Taxi Driver (Mastered in 4. K) Blu- ray Review. The Movie Itself: Our Reviewer's Take. With apologies to James Joyce, 'A Portrait of a Psychotic Vigilante as a Young Man' might be a good subtitle for Martin Scorsese's 1. Taxi Driver.' Though Paul Schrader's dialogue might not sound as lyrical as the immortal Irish author's esteemed prose, it's nevertheless hypnotic and poetic, terse and direct.. Scorsese. Over the years, many fine directors have fashioned fine films from fine screenplays, but rarely has a script so perfectly suited the vision and style of a director, and rarely has the perfect actor also played the lead role. All the pieces of the puzzle snap snugly together on 'Taxi Driver,' making it not just an artistic triumph, but also a supremely absorbing, layered, and, yes, entertaining motion picture.
Sure, we all remember Robert De Niro aiming his gun, sizing up an imaginary assailant with wide eyes and a slightly crazed smirk on his face, and asking that loaded question, . And without De Niro's mesmerizing portrayal of the isolated, tortured, and disturbed Travis Bickle, it's difficult to determine whether the film would wield the same degree of impact. A Vietnam War veteran, Travis epitomizes the lost, disassociated, often aimless men who returned home from an ugly, traumatic conflict and found it difficult to assimilate into organized society. He applies for a taxi driving job to try and escape his lonely and monotonous existence, as well as the nagging demons that needle him, and as he scrutinizes life from behind the wheel of his iron coffin, he's repulsed by the filth of both the New York streets and the human condition. Someone needs to clean it all up, he tells himself, planting a seed that will grow into a mission later on. Hope, however, in the form of cool blonde beauty Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who works for a promising political candidate, briefly buoys Travis' spirits, but his inability to properly relate to her spurs a rapid inward retreat and ignites the smoldering violent tendencies lurking in his soul.
The bloodbath that comprises the 'Taxi Driver' climax often overshadows the nuances that distinguish the bulk of the film, and that's a shame, because the movie's meat lies in its impeccable depiction of character. With methodical grace and searing insight, Scorsese and De Niro subtly paint a complex portrait of a man on the edge and the forces that lead him to the breaking point. Scorsese takes it slow, allowing us to get under Travis' skin and see the world through his warped perspective. We feel his desolation, the mounting fatalism and paranoia that consume him, and how the claustrophobic atmosphere of the cab and his tiny apartment turn him into a caged animal desperate to break out of his self- imposed incarceration. As usual, Scorsese - aided immeasurably by cinematographer Michael Chapman - finds a way to make the repugnant strangely elegant and seductive, and the images he composes of New York's underbelly, coupled with the smooth jazz strains and dramatic accents of Bernard Herrmann's final score, heighten our connection to the material. Though his style doesn't flaunt the flash that would distinguish - and, at times, overshadow - his later works, it's no less impressive. Of course, it's impossible to imagine anyone other than De Niro as Travis.
Few other actors can convey such complexity with so little outward expression, and though his character is by turns creepy, pathetic, and edgy, he easily engenders our sympathy. De Niro never sugarcoats Travis, he merely makes him fascinating, a cryptic jumble of contradictions we all want to figure out. Since the movie opened 3. Travis Bickles on film and in real life, but De Niro crafted the mold, and his impression is the one that's most firmly etched in our collective consciousness. The supporting cast never eclipses De Niro, but the stellar work of Jodie Foster as a child prostitute, Harvey Keitel as her pimp, Shepherd as the elusive, uptight beauty, Albert Brooks as her nerdy colleague, Peter Boyle as a pontificating cabbie, and even Scorsese himself in a cameo as one of Travis' weirdo passengers incisively complements his performance, drawing us deeper into his quiet, troubled existence. At the time, none of these actors were big stars, and it's a testament to Scorsese's eye and influence that all went on to have major careers.
Only in America could an antihero, in the blink of an eye, become a hero. Long ago, it inspired a sick individual to shoot a sitting president. Today, it merely inspires admiration - for its craft, structure, performances, and depiction of utter isolation, paranoia, and the twisted perceptions of a lost soul. Make no mistake, it's much more than a vigilante film. The Blu- ray: Vital Disc Stats.
The Mastered in 4. K edition of 'Taxi Driver' arrives on Blu- ray packaged in a standard case inside a sleeve.
Ghostbusters Blu-ray (30th Anniversary Edition . Three university parapsychologists lose a research grant when their experiment methodology is. The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats. Sony previously released 'The Amazing Spider-Man' in separate 2D and 3D combo packs complete with a strong assortment of special features. This new version is part of the studio's 'Mastered in 4K. Along with its new 4K TVs and 4K distribution plan, Sony has also announced that it will be releasing a new range of 'Mastered in 4K' Blu-rays despite the fact that the video will still be encoded at 1080p.
Life of Pi 4K High HDR (dynamic range video) trailer. Download Link: Download File *NOTE* – This file MUST be played using a HDR compatible TV, If you try and play it on a TV without HDR it will not display correctly. What is Mastered in 4K? The AV industry is buzzing with talk of 4K (aka Ultra-High Definition, or UHD). All the big TV brands have 4K TVs on the market, and a few cheapo brands are flogging 4K TVs too.
Video codec is 1. AVC MPEG- 4 and default audio is DTS- HD Master Audio 5.