Taxi Driver 4K UHD - Robert De Niro

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Martin Scorsese
USA 1976

Considered among the greatest films ever made, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Robert De Niro), Best Supporting Actress (Jodie Foster) and Best Original Score (Bernard Herrmann). Solitary, alienated, and emotionally scarred from Vietnam, taxi driver Travis Bickle (De Niro) works the night shift in a decaying New York City. Though the world around him is teeming with life, Travis is unable to connect with anyone. Travis's pent-up anger and misplaced loyalty finally boil over in a paroxysm of revenge and violence.

***

‘Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads, here is a man who would not take it any more…’ Re-released at a time when the grievances of white men are once more setting the world agenda, Martin Scorsese’s unflinching plunge into the darkest recesses of the human soul feels painfully relevant. In anti-hero Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) we see traits of what would become the archetypal online troll – he’s bitter, reactionary and self-involved, describing himself as ‘God’s lonely man’.

But still, Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader never treat him with anything less than the utmost empathy. This is a man scarred by war, perplexed by the permissive society and desperate to leave his mark on a world that barely acknowledges his existence. Travis may wear his isolation proudly, but that doesn’t make it any easier to bear.

Forty years on, ‘Taxi Driver’ remains almost impossibly perfect: it’s hard to think of another film that creates and sustains such a unique, evocative tone, of dread blended with pity, loathing, savage humour and a scuzzy edge of New York cool. Bernard Herrmann’s score sounds like the city breathing, ominous and clammy, while De Niro’s performance is a masterclass in restraint and honesty. Back on the big screen, this is still one of the pinnacles of cinema.

Excerpt from TimeOut located HERE

Poster and Alt-Posters

Theatrical Release: February 8th, 1976

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Review: Sony - Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Only available, presently, in Sony's "Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 2" with Anatomy of a Murder, Oliver!, Taxi Driver, Stripes, Sense and Sensibility and The Social Network Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Sony - Region FREE - 4K UHD
Runtime	1:53:47.820
Video	1.85:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 91,472,731,069 bytes Feature: 77,309,724,672 bytes Video Bitrate: 64.28 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate 4K Ultra HD:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 2143 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2143 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio English 1558 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1558 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) Dolby Digital Audio Czech 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -31dB DTS-HD Master Audio French 2161 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2161 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) DTS-HD Master Audio German 2137 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2137 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) Dolby Digital Audio Hungarian 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps / DN -31dB DTS-HD Master Audio Italian 2130 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2130 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitles	English (SDH), English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Russian, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sony 1.85:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 91,472,731,069 bytes Feature: 77,309,724,672 bytes Video Bitrate: 64.28 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video Edition Details: 4K Ultra HD disc • Making Taxi Driver (1:10:55) • Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver (16:52) • Storyboard to Film Comparisons with Martin Scorsese (intro: 4:32 - 8:21) • 4 Photo Galleries (9:28 in total) • 20th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer Sony - Region FREE - Blu-ray • Original 1986 Commentary with Director Martin Scorsese and Writer Paul Schrader recorded by The Criterion Collection • Feature Length Commentary by Writer Paul Schrader • Feature Length Commentary by Professor Robert Kolker • Tribeca Film Festival 40th Anniversary Q+A (41:56) • God's Lonely Man (21:42 in 1080i) • Producing Taxi Driver (9:53 in 1080i) • Influence and Appreciation: A Martin Scorsese Tribute (18:30 - in 1080i) • Taxi Driver Stories (22:23 in 1080i) • Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver (16:54 in 1080i) • Travis' New York (6:16 in 1080i) • Travis' New York Locations (9 - 4:459) • Trailer (3:10) Limited Edition set includes fully remastered 4K Ultra HD disc debuts for Anatomy of a Murder, Oliver!, Taxi Driver, Stripes, Sense and Sensibility and the Social Network Gift set also includes an exclusive 80 page full color collectible book with rare photos and insightful history of the included films Over 30 hours of special features: a mix of rare archival materials and exciting new content, including cast & filmmaker anniversary reunions for Stripes and Sense and Sensibility Also includes an extra disc featuring 20 acclaimed short films from the studio's library - exclusive to this set 4K Ultra HD Release Date: October 12th, 2021 Black 4K Ultra HD Case inside Custom case (see below) Chapters 16

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective discs.

