Posted on 05/06/2016 1:56:29 PM PDT by Borges
Every day, for 40 f%^&% years, one of you has stopped me on the street and said, You talkin to me? groused Robert De Niro at a recent Q&A at the Tribeca Film festival reuniting the makers of Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, Cybil Shepherd and screenwriter Paul Schrader all swapped anecdotes, and De Niro led the audience in one last rendition of his most famous line, in an effort to expunge the ghost. Hes not the only one haunted by the role, which remains the template for every young Hollywood actor eager to put the lucre of blockbuster dollars behind them with a walk on the indie wild side: Christian Bale in The Machinist, Ryan Gosling in Drive, Sam Rockwell in Seven Psychopaths, in which he plays an actor who believes himself to be the illegitimate son of Travis Bickle. They all believe that. Taxi Driver is the ultimate independent-movie performance, Leonardo DiCaprio has said. Playing a character like Travis Bickle is every young actors wet dream.
(Excerpt) Read more at 1843magazine.com ...
As opposed to “Taxi” which although pretty graphic, was a de Niro masterpiece.
Never bothered seeing it. The bits and pieces I got here and there were not appealing. Then again, NYC movies are depressing in the extreme.
Hyman Roth
I knew it was his fault all along
It’s the ultimate vision of New York City as Hell on Earth.
I had the wrong title. I get “Taxi” and “Taxi Driver” confused. Must have been “Taxi” that was the TV series with Andy Kauffman.
Why does De Niro grouse? He had a similar look in Goodfellas when he’s standing there at the bar, smoking, and repeatedly looking at the guy with the toupee who he was getting ready to whack.
He’s dead, Jim.
I though Taxi Driver sucked and the “You talkin to me” scene as some of the worst over acting of all time.
I have NEVER been able to get through that whole movie. I hate it.
I think the template for psychopath hiding behind a taciturn face was set by Anthony Perkins.
No, I’m just ID’g the show “Taxi” that I get confused with the title “Taxi Driver”. I know Kaufman is dead.
The character is overacting into the mirror. It’s a performance within a performance.
The name of that movie was Taxi Driver.
There was a movie named Taxi with Queen Latifah in it.
In 1976, it WAS.
And to think that liberals actually "pine" for the good ol' days of Taxi Driver or Death Wish.
I saw this movie as a kid of 10, and even then I was just fascinated by the decay of NYC, and such an interesting character like Travis Bickle.
I don't know why my parents would take me to such a film.
But they did.
I remember my mom just saying how "icky" the movie was.
When I went to NYC for the first time, as an 18 year old in the mid 80s, I was surprised just how accurate the movie was.
Jeez. Times Square in 1984 was the very same as it was in 1976.
No dialogue.
DeNiro improvised the scene.
I think that's why it's so perfect.
DeNiro had completely BECOME Travis Bickle.
Writer Paul Schraeder was raised in a strict Calvinist home where he didn’t see films till he was 16 or so. That Puritanical streak is evident in the film.
“This is the life we have chosen.”
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