Disclaimer: This is an unauthorized fan-made video. The words are Quentin Tarantino's, but the voice is AI-generated. The script is from Tarantino's chapter on "Taxi Driver" from his book Cinema Specualtion. Some pages were cut to encourage people to buy his book. Although the voice is AI-generated, apart from three images, everything else was created with sweat and passion (this video took about 200 hours to create). If you like the video, please subscribe and hit the like button. Reaching 100k subs could help me get sponsorships to do this full-time and make more videos (not just Tarantino ones). If you feel you still think I'm a hack for using an AI voice please comment so I can understand better. I think of it as another tool in the toolbox. (But maybe I have it wrong.) Thanks! -Alan 00:00 - Travis Bickle 01:21 - Joe (1972) 02:35 - Is Taxi Driver a racist movie? 03:47 - The Warriors (1979) analogy 05:43 - Harvey Keitel as a 08:02 - The Mack (1979) 10:27 - Revengeamatics 13:57 - Columbia Pictures plans for Taxi Driver 14:46 - Tarantino first sees Taxi Driver 16:08 - Death Wish rip-off 17:31 - Travis Bickle was a nutter 20:25 - The moment Taxi Driver got serious 22:07 - Bickle meets the white 22:55 - Jodi Foster’s Iris 24:24 - Let the blood flow 25:04 - Scorsese is shocked 29:35 - Tarantino poses a question to Martin Scorsese 30:10 - Taxi Driver ending compared to Joe ending 31:01 - Was Bickle a vetern? 32:26 - Bickle is not happy with what Tarantino is saying
Joe Queenan - never previously, so far as I know, compared to Quentin Tarantino - made some of these exact same points in "The Lonely Raging Bull"', his essay on Scorsese's movies, which I believe Queenan first published in _Movieline._ (This was back when _Movieline_ was the best cinema journal in America, and one of my favorite reads every month. I wish someone would put together a _Movieline_ retrospective, as has been done for _National Lampoon,_ several times, and even _Spy._ I really miss _Movieline._ It seems to have been completely forgotten.) The Scorsese essay (and others) are available in Queenan's vicious yet informed 1994 collection _If You're Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be In Trouble,_ a book I suspect Quentin may have on his shelf, and which I highly recommend. (Queenan later released a sort of Volume II of his Nineties film writings, _Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler,_ which is also pretty funny, but Volume I was better.) Really appreciate the effort on these videos. Seriously, thanks.
Taxi Driver is a movie you have to watch for the first time by yourself. You can't have someone next to you complaining that it's too slow, or that it's offensive, or even hooping and hollering at how great the violent scenes are. It's a very introspective experience, not interactive.
I was 19 and knew of the movie's relevance and impact on popular culture before watching it by myself. Your statement is absolutely correct. Hearing Tarantino's account of his first time seeing it is fascinating. Despite his experience he got it. All of it. As did I and the movie shook me to my core. I still consider it a weirdly pivotal part of my cinephile adolescence.
I think if you have a person who says certain movies are slow or offensive you shouldn’t watch anything with them lol. But taxi driver especially, you have to be in that state of mind to connect with it
@@rohangondor6250 I happened to watch Taxi Driver alone but learned my lesson with other "quiet" films. Like Ghost World. I seriously lost respect for a friend who kept saying how hateful Enid is. Face palm extra
I saw taxi driver on tv on a Friday night 1 week before Hinkley shot Reagan Went to school on Monday raving about this violent masterpiece. Ppl thought I was nuts. And maybe I am. lol
I saw Taxi Driver on the lower half of a double bill with The Killer Elite. I was mesmerized. Taxi Driver made me want to become a filmmaker. That movie gave me a career!
people always refer to Sport as white. I guess that's the case but I always thought he came across as kind of puerto rican or mixed race. Maybe it was just the way Keitell played him but that was my impression. Great flick.
Doesn't he imply he's native American in the movie? I seem to remember a brief line of him mentioning it but definitely could be wrong. What a movie! 👍🤝🎖️
Wait until Adverstisements are generated exclusively for you using your preferences and predelictions ... maybe you're only into brunettes with blue eye and big breasts ... such an ad will be dynamically generated by AI to entice you into some activity. MARK MY WORDS
I saw this at a drive in. My buddy took a date and seen it and said "dude, you gotta see this movie!" we had a gallon of wine and an ounce of pot, and I think I drove, but we both lived close to each other and the drive-in, we coulda walked home in ten minutes, but dang, what a good movie.
Interesting observations… but, to me, it sounds like “Taxi Driver” would’ve been a far less interesting collection of cultural clichés with all of QT’s suggestions. I like the film just the way it is.
This essay is too fixated on race. Taxi Driver is Metropolis, a relentless city crushing the individual, until there's nothing left except the will to destroy something.
Yeah, well that essay has already been written ad nauseam. I appreciate someone discussing the movie through the lens of race. And I honestly didn’t know that the racial component of the original screenplay had been watered down at the insistence of the studio.
I'm assuming you're American....you guys will ask why things need to be about race like it has no value or power, but then clutch your pearls if it's even mentioned. If you want someone to just rehash an opinion you already agree with then avoid any and all commentary. Race was literally integral to the casting of a major character in the film.
@whahappend8222 The film’s set in America, Scorsese and Tarantino are both American-a non-American is gonna have a tougher time parsing the complex sociopolitical contexts of films based in America. And btw it’s usually a good idea to avoid applying insulting blanket statements to groups of people, like calling Americans hypocrites. To avoid being more of a hypocrite yourself, take your own advice and avoid comments that might challenge your views if they’re gonna send u into a weird hissy fit
This time, Tarantino's analysis is way off. The central theme in Taxi Driver isn't Travis's racism. That is complete bullshit. This sounds like Tarantino giving a half-assed apology for admiring a film in which the lead character may incidentally be a racist.