ADDITION: Sony 4K UHD (October 2021): Sony have released a second Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection. Volume One, now out-of-print, had Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove, Gandhi, A League of Their Own and Jerry Maguire. Volume Two has Anatomy of a Murder, Oliver!, Taxi Driver, Stripes, Sense and Sensibility and The Social Network.

Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" in 3840 X 2160 looks so film-like with incredibly rich grain. The image still leans green in the first 1/2 hour and is the, appropriately, darkest of any digital version I have seen. Colors gains a richness, balance and stability I have not seen before. Pastels are sable and add to the milieu with army greens and dirty yellows. I was pretty blown away by this 4K UHD presentation.

NOTE: This package has thirteen discs - six 4K UHDs of the feature films and six original feature Blu-rays (and supplements) plus a bonus Blu-ray of featuring 20 acclaimed short films from the studio's library. For Taxi Driver the Blu-ray included is from 2016 as evidenced by the M2TS dates:

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) or Dolby Vision, where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (coolness of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this simulation representation.

NOTE: 50 more more full resolution (3840 X 2160) 4K UHD captures, in lossless PNG format, for Patrons are available HERE

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: The Wolf Man (1941) (software uniformly simulated HDR), Frankenstein (1931) (software uniformly simulated HDR), Deep Red (software uniformly simulated HDR), Misery (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Silence of the Lambs (software uniformly simulated HDR), John Carpenter's "The Thing" (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Cat' o'Nine Tails (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (software uniformly simulated HDR), Perdita Durango (software uniformly simulated HDR), Django (software uniformly simulated HDR), Fanny Lye Deliver'd (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, (NO HDR applied to disc), Rollerball (software uniformly simulated HDR), Chernobyl (software uniformly simulated HDR), Daughters of Darkness (software uniformly simulated HDR), Vigilante (software uniformly simulated HDR), Tremors (software uniformly simulated HDR), Cinema Paradiso (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Bourne Legacy (software uniformly simulated HDR), Full Metal Jacket (software uniformly simulated HDR), Psycho (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Birds (software uniformly simulated HDR), Rear Window (software uniformly simulated HDR), Vertigo (software uniformly simulated HDR), Spartacus (software uniformly simulated HDR), Jaws (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Invisible Man, (software uniformly simulated HDR), Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucio Fulci's 1979 Zombie (software uniformly simulated HDR),, 2004's Van Helsining (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shallows (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Bridge on the River Kwai (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Deer Hunter (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Elephant Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), A Quiet Place (software uniformly simulated HDR), Easy Rider (software uniformly simulated HDR), Suspiria (software uniformly simulated HDR), Pan's Labyrinth (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Wizard of Oz, (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shining, (software uniformly simulated HDR), Batman Returns (software uniformly simulated HDR), Don't Look Now (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Man Who Killed Killed and then The Bigfoot (software uniformly simulated HDR),, Bram Stoker's Dracula (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lucy (software uniformly simulated HDR), They Live (software uniformly simulated HDR), Shutter Island (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Matrix (software uniformly simulated HDR), Alien (software uniformly simulated HDR), Toy Story (software uniformly simulated HDR), A Few Good Men (software uniformly simulated HDR), 2001: A Space Odyssey (HDR caps udated), Schindler's List (simulated HDR), The Neon Demon (No HDR), Dawn of the Dead (No HDR), Saving Private Ryan (simulated HDR and 'raw' captures), Suspiria (No HDR), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (No HDR), The Big Lebowski, and I Am Legend (simulated and 'raw' HDR captures).

