Achtung! Sooo help me out here... I watched "Taxi Driver" for the first time over the weekend, and I thought it was good BUT I didn't think it was THAT good...

Again, I thought it was a good movie. I didn't think it sucked at all. I was glad I watched it and I enjoyed it. I just didn't get the impression that it was one of the greatest movies of all time though. @Motorik your summary actually helped me appreciate it a little more so thanks for that. I guess that context is important to why the movie is considered such a milestone.
 
I saw it in the theater upon release. I remember acknowledging that it was an exceptional movie in the technical sense but I did not enjoy it.
I found it dark and nihilistic with no greater themes developed other than promoting a fear of the concrete jungle and all its potential horror.
It seems that Motorik likes all the movies that I didn't. for exactly the same reason, lol.
So its yea its art, possibly important art in some historical sense, just not art that I could appreciate.
 
I think that seeing all the movies it inspired kind of inoculates you against it. Fun fact: the author was college friends with my uncle, so the Jodie Foster character is named after that side of the family.
 
Im not really a movie guy unlesss the film has something to say, regardless of genre. With the possible exception of comedy, but even good comedy has some social commentary, politics, philosophical pondering, a tiny bit of something beside just goofy for goofys sake.
Horror, Action, War movies, Sci Fi, and Dystopian films have to have more, some kind of compelling theme for me to not feel like I've wasted my time. For me, Taxi Dr although well made and executed, fell short of the mark. It struck me as pandering to the small town phobia of the big city common to the era. Cities are chaos. Filled with hippies, drugs, dark skin, crime, and filth. The vibe that got Elvis a drug enforcement badge and nights in the Nixon White House. Many similar movies and TV crime dramas followed. It was certainly influential.
 
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I've seen it a couple of times. I like how, as the story builds up, Travis is falling apart. As you get into the story, our main character is departing. Even though the violence is expected, how it unfolds is unexpected. It's a rather un-movielike clumsy and incompetent gunfight, very '70s but also very much like everything else Travis is trying to achieve. The ambiguous death fantasy ending quite sums up Travis' whole character, and leaves you wondering if it 'really' happened, or is it his imagination. Was/is he actually a taxi driver or is it just his disconnectedness, people passing through his life and he's not really getting any of it?
 
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