Good point, since the politician was Travis's original target, and the girl was a staffer for his campaign. If iris is betsy, then sport is palantine, so the theme is marginalized incel?
I don’t think that’s what Tarantino was saying - that the central theme was Travis’ racism. That was incidental. I believe Tarantino was saying that this was really just another 70’s revenge flick, but done so masterfully and with so much tension and buildup that it was a masterpiece.
@@mojomessiah See 2:40. Tarantino clearly asserts that the viewer is forced to ask "is this a movie about a racist or a racist movie?" I never felt compelled to ask that about Taxi Driver any more than I did for Pulp Fiction (for which racial stereotyping and racial epithets abound). The most charitable interpretation I have of Tarantino here is that he's elevating 1970's NYC reality into an issue that does not merit the emphasis. It's not even a particularly interesting matter for this film. Travis gives the same look of suspicion to practically everyone he encounters, black or white. No doubt he considered black people more of a threat while he was driving, but did he really display more animosity toward the diner pimps than Keitel's "sport" or Albert Brooks? I don't think so. While Tarantino always gives something to think about, I think he's way off target here, possibly motivated primarily by the criticisms he's received for his own films.
It's incredible that Tarantino felt it was necessary to focus so much on the aspect of race in the movie when that probably takes up about 30 seconds of screen time (if that) and doesn't even warrant being considered a subtext to the plot.
@@billyarsenault1970 It's remarkable how wrong you are. And even if Schrader originally intended racism to be a more central theme, it wasn't in the final product.
200+ hours of passion aside, this is a tough pill to swallow. If people wanted to hear Tarantino read his book, they would buy the audiobook. No audiobook exists? That's because Tarantino didn't want to do one. This is theft pure and simple in hopes of getting views and making some bank. Shame on you. This sort of thing should be forbidden on RUclips and if not, you should be REQUIRED to add an AI notification in the title or in the thumbnail photo.
Tarantino is dead wrong about Bickle pretending to be a vet. The gear he's wearing is USMC-issue gear with his name stenciled on the back, and there's no way someone like Bickle would go to those lengths to festoon himself in perfect recreations of garb he had never used in the service. Now that we have the Internet, fakers are always using eBay to acquire the props they need for their stolen valor, but in the 70's he would have had no way of knowing that they stenciled their names (last name, first initial) on their jackets at boot camp. And the patch he's wearing on the sleeve was a in-country-made insignia for a particular battalion's Force Recon Marines, which jibes with the Naval parachutist wings he's got sewn to his jacket. That's representing a genuine personal artifact. And it is part of why Bickle is so lost. He also has a Viet Cong flag in his apartment, which would have been very hard to come by in the summer of 1976 when this story is taking place. There was no eBay, no internet back then. The only place to get a Viet Cong flag would have been Vietnam, and he was no tourist. Travis is not only a genuine vet but a special operations vet, and he is an archetype for a lot of the generation of men who went to Vietnam and came home broken, disillusioned, and lost. Tarantino has a proven track record for misunderstanding the soldier. All you have to do is watch Inglourious Basterds to see that. No American General gives a notoriously vicious Nazi the Medal of Honor and a free ride to American citizenship. Tarantino's a filthy fantasist.
@@IndyShade Good choice. It's a bunch of masturbatory nonsense. He used to be a geat filmmaker, but he's lost his grip, and you shouldn't waste your time worshiping the shadow of the artist he used to be.
Yer definitely right, I like Tarantino, but he showed his ass a few times in these excerpts with adamant baby opinions. Also silly was his idea that serving in nam would have crushed any racial preconceptions in a vet, claiming that Travis could’nt have served since he killed child-pimping black guys in the original script.
In a way this little rant by Quentin Tarrantino sort of puts on display why he's not quite the director Scorcese is. He calls out Scorcese for a "BS" answer on the violent ending to Taxi Driver, but I think the answer Scorcese gives at the end is quite real. Taxi driver is meant to suggest catharsis through violence, but then make us disturbed by it and reflect on why we wanted it in the first place. It's a critique of the human ability to rationalize violence against people we don't like, it's suggests that our callousness is in a round-about way one of the causes of the violence we see in our own lives. Tarrantino can't even begin to accept that, for him it's a movie-technical thing about eliciting emotions from the audience, whereas for Scorcese it was about making the audience think.
I first watched TAXI DRIVER by my self, late at night on HBO in the late 70s. It was terrifying and brutally graphic both in it's depiction of Travis Bickle slowly descending into a nightmarish psychosis and in it's sunny day/wet rainy night NYC everyday sense of urban decay. It remains a visceral and disturbing portrayal of one individual's reaction to a world spinning into controlled chaos. It will always mean different things to different people. It is a textbook example of the power of film and it's effect on the viewer. Scorsese is a genius!
Scorsese's Taxi Driver has influenced over other filmmakers like Todd Phillips, "the guy who made the movie Joker" starring Joaquin Phoenix. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine told me that found it an absurd film, meanwhile I found it a masterpiece where Joaquin Phoenix's performance really blew my mind.
If you are correct, then I have either severely overvalued Taxi Driver or undervalued Falling Down. However, the way Tarantino talks about the former is scarily similar to my lasting impression of the latter. I never saw TD in a theater, but no one ever laughed at the movie when I watched it. However, FD clearly had many scenes that were played as comical and I remember everyone feeling encouraged to laugh. But, you might be right. They do share similarities, not the least of which is the comical absurdism about the dangers of white outcasts who just cant take it anymore. Interesting comment. I don’t think I will have a higher opinion of FD but I may have to reassess TD.
