DVD News
Update: Taxi Driver (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) cover art revealed
By Patrick Luce Aug 3, 2007, 23:33 GMT
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings the four-time Academy Award-nominated modern film classic Taxi Driver (Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Music, 1977) in a Limited Collector’s Edition to DVD August 14.
In this urban angst-ridden drama by Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese (Best Director, The Departed, 2007), two-time Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, The Godfather: Part II, 1975; Best Actor in a Leading Role, Raging Bull, 1981) and two-time Academy Award-winning actress Jodie Foster (Best Actress in a Leading Role, The Accused, 1989; Best Actress in a Leading Role, The Silence of the Lambs, 1992) deliver stellar performances.
Foster was only thirteen years old when Taxi Driver was released in 1976. In Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a traumatized Vietnam War veteran who takes a job as a night-time taxi driver in New York City. When he encounters a 12-year-old prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster), controlled by a pimp named Sport (Harvey Keitel), Travis is determined to "rescue" Iris, and does so, in a bloodbath that is unsurpassed even in the films of Scorsese.
Taxi Driver Limited Collector’s Edition is full of exciting bonus features including a newly recorded feature-length commentary by director Martin Scorsese, an “Appreciation and Influence” documentary including interviews with directors, producers, actors and film critics on the cinematic importance of Taxi Driver and its director, a “Taxi Cab Confessions” documentary where De Niro and Schrader meet with NYC taxi drivers as well as a “Taxi Driver Locations” Interactive Map.
Synopsis:
At 26, Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle (De Niro) is slipping slowly into isolation and violence on the streets of New York City. Trying to solve his insomnia by driving a yellow cab on the night shift, he grows increasingly disgusted by the people who hang out at night: “Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets.”
His touching attempts to woo Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a Senator's campaign worker, turn sour when he takes her to a porn movie on their first date. He even fails in his attempt to persuade child prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster) to desert her pimp Sport (Harvey Keitel) and return to her parents and school. Driven to the edge by powerlessness, he buys four handguns and sets out to assassinate the Senator, heading for the infamy of a `lone crazed gunman'.
DVD bonus features include:
“Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver” Featurette
“Producing Taxi Driver” Featurette
“Influence and Appreciation” Documentary - Robert De Niro, Oliver Stone, Roger Corman and others pay tribute to Scorsese and the film
“God’s Lonely Man” Documentary - Writer Paul Schrader and Professor Robert Kolker discuss the loneliness themes as seen in the film. Schrader also talks about what circumstances lead to writing the screenplay
“Travis’ New York Locations” Featurette - An interactive map with visits to the famous New York City locations in 2006, while comparing them to the same locations in 1975.
Storyboard to Film Comparisons with Martin Scorsese Introduction
New Feature-length Commentary by Writer Paul Schrader
New Feature-length Commentary by Professor Robert Kolker
“Taxi Driver Stories” Featurette
“Making Taxi Driver” Documentary
Animated Photo Galleries
“Including Scorsese at Work” Photo Montage
Original Screenplay Read Along
Taxi Driver (Limited Collector's Edition) is now available for pre-order at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
