This Is Dark... TAXI DRIVER (1976) Movie Reaction

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Taxi Driver (1976) Movie Reaction | First Time Watching Movie Reaction | Screenwriter Reacts | Learning From Martin Scorsese So I Can Win An Oscar One day
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On Jake Loves Stories, I watch movies for the first time at viewer requests and I give my breakdown during the movie reaction using my screenwriting knowledge that I gained from 8 years of studying screenwriting and earning a Bachelors degree in Film, while also trying to just enjoy the film.

[@BigGator5]

"You're only as healthy as you feel." Fun Fact: Due to a garbage strike, much of the on-screen filth is real. Historical Fact: In the coffee and pie scene, Travis (Robert De Niro) orders apple pie with melted cheese. When serial killer Ed Gein was arrested, he asked the police for a slice of apple pie with melted cheese in exchange for a full confession. Body Double Fact: Jodie Foster was twelve years old when the movie was filmed, so she could not do the more explicit scenes (her character was also twelve years old). Connie Foster, Jodie's older sister, who was nineteen when the film was produced, was cast as her body double for those scenes. Key Scene Fact: Director Martin Scorsese claims that the most important shot in the movie is when Bickle (Robert De Niro) is on the phone trying to get another date with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd). The camera moves to the side slowly and pans down the long, empty hallway next to Bickle, as if to suggest that the phone conversation is too painful and pathetic to bear; this shot also showcases his isolation and loneliness.

[@boredloner2609]

He's a "literally me" character because of how lonely he is, the going through life without meaning, etc. It's relateable to a lot of loners and socially anxious people.

[@MichaelPlatson]

Two Harvey Keitel movies in a row - why not follow it up with Bad Lieutenant? A little heavy for seven in the morning. Love your breakdowns.

[@iamamaniaint]

I love the framing device of the letters he writes to his family. It begin to add a level of ambiguity to the film. Like how much of this is real and how much is some fantasy representation of a story he's telling his parents.

[@ThomasStClair-zr2lb]

It's a somewhat open ended movie but Scorsese has talked about it a few times and how he wanted the movie to be more a critique of a society celebrating violence. The end scene mirroring the beginning with him looking at his reflection is a hint that even though he accidentally became a hero this time, he will start the loop over, he will return to a low state of paranoia. He will kill again.

[@hongfang2348]

The part where he becomes a hero may be a dream sequence

[@JakeLovesStories]

I'm finding out right now this is my 3rd Scorsese film on the channel, I've seen Shutter Island & The Departed. Didn't realize those were all him. Knowing that going in, I would of known this was gonna get dark lol

[@2GunRock]

I believe their first movie together was "Mean Streets". Di Nero was great as usual, and so young looking.

[@EgbertWilliams]

Jodie Foster is only about 5'3'' as a grown woman and she WAS 12 when this movie was made. De Niro was probably 5'9'' or just under when he was young. Jodie definitely wasn't very big for 12, but might have been close to her final height.

[@johnsilva9139]

Plus she's wearing platform shoes.

[@kenlawless7247]

I slowed it down on VHS and I think he gets a glimpse of the Scorsese character in the back seat. The first guy that describes murdering someone with a gun to Travis. Even if Thomas below is right that it's an image of his eyes, it leaves it open ended. Clearly he planned and failed to kill Palentine which means he is a psycho, but by killing the other people we get to accept him as a hero. But that little twist at the end means hold on.

[@Al_NERi]

Great reaction. Wanted to drop some love for late great character actor Joe Spinnel, here among several others like Peter Boyle, playing the cabstand boss who hires Travis after a testy Noo Yawk introduction. The first character to show him a shred of respect for their shared marine corp bond. Even in such a small role Joe always had an eye catching, flint-eyed, granite faced presence. His career was like a roadmap to touchstone American cinema of the 70s-80s: The Godfather one and two, Rocky one and two, Brubaker, The Monsignor, many more.

[@davidgagnon7806]

You never heard of Bernard Goetz, "the subway vigilante?" Look it up.