I don’t completely disagree with QT, though I do have some brief thoughts. Taxi Driver is about a man slaying a dragon, and that dragon was living inside of him. In order to kill it, he had to unleash it. What made Travis a hero is that he chose the best place to let it loose, somewhere it may end up helping someone. Yes, the sex traffickers were villains, but they weren’t THE villain. The dragon inside Travis was, they were just the bait.
got similar theater experience for the movie “falling down”, audience felt it as a slapstick comic until the real motives become clear and the dramatic end.
I remember watching Mr. Quentin Tarantino's films as a child, right next to Mel Brooks. I even laugh when my family drinks warm beer while fishing at last lake next to Table Mountain and Mono Winds in California ! tmi!? 🌮😹🍻 #desperado #mariachi #powwow #brewing #cerveza #chango
I suspected it was AI before looking at the comments Mainly because I thought it was strange I had not heard of Tarantino doing such things like making a video on Taxi Driver and also because I’m always fairly weary of watching Ai videos on RUclips. This piece you made though is excellent and would like to to Tarantino would to an extent appreciate it for what it is and the fact it is his word sits well with me. It’s almost convincing but I really like the fact I know and that I think is what makes it tolerable Well done mate on this , the visual story you made was excellent keep at it 👊🏼
WTF is up with the closed captions?!?! Audio: "Then finally a sociopathic time bomb" CC: "Then finally, someone you can take home to meet mom and dad" 😳
30:11 And yet, Peter Boyle mentioned in an interview that people would cry out to him approvingly on the street, after that movie came out, saying things like, "Way to go Joe!" Boyle found it pretty unnerving.
Thank you! But now I'm wondering if I set the bar too high. I want to grow the channel but to really do that, I need to put out more content. But this type of quality takes so long to do with a full-time job, etc. Please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. If I get to 100k subs, I may be able to make more videos by getting sponsored.
Of course not, he tricked everyone here by not making any indication of it in the title or the thumbnail. But he got his clicks and ad revenue. Shameful.
Great video Tarantino!! You're a master of movie making and I hope, someday, that YOU can find the time to make a violent movie also! It's 2024 and we're all waiting for that day!
He's reaching big time with the idea that Bickle never went to Vietnam. What, cause he acts a bit nerdy and needy? That's where he belongs. He's a violent sociopath. If he wasn't in the war, what exactly was he doing all these years? Good stuff otherwise
I always speculated Travis Bickle was a veteran, but he had some kind of clerk or office job and never left the U.S. Some part of him, maybe hearing about other soldiers, wanted to do violence, but his enlistment never offered him that opportunity.
He said the movie got serious when Iris is introduced but said it was still a joke by the time he tried to assassinate Palantine..which was right at the end of the movie
"Taxi Driver" had a certain malevolent hold over me as I watched. Each ambiguity arose with gun violence, which was simple in its horror. It gave terror a bad name. In particular, when the ageing pimp is shot repeatedly, as casually as a street punch up. There were no heroes or even obvious villains, and stands times test as a whole, expressing a profound despondency which leads the best intentions to commit acts of evil.
It's also interesting hearing this much about the Farmer, a mostly forgotten movie that was loat for years had apparent rights issues holding it back till magically a vhs copy made ita way from ebay to youtube promting them to sort out said issues in a matter of months and releasing it finally on blu ray.
I hate when people lie on their RUclips titles to get clicks. I don’t care if it’s his voice, it isn’t HIM, it’s A.I. so I’m not interested even if it’s good.
Dude, people click on videos based on thumbnails and title description. Why didn't you add the word AI-GENERATED in big bold letters on the thumbnail and title? I can appreciate the work, but why can't you be more transparent? Scared you may not get the clicks? This is shallow and you know EXACTLY what you're doing. And don't get me started on the length of the video. 30 minutes? Authors write books so people will BUY them, not so they can be read aloud in a RUclips video for free. Shame on you. But yes, of course...it took 200+ hours to make the video so let's all be compassionate with the content creator. You leech.
QT: "Taxi Driver never inspired any violence" FACT CHECK: After shooting President Reagan John Hinkley said he was inspired by the film "Taxi Driver" and wanted to impress Jody Foster also in the film Robert De Niro attempts to assassinate a Politician.
Yeah, “being around blacks” is sure to make someone not racist . Shit. Also: Travis shaves his head into a Mohawk well after he meets Iris. So the whole “we stopped laughing” comment is idiotic.
I remember when I saw "They call her One Eye" or in Swedish, "Killer, En mycket farlig film" ("Killer, a very dangerous movie"). It will have an impact on you, I hope. It is a 70 independent movie of sorts. Have some 70s porn in it, very hairy. I guess there is a rated version but who wants that
Well, getting the audio from the audiobook that would likely cost $$$. Instead of manufacturing someone's likeness and intellectual property for their own gains. Do be sure and smash that like button, though.
Apart from the significance of Harvey Kietel in the movie, which was in many ways pivotal, I am still left wondering what would have happened if Jack Nicholson held a role?
As kids we watched this on tv and even heavily edited we knew from the opening scenes that Travis was another psycho. We'd been spoon fed the Nam-vet with PTSD trope. The doped up veteran with a grudge was everywhere. And if Travis hadn't served in the army, so what? He was wearing the clothing, he had the edge, and the hardware. He was the embodiment of social unrest, of bitterness, of seething anger.
