Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is a blistering, ageless character study makes its stand-alone UHD debut, after first appearing as part of the 2021 Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 2.
The Production: 5/5
As Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver bears down on its 50th anniversary, the film — crafted amid the chaos of post-Vietnam War paranoia, urban decline and shifting social mores — feels more unnervingly relevant with each passing year. It’s possible to see the personality of Travis Bickle reflected in stories about aggrieved young men disappearing down rabbit holes of misinformation, arming themselves with weapons and visiting violence upon themselves and their surroundings.
What helps the film endure and feel alarmingly timely is screenwriter Paul Schrader’s clear-eyed assessment of, as he called it at the time, the “pathology of loneliness.” Gazing into the abyss of isolation, Schrader and Scorsese form an ugly, painful work of art that is impossible to turn away from. The pair’s work behind the camera is matched in front of it: There is, of course, Robert De Niro’s Oscar-nominated turn as the titular taxi driver (he lost out to Network’s Peter Finch, who was honored posthumously), but also finely turned performances across the board, whether it’s Jodie Foster’s precocious hooker Iris, Peter Boyle’s foul-minded cabbie Wizard, comic Albert Brooks as a wry campaign staffer or Harvey Keitel, making an outsized impression with a relatively minor role.
Travis Bickle, a troubled Vietnam War veteran, takes a job driving cabs because his insomnia won’t allow him to rest. It’s evident there’s something slightly off about him even as he undergoes the brief interview process in the cab stand in the film’s opening moments — “Anytime, anywhere,” he says, when asked if he’d venture up into the then-embattled Harlem neighborhood — and Scorsese lets viewers get acquainted with his flat, affectless stare, a visual match for the vacant, detached voiceover De Niro delivers, recounting Bickle’s journal entries.
Entranced by the beauty of Betsy (Cybill Shepherd, luminous), a campaign worker for Senator Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris), Bickle quickly becomes obsessive, demanding Betsy date him, and eventually dragging her to an adult movie theater, thereby torpedoing any hope of a relationship. His compulsion to rescue a fair maiden from the scum of the Manhattan streets soon finds a new focus: Young hooker Iris (Foster), whose pimp Sport (Keitel) is more amused than threatened by the seemingly hapless Bickle.
Taxi Driver simmers and boils and builds to a still-shocking finale, gruesomely violent and punctuated with some of Scorese’s most harrowing images (which, given his filmography, is saying something). The bloody catharsis of Bickle’s homicidal mission of salvation feels less like a cleansing than a chilling evocation of what lonely, misguided men can do with warped minds and loaded guns. The awful tableau of the climactic shoot-out (director of photography Michael Chapman’s camera taking a God’s-eye view) still looks like the angry, hurt madness in Travis Bickle’s mind made manifest — broken, bleeding and full of pain.
The howling emptiness of toxic masculinity is the engine fueling this American masterpiece, a film as gripping and necessary today as it was in 1976.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
Taxi Driver was first released on 4K UHD disc in 2021, as part of the six-disc “Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 2” set. Now freed as a stand-alone release three years later, Sony has delivered the film in a two-disc set, housed in a Steelbook case. Simply put, the film, shot on location in mid-1970s New York City, looks spectacular — 4K, at its best, approximates the sensation of watching a newly minted 35mm print, and that is certainly the case with Taxi Driver.
The 1.85:1 anamorphic image, additionally enhanced by Dolby Vision, is crisp and vivid throughout, apart from a touch of optical softness during the opening and closing credits (which, given the film’s vintage, is hardly surprising). Still, the 2160p transfer, which was restored from the original camera negative, reveals sharp details in clothing and hair, while the gleam of raindrops on the cab’s hood or flash of light along a gun barrel calls to attention the tasteful application of HDR. Black levels are stable, making this moody, largely nighttime-set film pop off the screen.
A Blu-ray disc, with a 1080p transfer derived from the same restored 4K scan, is included in the package, boasting a likewise vivid, film-like appearance.
Audio: 5/5
The late Bernard Herrmann’s jazzy, ominous score (his final composition for a feature film) is as much a character in Taxi Driver as Travis Bickle, so it’s a relief that the DTS-HD MA 5.1 track included here does justice to his work, full of rumbling bass and sinuous saxophone. Gunfire sounds period appropriate, but with a touch of heft, and dialogue is clean and clear throughout. Surrounds are used to fill in occasionally — the bustling campaign offices; the seedy porno theater — but this is primarily a front-stage affair.
The film’s original mono track is here, as a DTS-HD MA 1.0 offering, and a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 track rounds out the offerings. English and English SDH subtitles are included, as are French and Spanish subtitles.
Special Features: 5/5
Befitting a film of its stature, Taxi Driver has seen a multitude of home video releases over the decades, and Sony has, thankfully, retained what appears to be all of the prior supplements with this 4K UHD release. On the 4K UHD disc itself, there are a handful of bonus features: The “Making Taxi Driver” documentary (1:10:55); a storyboard-to-film comparison (8:21) with a Scorsese introduction (4:32); photo galleries and a theatrical trailer.
The Blu-ray houses the majority of the extras, including the original 1986 commentary track (first recorded for the Criterion Collection laserdisc) featuring Scorsese and Schrader), as well as separate commentaries from Schrader and Professor Robert Kolker. A 2016 retrospective Q&A, moderated by Kent Jones and recorded live during the Tribeca Film Festival, and featuring (among others) De Niro, Scorsese, Foster, Shepherd and Schrader (41:56), is included, alongside the featurettes “Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver” (16:49); “Producing Taxi Driver” (9:53); “God’s Lonely Man” (21:42); “Taxi Driver Stories” (22:23); “Travis’ New York” (6:16); “Travis’ New York Locations” (4:49) and “Influence and Appreciation: A Martin Scorsese Tribute” (18:30). The film’s theatrical trailer rounds out the disc.
A code for a digital copy, redeemable via Movies Anywhere, is also included.
Overall: 5/5
Taxi Driver is an American masterpiece, angry and sad and electrifying. Anchored by Robert De Niro’s towering performance as alienated loner Travis Bickle, Paul Schrader’s vivid, visceral screenplay and Martin Scorsese’s sure-handed direction, the film deserves an immaculate, well-rounded presentation on 4K, and that is precisely what Sony has delivered, tossing in a Steelbook case to entice collectors further. Very highly recommended, and an essential addition to any serious film library.
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