{"product_id":"9781844574995-taxi-driver","title":"Taxi Driver","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTaxi Driver is one of the major films of the 1970s, which established Martin Scorcese's reputation as a prominent American director. This new edition of Taubin's study is published in the Film Classics 20th anniversary series of special editions, with a new foreword by Amy Taubin, and a stunning new jacket design by Marc Atkins.\u003cbr\u003ePaul Schrader was in meltdown in 1972. Drinking heavily, living in his car, he was hospitalised with a gastric ulcer. There he read about Arthur Bremer's attempt to assassinate Alabama Governor George Wallace: the story was the germ of his screenplay for \u003cem\u003eTaxi Driver\u003c\/em\u003e (1976). Executives at Columbia hated the script, but when Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, who were flying high after the triumphs of \u003cem\u003eMean Streets\u003c\/em\u003e (1973) and \u003cem\u003eThe Godfather Part II\u003c\/em\u003e (1974), signed up, \u003cem\u003eTaxi Driver\u003c\/em\u003e became too good a package to refuse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eScorsese transformed the script into what is now considered one of the two or three definitive films of the 1970s. De Niro is mesmerising as Travis Bickle – pent-up, bigoted, steadily slipping into psychosis, the personification of American masculinity post-Vietnam. Cybill Shepherd and Jodie Foster give fine support and Scorsese brought in Bernard Herrmann, the greatest of film composers, to write what turned out to be his last score. Crucially, Scorsese rooted \u003cem\u003eTaxi Driver\u003c\/em\u003e in its New York locations, tuning the film's violence into the hard reality of the city. Technically thrilling though it is, \u003cem\u003eTaxi Driver\u003c\/em\u003e is profoundly disturbing – finding, as Amy Taubin shows, racism, misogyny and gun fetishism at the heart of American culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn her foreword to this special edition, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series, Amy Taubin considers \u003cem\u003eTaxi Driver\u003c\/em\u003e anew in the context of contemporary politics of race and masculinity in the US, and draws on an exclusive interview with Robert De Niro about his memories of making the film. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40945665736801,"sku":"9781844574995","price":12.06,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/products\/stand_7045305_jpg.jpg?v=1706233761","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781844574995-taxi-driver","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}