Press X to doubt that people laughed at Travis Bickle. This seems like cope from someone who has long been trying to escape the (false) racism allegations for saying the n-word when acting as a character in his films.
The closed captions on this video are weirder than any I've ever seen. Words like "racist" and others that the creator apparently regards as offensive are replaced with goofy and distracting euphemisms that only serve to call more attention to the words in question than anything else. 😒
Question for Quentin.. you reference seeing "No Way Out" at the Old Town Mall with your Mom. Do you mean the OTM in Torrance? "South Bay" a couple of miles from Del Amo Mall?
@@karlwebster5438 Great Thank you .. That was my area growing up Del Amo Mall and Old Town Torrance... circa 87 to 93 It was a Great Time and Great Area to Grow up at the Time. Please tell Quentin thak you for the Response.. and "Pulp Fiction" made me join the Army as a Camera Man for 6 years.. while I didnt make it to the Film Sector which was the ultimate Goal, I did work in the TV/Radio biz for 25 years... His Films gave me that inspiration and Drive.. Anxiously awaiting his 10th and Final Film.... always wanted him to do a "Vega Bros" movie or even his interpretation of "Natural Born Killers" Thank you again
It's curious that Tarantino says that he found the film amusing when he was immature, when it's far more chilling than anything Tarantino has ever made. But then we all know that already: all of Tarantino's films could be called Pulp Fiction; ie, style over substance, insincere, soft, meretricious, lightweight - and Tarantino himself is more a laughable goof than any character he disparages. But then he does recognize the shift the turn in the mind of Travis, to grant him his due.
Is this another case of Tarantino’s conscious or unconscious style or plot copying, when Drexel is chosen to be a white pimp in True Romance or coincidence? I assume coincidence, as he sold the screenplay snd had likely no sat in casting( though he noted that the pimp was white) not black, so def stacks more of a case of Tarantino copying and repackaging other directors/screenwriters stylistic techniques
Sport pulls Iris out of Travis's taxi long before the mohawk scene, which causes a major narration continuity error when explaining the timeline of when audience put away it's laughter and become more serious.
As someone who writes a Substack about movies and features a film review section about little known or forgotten movies, I appreciate Tarantino constantly referencing barely known and unknown films. At least someone else out there is also promoting such films. Good to know.
@@writeralbertlanier3434 Thank you! a lot of time goes into just finding the best sources of images and videos, so thank you for noticing. May I get a link to your substack?
@@lptomtom I agree they are doomed. I get it. The first 20 years of my life was owning record stores. But by 2011 it was over and I had to close them down. Recently I gave up doing VOs too.
@@TheTapesArchive Why did you choose Elevan Labs to make this? Also - how and where did you get the Tarantino voice samples? How long did it take to create say, this video?
Disclaimer: This is an unauthorized fan-made video. The words are Quentin Tarantino's, but the voice is AI-generated. The script is from Tarantino's chapter on "Taxi Driver" from his book Cinema Specualtion. Some pages were cut to encourage people to buy his book. Although the voice is AI-generated, apart from three images, everything else was created with sweat and passion (this video took about 200 hours to create). If you like the video, please subscribe and hit the like button. Reaching 100k subs could help me get sponsorships to do this full-time and make more videos (not just Tarantino ones).
If you feel you still think I'm a hack for using an AI voice please comment so I can understand better. I think of it as another tool in the toolbox. (But maybe I have it wrong.) Thanks! -Alan
00:00 - Travis Bickle
01:21 - Joe (1972)
02:35 - Is Taxi Driver a racist movie?
03:47 - The Warriors (1979) analogy
05:43 - Harvey Keitel as a
08:02 - The Mack (1979)
10:27 - Revengeamatics
13:57 - Columbia Pictures plans for Taxi Driver
14:46 - Tarantino first sees Taxi Driver
16:08 - Death Wish rip-off
17:31 - Travis Bickle was a nutter
20:25 - The moment Taxi Driver got serious
22:07 - Bickle meets the white
22:55 - Jodi Foster’s Iris
24:24 - Let the blood flow
25:04 - Scorsese is shocked
29:35 - Tarantino poses a question to Martin Scorsese
30:10 - Taxi Driver ending compared to Joe ending
31:01 - Was Bickle a vetern?
32:26 - Bickle is not happy with what Tarantino is saying
keep using the AI voice 🙏 it works, and your other videos actually made me go get a copy of his book.
Joe Queenan - never previously, so far as I know, compared to Quentin Tarantino - made some of these exact same points in "The Lonely Raging Bull"', his essay on Scorsese's movies, which I believe Queenan first published in _Movieline._
(This was back when _Movieline_ was the best cinema journal in America, and one of my favorite reads every month. I wish someone would put together a _Movieline_ retrospective, as has been done for _National Lampoon,_ several times, and even _Spy._ I really miss _Movieline._ It seems to have been completely forgotten.)
The Scorsese essay (and others) are available in Queenan's vicious yet informed 1994 collection _If You're Talking to Me, Your Career Must Be In Trouble,_ a book I suspect Quentin may have on his shelf, and which I highly recommend.
(Queenan later released a sort of Volume II of his Nineties film writings, _Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler,_ which is also pretty funny, but Volume I was better.)
Really appreciate the effort on these videos. Seriously, thanks.
I wonder how shocked will Tarantino be when he eventually accidentally push play on one of these videos.
@@WadeStrine1 Love hearing this. Thank you!
@@parapoliticos52why are you typing like that are you ok?
Taxi Driver is a movie you have to watch for the first time by yourself. You can't have someone next to you complaining that it's too slow, or that it's offensive, or even hooping and hollering at how great the violent scenes are. It's a very introspective experience, not interactive.
