame power fantasies and text messaging unreadable codes...
That's certainly a good try, but I'm gonna hang on to my assertion that the vocabulary in those spots is out of sync with the character as presented. That's Schrader peeking through, getting out in front of the movie. I mean, "venal"? C'mon. There's nothing to indicate Travis has read anything of any substance or has a secret "reasonable" vocabulary he saves for his diary. The guy can barely communicate and he himself says he has little education. If the movie suggested he was an autodidact, learning out of some insecurity about his lack of schooling, then that would work. But it doesn't.

kekid
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:55 pm

#89 Post by kekid » Thu Aug 30, 2007 3:32 pm

The second disc of my Taxi Driver set has only Japanese menu, and starts up with Japanese subtitles. The initial (presumabley FBI) warning is also in Japanese.
Did anyone else have this situation? Is this a freak copy, and I should return it for an exchange?

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Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

#90 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:34 pm

TedW wrote:
you gotta be kidding me wrote:
TedW wrote:My only other quibble with the movie is that some of the voice-over is a little too erudite for Travis' level of education -- using a word like "venal," referring to himself as "God's lonely man," etc. Schrader gets a little out in front of the movie in those places.
Is keeping a journal beyond his intellectual reach as well? I figure if he writes a diary, he reads, or has read... and is his education ever clearly established? Or is it truly "Here, there, you know..."? His imagination and experiences certainly suggest he's capable of a reasonable vocabulary... whereas his equal today would likely be nearly illiterate, playing videogame power fantasies and text messaging unreadable codes...
That's certainly a good try, but I'm gonna hang on to my assertion that the vocabulary in those spots is out of sync with the character as presented. That's Schrader peeking through, getting out in front of the movie. I mean, "venal"? C'mon. There's nothing to indicate Travis has read anything of any substance or has a secret "reasonable" vocabulary he saves for his diary. The guy can barely communicate and he himself says he has little education. If the movie suggested he was an autodidact, learning out of some insecurity about his lack of schooling, then that would work. But it doesn't.
Am I to take it you have never been in a social situation where your powers of communication fail you? Where you mumble, stutter, or just can't think of anything to say, whether as a start or in response?

I certainly have (I gather so have most people)--and as this forum will attest, I have no particular difficulty with language. It was always very obvious to me that Travis is insecure, uncomfortable, and bewildered by social interaction, the result of which is his trouble communicating. People are rarely one thing all the time, something which is well observed in Taxi Driver. The one moment of conversation where he is most in tune with the language of his inner self is the meeting with Palantine in his cab: there he cannot see the man except through the visor; he is not held up to scrutiny; and the subject of his talk--the filth and garbage he sees around him--is a subject in which he is most comfortable and confidant.

It is part of Travis' tragedy that he genuinely has something to say, and the means with which to say it, and yet is completely incapable of doing so, of showing another person what's truly inside him. Since he cannot talk, he goes out and shoots to make himself heard. Reminds me a bit of Kim Ki-Duk's Bad Guy, where the eponymous bad guy cannot talk, so he hits people instead.

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manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
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#91 Post by manicsounds » Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:57 am

kekid wrote:The second disc of my Taxi Driver set has only Japanese menu, and starts up with Japanese subtitles. The initial (presumabley FBI) warning is also in Japanese.
Did anyone else have this situation? Is this a freak copy, and I should return it for an exchange?
The second disc is coded for regions 1 2 3 and 4, with various subtitles and menus. Your DVD player's default menu language must be switched to Japanese. Just switch it to English in the Home Menu of the DVD player.

I think it's nice that Japanese subtitles are available on disc 2, but it's strange that there's no option on disc 1....

Does anyone else have this problem or just Kekid?
Last edited by manicsounds on Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

kekid
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:55 pm

#92 Post by kekid » Fri Aug 31, 2007 2:21 pm

manicsounds wrote:
kekid wrote:The second disc of my Taxi Driver set has only Japanese menu, and starts up with Japanese subtitles. The initial (presumabley FBI) warning is also in Japanese.
Did anyone else have this situation? Is this a freak copy, and I should return it for an exchange?
The second disc is coded for regions 1 2 3 and 4, with various subtitles and menus. Your DVD player's default menu language must be switched to Japanese. Just switch it to English in the Home Menu of the DVD player.

I think it's nice that Japanese subtitles are available on disc 2, but it's strange that there's no option on disc 1....
Thank you for taking time to suggest this. But this does not solve my problem. I had the default settings set to Englsih (audio, subtitles and menu - and reconfirmed this when you wrote your response). I have never encountered this problem, and I have a very large collection of DVDs with various region combinations. Something seems to be peculiar about this disc.

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Petty Bourgeoisie
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:17 am

#93 Post by Petty Bourgeoisie » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:05 am

kekid wrote:The second disc of my Taxi Driver set has only Japanese menu, and starts up with Japanese subtitles. The initial (presumabley FBI) warning is also in Japanese.
Did anyone else have this situation? Is this a freak copy, and I should return it for an exchange?
I have the same problem. Must have been a problem at the mastering facility because the writing on the discs front is English. I considered exchanging it but decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

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manicsounds
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Re: Taxi Driver: CE / SE R1 & R2

#94 Post by manicsounds » Tue Sep 13, 2016 8:36 am

Because we needed yet another edition of Taxi Driver - 40th anniversary 4k restoration Blu-ray

DISC ONE
ALL-NEW: 40-Minute TAXI DRIVER Q&A - Featuring Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster and many more. Recorded live at the Beacon Theatre in New York City at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival
Interactive Script to Screen
Original 1986 Commentary with Director Martin Scorsese and Writer Paul Schrader recorded by The Criterion Collection
Commentaries by Writer Paul Schrader and by Professor Robert Kolker
Martin Scorsese on TAXI DRIVER
Producing TAXI DRIVER
God's Lonely Man
TAXI DRIVER Stories
Travis' New York
Travis' New York Locations
Theatrical Trailer
DISC TWO
Making of Documentary
Storyboard to Film Comparisons with Martin Scorsese Introduction
Animated Photo Galleries

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tenia
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Re: Taxi Driver: CE / SE R1 & R2

#95 Post by tenia » Tue Sep 13, 2016 9:00 am

I thought this was an UHD announcement, but no, not even that.
Even sillier is the use of a 2nd disc when the making of was encoded as a 480i element on the original BD release and that the remaining extras basically are 1080p galleries, being pictures or storyboards. I guess they might re-use the Mi4K encode rather than the 1st release one, but still, they're gonna end up with a 2nd BD using what ? 7 Gb ?

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