[@JakeLovesStories]

I thought was gonna be a movie about a guy who hears stories in his taxi or something like the people who sat by Forest Gump, boy was I wrong KZbin Movie Reactions Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLFyO_F_gScu5ASMweIxqOcItRxcWvfYn_ Full Patreon Reactions: www.patreon.com/StudytheCraft

[@Carl.Henriksson]

That actually sounds interessting as well.

[@orangewarm1]

You can't put this film into your template. Many 70s films broke the usual act structure.

[@JakeLovesStories]

Uhh if you take a screenwriting class at any university, they literally teach you screenwriting using movies as old as Casablanca (1942) and Citizen Kane (1941), 70s movies ARE what the current movie structure comes from.

[@rmatheny]

@@JakeLovesStories After your sabbatical of watch-alongs this is a return to what I thought. So much arrogance, sans listen and learning. You are constantly missing so much in these films you have (ostensibly) watched. A comparison to American Psycho? Really? How long does it take for you after watching these films to look up mostly likely youtube and have someone else explain these things to you? A few seconds? Maybe minutes? It is always structure and guidelines with you. Open your mind, be more interpretive. Watch maybe a David Lynch Movie. The film medium is an art form. Not everything has to conform. Not every peg needs to fit where it is 'supposed' to go.

[@williamtrump6705]

@@rmatheny Exactly. He's like the professor telling us what Scorsese is doing. Smug, and arrogant. Some guys learn the hard way.

[@LePhil79]

@@JakeLovesStories Yeah but Scorsese studied at the time when French new wave and Italian neorealism were big in American universities, and he was heavily inspired by those movements. Following a plot, then abandoning it to follow an out-of-nowhere path is typical of many French new wave directors ( Godard, Truffaut...), not necessarily to confuse the viewer, but for authenticity purpose: Life does not follow a structured template.

[@bramford7e]

I've watched a lot of reactions and what I like about yours is that you're pausing the movie when you make a point, so you don't miss anything. Hope you react to more classic movies and keep up the great work.

[@teresas8173]

I have so much I want to comment about, but I’m only going to say that you actually missed so much about this movie. One small instance. His mohawk … it was not perfect because he did it himself. It was very realistic that it would be not be done well and it gave him a more menacing and f’d up look. Maybe you were joking that it was such a hack job. The fact he didn’t kill the politician tells you his dangerous intentions were chaotic, like his mindset. This movie was not about killing a politician. It was about an extremely lonely and dangerous, albeit with some vaguely good, yet very misguided intentions, man in 70s NYC. Yes we knew as viewers that likely in his state of mind, he’d be killing someone … he did as well, even if the original target was not it, it would be someone or as happened, multiple people. So the movie was not as predictable as you made it out to be. This movie, like the character Travis ( and the city) is tense, depressing, unpredictable and disturbing. And that’s why it’s so good 😮 I’d like you to review Raging Bull which along with this are imo Scorsese’s best films. Please.

[@clintonorman2859]

I used to think the ending was unrealistic but then a couple of years after this movie Bernard Goetz shot up a subway and killed people and WAS considered a hero.

[@Sirala6]

Paul Schrader - the screenwriter - works at a very high level here; his movies are worth watching.

[@clintonorman2859]

Scorcese and Schrader have both commented on the racial undertones of the movie and that Travis is indeed racist. Can you imagine if he had killed three black people in the end and then become a public hero? That would have been a different movie, even more dark, and still just as true to our society.

[@samanthanickson6478]

travis is socially awkward and really looks at dirty movies as regular movies. it’s what’s available in his proximity when he leaves his apartment, so he watches when he wants to watch. to him, u eat chuckles and raisinets and popcorn whenever u watch a “movie”.

[@NoExitLoveNow]

Jodie Foster was actually 12 1/2 when she made this movie.

[@tonyu2298]

This is how great this movie is . Got you Homie!

[@harvey4512]

Travis suffers ptsd and somania from Vietnam war

[@2GunRock]

Man you understand more about movies than anyone I've ever known. You predict possible events and character arcs WAY before they are made obvious. You just take this little hints most people miss, and BAM, you have an idea where it's going.

[@BillyBong]

I honestly feel like the Joker is a 100 % rip off this movie

[@clintonorman2859]

Now that's a theory I agree with.

[@widsy]

Joker is mixture of this and another Scorsese movie The King of Comedy, in my view.