I was 19 and knew of the movie's relevance and impact on popular culture before watching it by myself. Your statement is absolutely correct. Hearing Tarantino's account of his first time seeing it is fascinating. Despite his experience he got it. All of it. As did I and the movie shook me to my core. I still consider it a weirdly pivotal part of my cinephile adolescence.
I think if you have a person who says certain movies are slow or offensive you shouldn’t watch anything with them lol. But taxi driver especially, you have to be in that state of mind to connect with it
@@rohangondor6250 I happened to watch Taxi Driver alone but learned my lesson with other "quiet" films. Like Ghost World. I seriously lost respect for a friend who kept saying how hateful Enid is. Face palm extra
@@rohangondor6250 Sounds like my ex-wife.
I saw taxi driver on tv on a Friday night 1 week before Hinkley shot Reagan Went to school on Monday raving about this violent masterpiece. Ppl thought I was nuts. And maybe I am. lol
This is my fav movie and have watched it many times, never once considered Travis to be racist.....
I saw Taxi Driver on the lower half of a double bill with The Killer Elite. I was mesmerized. Taxi Driver made me want to become a filmmaker. That movie gave me a career!
Same with me! It was the first time I saw a movie and wanted to make one myself!
people always refer to Sport as white. I guess that's the case but I always thought he came across as kind of puerto rican or mixed race. Maybe it was just the way Keitell played him but that was my impression. Great flick.
Doesn't he imply he's native American in the movie? I seem to remember a brief line of him mentioning it but definitely could be wrong. What a movie! 👍🤝🎖️
I laughed when Tarantino mentioned that the casting change was because of the “wyte folks” producing the movie 😂… he has to know they’re not right? ✡️
White is a skin color and Puerto Rican is a nationality...
@@tareklegrand7747
What colour are Japanese people?
That voice is AI Tarantino? Now i’m terrified.
That’s why it has no expression or humanity or any of his personality 💩
I wonder if that's even legal ? A.I. QT could say things that the real Quentin might disagree with and lead down a Joe Rogan rabbit hole.
It dosent sound like I'm really
Tarantino will live forever now.
Wait until Adverstisements are generated exclusively for you using your preferences and predelictions ... maybe you're only into brunettes with blue eye and big breasts ... such an ad will be dynamically generated by AI to entice you into some activity. MARK MY WORDS
I saw this at a drive in. My buddy took a date and seen it and said "dude, you gotta see this movie!" we had a gallon of wine and an ounce of pot, and I think I drove, but we both lived close to each other and the drive-in, we coulda walked home in ten minutes, but dang, what a good movie.
Interesting observations… but, to me, it sounds like “Taxi Driver” would’ve been a far less interesting collection of cultural clichés with all of QT’s suggestions. I like the film just the way it is.
This essay is too fixated on race. Taxi Driver is Metropolis, a relentless city crushing the individual, until there's nothing left except the will to destroy something.
Yeah, well that essay has already been written ad nauseam. I appreciate someone discussing the movie through the lens of race. And I honestly didn’t know that the racial component of the original screenplay had been watered down at the insistence of the studio.
Think Tarantino often times can’t avoid applying extra (erroneous) racial context to films
I'm assuming you're American....you guys will ask why things need to be about race like it has no value or power, but then clutch your pearls if it's even mentioned. If you want someone to just rehash an opinion you already agree with then avoid any and all commentary.
Race was literally integral to the casting of a major character in the film.
@whahappend8222 The film’s set in America, Scorsese and Tarantino are both American-a non-American is gonna have a tougher time parsing the complex sociopolitical contexts of films based in America.
And btw it’s usually a good idea to avoid applying insulting blanket statements to groups of people, like calling Americans hypocrites. To avoid being more of a hypocrite yourself, take your own advice and avoid comments that might challenge your views if they’re gonna send u into a weird hissy fit
Just watched Taxi Driver for the first time last night, what a film.
This time, Tarantino's analysis is way off. The central theme in Taxi Driver isn't Travis's racism. That is complete bullshit. This sounds like Tarantino giving a half-assed apology for admiring a film in which the lead character may incidentally be a racist.
Good point, since the politician was Travis's original target, and the girl was a staffer for his campaign. If iris is betsy, then sport is palantine, so the theme is marginalized incel?
Agreed. It's ludicrous. If you were to make a list of 50 things Taxi Driver is "about," race wouldn't even be on there.
I don’t think that’s what Tarantino was saying - that the central theme was Travis’ racism. That was incidental. I believe Tarantino was saying that this was really just another 70’s revenge flick, but done so masterfully and with so much tension and buildup that it was a masterpiece.
@@mojomessiah See 2:40. Tarantino clearly asserts that the viewer is forced to ask "is this a movie about a racist or a racist movie?" I never felt compelled to ask that about Taxi Driver any more than I did for Pulp Fiction (for which racial stereotyping and racial epithets abound). The most charitable interpretation I have of Tarantino here is that he's elevating 1970's NYC reality into an issue that does not merit the emphasis. It's not even a particularly interesting matter for this film. Travis gives the same look of suspicion to practically everyone he encounters, black or white. No doubt he considered black people more of a threat while he was driving, but did he really display more animosity toward the diner pimps than Keitel's "sport" or Albert Brooks? I don't think so. While Tarantino always gives something to think about, I think he's way off target here, possibly motivated primarily by the criticisms he's received for his own films.
Tarantino isn’t analyzing anything. OP is using an AI version of Tarantino’s voice for his own script. Tarantino has nothing to do with this video
Therapist: Travintin Tarantickle isn't real, he can't hurt you.
