Taxi Driver (BFI Film Classics)

Taxi Driver made Martin Scorsese's reputation as a director. This book provides a personal commentary on the film, a brief production history and a detailed filmography. In the "BFI Film Classics" series.

Customer Reviews:

One of the better BFI Film Classics

By Michael J. Krieger - October 3, 2000

With this entry in the BFI Film Classics collection, Amy Taubin has written a very well-researched, entertaining and informative examination of this indisputable American film classic. In addition, this book isn't too literate or hard to understand, as some of these type of film analyses can be. It is written clearly and with a great deal of detail. A must for any fan of this film, anyone interested in American cinema of the 70's, or fans of legendary director Martin Scorsese. Excellent!

Decent read, but worth the price

By Mark L. Ayala "HiroyukiSakaiFan69" - December 10, 2008

So, I honestly love Amy Taubin. All her reviews I've read, and the essays she's done for Criterion Collection releases, and even her shared love for My Own Private Idaho sold me on buying this book.

I ended up coming away a bit dissapointed.

The book doesn't really shed anything new on the film. Almost everything she's discusses it mentioned by either Scorsese or Schrader on the old Criterion laserdisc commentary of this film.

There were only a couple of new ideas I gathered from this book. First, the heavy handed sexual themes. I always knew they were there, but not in the way she brings it up. The scene on the cover of the book, I never really put together in my head that he's trying to reinact a fantasy of killing people performing intercourse. Even the scene where he kills Keitel, he whips out his gun and says "Suck on this!". The sexual connotation never hit me.

The other thing this book shed light on was the parallel between cowboys... read more

Brilliant, incisive, informed!

By Tillwhen - September 2, 2011

Amy Taubin, long-time film critic, has written one of the best works on film I've ever read, about one of the most compelling films ever made. Taubin's intelligence, cinematic sophistication, and great knowledge of film history help one think about "Taxi Driver" with more dimension and pleasure, if pleasure's the right word. She's written a fascinating story about this film.