[@themerpheus]

He is dead by the end of the movie, the ending is what he hope he would get in return of his actions as the last moment of his life. It is not like a regular 3 act movie, its a little artsty on that front, open to reading it metaphorically.

[@mrtveye6682]

Right. The suddenly "dreamy" look and the fact that it's so "not fitting" to the story - but it's totally fitting to what his last thoughts could be before he dies - is a pretty clear indicator. Not all movies take you by the hand the whole time. I like it when there is some room for interpretation and "you have to figure it out for yourself" - or even "just enjoy, don't overthink it". Hell, "Mulholland Drive" is one of my favorite movie of all times, and I will never be able to fully "understand" it, but it doesn't matter, I just enjoy the wild ride.

[@orangewarm1]

Scorsese said he didn't die. The last shot is to show he might flip out again.

[@thunderstruck5484]

Exactly Scorsese and the screen writer both have said what you see on screen is what happened, 🤷‍♂️

[@mrtveye6682]

​@@orangewarm1 Fair enough. But that's exactly what I meant when I said that movies can be ambiguous and open for interpretation. Scorsese did an excellent job making it look like it is a dream or dying-sequence. And curious as I am, it did some quick reading, and it's interesting. Scorsese even stated that the ending is more a statement about society, and the writer said, he is fine that viewers interpreted the ending different than he intended. His idea was more of a loop, that the end of the movie is more like a link to the beginning. So clearly both of them had something else in mind that a sudden "happy ending" as it looks at first glance. I think that's great, keep the viewers thinking after the movie is finished.

[@el-violador]

Given this films open interpretation ending, I'll throw my 2 cents in. I believe the end of the film is mostly made up. I think it's all real up to the end of the shootout. I think the letter from the parents is imagined. The voice over of the father is said with the same emotionless deadpan as Travis narrating. I think the newspaper articles are real and serve to deepen his dislocation to reality constantly reading about himself in a glorified way. Betsy is not real. I like to think of it as a kind of reimagined memory where he lies to himself so much that he believes it 2 films I think you will really enjoy are Nightcrawler Ex Machina

[@anunnacy]

I believe in the theory that he actually died in that building during/after the shootout. And the scenes after that are basically like a dream he's experiencing while dying. Or sort of an afterlife for him, being a hero, still driving his taxi as always and even his dream-woman comes back and loves him, ... it's "too good to be true" (42:37). But ofc in either interpretation the young girl is save and that's good.

[@JhonnyHawk-bu7zp]

This girl is a flirt,

[@puppetj69]

Interesting history fact: John Hinckley Jr. had erotomania and his motivation for the attack was born of his obsession with then-child actress Jodie Foster. While living in Hollywood in the late 1970s, he saw the film Taxi Driver at least 15 times, apparently identifying strongly with protagonist Travis Bickle, portrayed by actor Robert De Niro.

[@docbearmb]

You’re over-anticipating where you think the story is going. You were wrong about the $20. He didn’t keep it. He has a moral code (though often screwy.) He knew that twenty was blood money so he held on to it for use at the right moment. And as to the passenger who intends to kill his wife with a .45, his speech isn’t clear at first. He never says he’s going to kill them both. His wrath is solely directed at his wife. By the way, he is Scorsese. Please stop with the Joker references. It serves as a reminder that there is no originality today.

[@orangewarm1]

She's not 12 1/2. Sport isn't truthful.

[@samanthanickson6478]

right? like that 1/2 year really meant something in the grand scheme of things.

[@86compgeek]

I think the person who did this reaction/review is very silly.

[@flyy1006]

damn u crazy boy

[@orangewarm1]

You should watch the afi 100. You make too many assumptions and you're doing a lot of preaching. Why don't you teach at a college?

[@JakeLovesStories]

So I'm reading this one after your other comment, the irony you told me to watch the afi top 100, when I referenced that older movies were the model of current structure where I mention Casablanca and Citizen, and those two movies are #1 & #2 on the AFI top 100. So how am I making assumptions and preaching when I'm using the information you learn from watching & reading the scripts of the list you recommended 😂. Screenwriting is literally a theory based off the movies like those on that list yet when I use the theory created from the movies you recommend, I'm preaching?