This video's thumbnail:
The way you say "fuck hotel" sounds so good I think it replaces "cellar door" as the most elegant English words together.
Why don't you suck a fuck? (jk just goin off the donnie darko reference 🐰)
It's incredible that Tarantino felt it was necessary to focus so much on the aspect of race in the movie when that probably takes up about 30 seconds of screen time (if that) and doesn't even warrant being considered a subtext to the plot.
Your joking right.
The Racism had to be toned way down because it was almost all about overt racism just like so many other 70’s movies
@@billyarsenault1970 It's remarkable how wrong you are. And even if Schrader originally intended racism to be a more central theme, it wasn't in the final product.
The black pimps abusing underage white runaway girls were far more racist than innocent little Travis.
He makes some good points but I think he has a strange fixation on race himself so he may be looking too deep into things
200+ hours of passion aside, this is a tough pill to swallow.
If people wanted to hear Tarantino read his book, they would buy the audiobook. No audiobook exists? That's because Tarantino didn't want to do one.
This is theft pure and simple in hopes of getting views and making some bank. Shame on you. This sort of thing should be forbidden on RUclips and if not, you should be REQUIRED to add an AI notification in the title or in the thumbnail photo.
Tarantino is dead wrong about Bickle pretending to be a vet. The gear he's wearing is USMC-issue gear with his name stenciled on the back, and there's no way someone like Bickle would go to those lengths to festoon himself in perfect recreations of garb he had never used in the service.
Now that we have the Internet, fakers are always using eBay to acquire the props they need for their stolen valor, but in the 70's he would have had no way of knowing that they stenciled their names (last name, first initial) on their jackets at boot camp. And the patch he's wearing on the sleeve was a in-country-made insignia for a particular battalion's Force Recon Marines, which jibes with the Naval parachutist wings he's got sewn to his jacket.
That's representing a genuine personal artifact. And it is part of why Bickle is so lost. He also has a Viet Cong flag in his apartment, which would have been very hard to come by in the summer of 1976 when this story is taking place. There was no eBay, no internet back then. The only place to get a Viet Cong flag would have been Vietnam, and he was no tourist.
Travis is not only a genuine vet but a special operations vet, and he is an archetype for a lot of the generation of men who went to Vietnam and came home broken, disillusioned, and lost.
Tarantino has a proven track record for misunderstanding the soldier. All you have to do is watch Inglourious Basterds to see that. No American General gives a notoriously vicious Nazi the Medal of Honor and a free ride to American citizenship. Tarantino's a filthy fantasist.
I thought this was a terrible review all around. I'm not gonna buy his book now.
@@IndyShade Good choice. It's a bunch of masturbatory nonsense. He used to be a geat filmmaker, but he's lost his grip, and you shouldn't waste your time worshiping the shadow of the artist he used to be.
I somewhat agree!
@@aaronjohnson7812 I kind of thank you?
Yer definitely right, I like Tarantino, but he showed his ass a few times in these excerpts with adamant baby opinions.
Also silly was his idea that serving in nam would have crushed any racial preconceptions in a vet, claiming that Travis could’nt have served since he killed child-pimping black guys in the original script.
13:52 Holy shit, that stuntman almost got hit by the exploding car! 😲
was about to roast you for the AI voice but it's cool cuz its from his book, with clips from the movie and topic timestamps. Good job I liked it.
In a way this little rant by Quentin Tarrantino sort of puts on display why he's not quite the director Scorcese is. He calls out Scorcese for a "BS" answer on the violent ending to Taxi Driver, but I think the answer Scorcese gives at the end is quite real. Taxi driver is meant to suggest catharsis through violence, but then make us disturbed by it and reflect on why we wanted it in the first place. It's a critique of the human ability to rationalize violence against people we don't like, it's suggests that our callousness is in a round-about way one of the causes of the violence we see in our own lives. Tarrantino can't even begin to accept that, for him it's a movie-technical thing about eliciting emotions from the audience, whereas for Scorcese it was about making the audience think.
I’ve never heard of the concept of Big Wednesday before but I love it now😂
this is really well done and edited. great work. subbed
“They never say movie violence is fun”
Tarantino responding to a critic of his violence film: “[i show it] because it’s so damn FUN, Janet!”
Thought of that after that line too!
Tarantino loves to rationalize his fetishes.
This is extraordinarily well done, AI or not. Thank you!
An American classic noir, perhaps the best in the genre.
I first watched TAXI DRIVER by my self, late at night on HBO in the late 70s. It was terrifying and brutally graphic both in it's depiction of Travis Bickle slowly descending into a nightmarish psychosis and in it's sunny day/wet rainy night NYC everyday sense of urban decay. It remains a visceral and disturbing portrayal of one individual's reaction to a world spinning into controlled chaos. It will always mean different things to different people. It is a textbook example of the power of film and it's effect on the viewer. Scorsese is a genius!
Top notch content, great work my man👏
That's one well made video. Outstanding
13:54 that stuntman is an absolute legend Dayum🔥
The subtitles are hilarious 😅
Came here for this. Totally had me rolling.
Nice catch. The second viewing was better than the first, thanks!
Just noticed this. I'm guessing the creator adds the subs? Not auto-generated?
Joe: "42% of all liberals like to decorate."
A well-made and well-appreciated vid. Thank you!
Scorsese's Taxi Driver has influenced over other filmmakers like Todd Phillips, "the guy who made the movie Joker" starring Joaquin Phoenix. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine told me that found it an absurd film, meanwhile I found it a masterpiece where Joaquin Phoenix's performance really blew my mind.