On their 4K UHD, Sony offer the same 16-bit 5.1 surround bumps - DTS-HD Master (16-bit) as found on their 2013 and 2016 Blu-rays compared to DVDs and the original BD HERE and and same encode of a dual-mono channel - which purists will appreciate. While still lossless, effective and adding the original audio, Sony didn't think to update either to 24-bit. This is similar to the last Blu-ray that I own and seems a missed opportunity. There are four foreign language DUBs (French, German, Hungarian and Italian.) Effects range from automobile sounds, gunshots to the pulsing, rhythmic tapping of the drum to slow motion visuals, and sometimes jazz-influenced score by the incomparable Bernard Herrmann (Vertigo, Blue Denim, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, Cape Fear, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Wrong Man, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Mysterious Island, Jason and the Argonauts, Obsession, Hangover Square, etc. etc.) always impacting and very supportive of Scorsese masterpiece. It is one of the most memorable film scores in all of cinema, while not a definitive upgrade via the 4K UHD disc - it still works impressively with the viewing experience. Sony add optional English, English (SDH) and many foreign-language subtitle options on the Region FREE 4K UHD disc with similar subtitles and DUBs on their included Region FREE Blu-ray from 2016.

The 4K UHD disc has no commentaries (why?) but a few extras; Laurent Bouzereau's extensive 1-hour 10-minute Making Taxi Driver that delves into Scorsese's film and highlights the many contributions put forth by Taxi Driver's ensemble of talented actors and filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Peter Boyle, Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster and others. They include the previously offered Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver for 17-minutes There are the Storyboard to Film Comparisons with a 5 minute intro from Martin Scorsese and the piece itself running short of 9-minutes. Lastly, on the 4K UHD are 10-minutes worth of 4 photo galleries and a 20th anniversary re-release trailer - all on previous digital editions.

The included Blu-ray has the original 1986 commentary with Director Martin Scorsese and Writer Paul Schrader recorded by The Criterion Collection for their LaserDisc. This is a key inclusion - plus there are also separate commentaries by Schrader (plenty of pauses but great info) and another by Professor Robert Kolker (both available previously on the original 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD and past BDs.) Repeated on this Blu-ray is God's Lonely Man for 21:42, Producing Taxi Driver for almost 10-minutes and the Influence and Appreciation: A Martin Scorsese Tribute documentary with Robert De Niro, Oliver Stone, Roger Corman and others paying tribute to Scorsese and the film - shy of 20-minutes. Also included are the same Taxi Driver Stories (running 22:23) and "Travis’ 9 New York Locations" featurette.

The "Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 2" limited edition set includes an exclusive 80 page full color collectible book with rare photos and insightful history of the included films and the aforementioned extra Blu-ray disc featuring 20 acclaimed short films from the studio's library - exclusive to this set.

NOTE: Appreciated are that the discs are in standard cases (with slipcases) - far more practical than Universals' 4K UHD boxset packaging. Except the thirteen bonus discs is in a paper sleeve in the back of the included 80-page book.

Sony's 4K UHD release of Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" has some big pluses and a few negatives. The image has appeared to reach the zenith for the film's digital presentation abilities - I don't think I can ever watch a Blu-ray and DVD of the film after having seen "Taxi Driver" in this format. The 3840 X 2160 transferred textures have a synergy with the film that make the new viewing a special, and addictive, treat. If possible the film is even more hypnotic for cinephiles with the multi-layered contrast and heavy dark influences. With the included Blu-ray there are all supplements that I am aware especially notable the commentaries (but why wouldn't they be ported to the 4K UHD as well?) But nothing new in terms of extras. Never to hear the intense and dream-like Herrmann score in 24-bit, or better, seems unfortunate. Although the mono is a plus. The individual packaging is a plus as most will not be fans of every single film in this "Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 2" set. We'll compare Anatomy of a Murder next, and even despite the niggling black marks - the 4K UHD video presentation of this masterpiece is a must-own. Don't hesitate - like Volume One, this set will go out-of-print - eventually being released individually at some point down the road.

Gary Tooze

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