We know. And it's the main reason I think Joker sucks. It's a pale imitation of Taxi Driver and King of Comedy.
@@randomcharacter6501 What are your expectations for Joker part 2?
Joker was so good. i'm afraid to watch it again
I see Falling Down as a modern remake of Taxi Driver. The transformation of the main characters in each film is nearly identical.
I disagree about the transformation. But I love that comparison. I think that would be a fun film study comparison to do.
Falling Down isn't nearly as compelling though, entertaining though it is.
If you are correct, then I have either severely overvalued Taxi Driver or undervalued Falling Down. However, the way Tarantino talks about the former is scarily similar to my lasting impression of the latter. I never saw TD in a theater, but no one ever laughed at the movie when I watched it. However, FD clearly had many scenes that were played as comical and I remember everyone feeling encouraged to laugh. But, you might be right. They do share similarities, not the least of which is the comical absurdism about the dangers of white outcasts who just cant take it anymore. Interesting comment. I don’t think I will have a higher opinion of FD but I may have to reassess TD.
I don’t completely disagree with QT, though I do have some brief thoughts.
Taxi Driver is about a man slaying a dragon, and that dragon was living inside of him. In order to kill it, he had to unleash it. What made Travis a hero is that he chose the best place to let it loose, somewhere it may end up helping someone.
Yes, the sex traffickers were villains, but they weren’t THE villain. The dragon inside Travis was, they were just the bait.
got similar theater experience for the movie “falling down”, audience felt it as a slapstick comic until the real motives become clear and the dramatic end.
Fantastic book on film by QT -- up there in the top ten with "I lost it at the movies" and "Who The Devil Made It"--
The surreal moment when talking about black soldiers in Vietnam and the use footage of Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder. 😅
Fantastic work. These videos are great!
Right on! Please hit the subscribe button if you haven't already. 🍻
This was actually really interesting thanks
I remember watching Mr. Quentin Tarantino's films as a child, right next to Mel Brooks.
I even laugh when my family drinks warm beer while fishing at last lake next to Table Mountain and Mono Winds in California !
tmi!? 🌮😹🍻
#desperado #mariachi #powwow #brewing #cerveza #chango
I suspected it was AI before looking at the comments
Mainly because I thought it was strange I had not heard of Tarantino doing such things like making a video on Taxi Driver and also because I’m always fairly weary of watching Ai videos on RUclips.
This piece you made though is excellent and would like to to Tarantino would to an extent appreciate it for what it is and the fact it is his word sits well with me. It’s almost convincing but I really like the fact I know and that I think is what makes it tolerable
Well done mate on this , the visual story you made was excellent keep at it 👊🏼
How do you know its Tarantino's words? Have you read the book?
This is amazing. Thank you!
WTF is up with the closed captions?!?! Audio: "Then finally a sociopathic time bomb" CC: "Then finally, someone you can take home to meet mom and dad" 😳
30:11 And yet, Peter Boyle mentioned in an interview that people would cry out to him approvingly on the street, after that movie came out, saying things like, "Way to go Joe!"
Boyle found it pretty unnerving.
As always, fantastic work. The editing job you do on these videos is always on point.
Thank you! But now I'm wondering if I set the bar too high. I want to grow the channel but to really do that, I need to put out more content. But this type of quality takes so long to do with a full-time job, etc. Please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. If I get to 100k subs, I may be able to make more videos by getting sponsored.
Did you add the fart sound fx at 11:59? Or did Peckinpah 😂
Now thats a revuew with balls, loved it.
very well done! In the first half I did not realise it was AI
Of course not, he tricked everyone here by not making any indication of it in the title or the thumbnail. But he got his clicks and ad revenue. Shameful.
Great video Tarantino!! You're a master of movie making and I hope, someday, that YOU can find the time to make a violent movie also! It's 2024 and we're all waiting for that day!
Wow, it’s AI Quintin? Cool. I love how you got RDJ doing black face.
He's reaching big time with the idea that Bickle never went to Vietnam. What, cause he acts a bit nerdy and needy? That's where he belongs. He's a violent sociopath. If he wasn't in the war, what exactly was he doing all these years? Good stuff otherwise
I always speculated Travis Bickle was a veteran, but he had some kind of clerk or office job and never left the U.S. Some part of him, maybe hearing about other soldiers, wanted to do violence, but his enlistment never offered him that opportunity.
The AI pick of Q as Travis is pure nightmare fuel
An AI aged Iris is the last thing I thought I would see today. But here it is.
That's not AI. That was her stuntwoman.
He said the movie got serious when Iris is introduced but said it was still a joke by the time he tried to assassinate Palantine..which was right at the end of the movie
Yeah! That's exactly what I was thinking! Thanks for commenting so I didn't have to.
"Taxi Driver" had a certain malevolent hold over me as I watched. Each ambiguity arose with gun violence, which was simple in its horror. It gave terror a bad name. In particular, when the ageing pimp is shot repeatedly, as casually as a street punch up. There were no heroes or even obvious villains, and stands times test as a whole, expressing a profound despondency which leads the best intentions to commit acts of evil.
70's violence was so much more real than today, even with all the great CGI special effects they use today.
It's also interesting hearing this much about the Farmer, a mostly forgotten movie that was loat for years had apparent rights issues holding it back till magically a vhs copy made ita way from ebay to youtube promting them to sort out said issues in a matter of months and releasing it finally on blu ray.
Did you like the Farmer? Thanks for being a subscriber!
I hate when people lie on their RUclips titles to get clicks. I don’t care if it’s his voice, it isn’t HIM, it’s A.I. so I’m not interested even if it’s good.
Dude, it literally says what it is in the description and pinned comment.
Dude, people click on videos based on thumbnails and title description. Why didn't you add the word AI-GENERATED in big bold letters on the thumbnail and title? I can appreciate the work, but why can't you be more transparent? Scared you may not get the clicks? This is shallow and you know EXACTLY what you're doing.
And don't get me started on the length of the video. 30 minutes? Authors write books so people will BUY them, not so they can be read aloud in a RUclips video for free. Shame on you.
But yes, of course...it took 200+ hours to make the video so let's all be compassionate with the content creator. You leech.
at dajango i was clapping screaming and yelling by the end of the film
Taxi Driver is a movie QT speculates about. Watch it for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
QT: "Taxi Driver never inspired any violence"
FACT CHECK: After shooting President Reagan John Hinkley said he was inspired by the film "Taxi Driver" and wanted to impress Jody Foster also in the film Robert De Niro attempts to assassinate a Politician.
Yeah, “being around blacks” is sure to make someone not racist . Shit. Also: Travis shaves his head into a Mohawk well after he meets Iris. So the whole “we stopped laughing” comment is idiotic.
I remember when I saw "They call her One Eye" or in Swedish, "Killer, En mycket farlig film" ("Killer, a very dangerous movie"). It will have an impact on you, I hope. It is a 70 independent movie of sorts. Have some 70s porn in it, very hairy. I guess there is a rated version but who wants that
Anyone else laughing like a hyena at the closed captions that totally change the voice-over?
Well done. I really enjoyed it.🎼🤘🏻
The funniest parts were the portraits of Quentin. LOL.
I didn’t know this was a.i, I thought it was just Quentin doing the audiobook.
Me too. Absolutely gave me the creeps when I read the description afterwards.
Well, getting the audio from the audiobook that would likely cost $$$. Instead of manufacturing someone's likeness and intellectual property for their own gains. Do be sure and smash that like button, though.
@@jonlittle2292 Well said. Sadly, we will see more of videos like these as people try to get ahead.
What? It’s clearly ai you dolt. People like you are the reason skynet is possible
15:00 I love how if you read the book we all just know who Reggie is😂😂
I always find Quentin Tarantino's perspective on film informative and interesting. Great analysis.
that voice is AI Tarantino? i thought maybe he had recorded for the audiobook- maybe you can check if he has
Apart from the significance of Harvey Kietel in the movie, which was in many ways pivotal, I am still left wondering what would have happened if Jack Nicholson held a role?
As kids we watched this on tv and even heavily edited we knew from the opening scenes that Travis was another psycho. We'd been spoon fed the Nam-vet with PTSD trope. The doped up veteran with a grudge was everywhere.
And if Travis hadn't served in the army, so what? He was wearing the clothing, he had the edge, and the hardware. He was the embodiment of social unrest, of bitterness, of seething anger.
He can talk! Love this
It's an AI generated voice. Not Tarantino speaking.
Hearing about a black audience laughing at Travis bickle the whole time is hilarious
13:52 is the craziest stunt I've ever seen.
Press X to doubt that people laughed at Travis Bickle. This seems like cope from someone who has long been trying to escape the (false) racism allegations for saying the n-word when acting as a character in his films.
Well done. This is a good use of AI!
This video is amazingly well put together 👍👍
My only complaint is that this could have been better
if this was made in 70mm Panavision.
Haha! Thanks!
OMG these subtitles.
Now I have to see that Pekinpah flick. I'm sure it's better than 'Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia.'
Buy the book. It's excellent.
The closed captions on this video are weirder than any I've ever seen. Words like "racist" and others that the creator apparently regards as offensive are replaced with goofy and distracting euphemisms that only serve to call more attention to the words in question than anything else. 😒
the captions are crazy
Question for Quentin.. you reference seeing "No Way Out" at the Old Town Mall with your Mom. Do you mean the OTM in Torrance? "South Bay" a couple of miles from Del Amo Mall?
Yes. Quentin just told me to tell you: yes. That's exactly what he meant.
@@karlwebster5438 Great Thank you .. That was my area growing up Del Amo Mall and Old Town Torrance... circa 87 to 93 It was a Great Time and Great Area to Grow up at the Time.
Please tell Quentin thak you for the Response.. and "Pulp Fiction" made me join the Army as a Camera Man for 6 years.. while I didnt make it to the Film Sector which was the ultimate Goal, I did work in the TV/Radio biz for 25 years... His Films gave me that inspiration and Drive.. Anxiously awaiting his 10th and Final Film.... always wanted him to do a "Vega Bros" movie or even his interpretation of "Natural Born Killers" Thank you again
It's curious that Tarantino says that he found the film amusing when he was immature, when it's far more chilling than anything Tarantino has ever made. But then we all know that already: all of Tarantino's films could be called Pulp Fiction; ie, style over substance, insincere, soft, meretricious, lightweight - and Tarantino himself is more a laughable goof than any character he disparages. But then he does recognize the shift the turn in the mind of Travis, to grant him his due.
Thanks!
Is this another case of Tarantino’s conscious or unconscious style or plot copying, when Drexel is chosen to be a white pimp in True Romance or coincidence? I assume coincidence, as he sold the screenplay snd had likely no sat in casting( though he noted that the pimp was white) not black, so def stacks more of a case of Tarantino copying and repackaging other directors/screenwriters stylistic techniques
Driving taxis drives anybody crazy.
Sport pulls Iris out of Travis's taxi long before the mohawk scene, which causes a major narration continuity error when explaining the timeline of when audience put away it's laughter and become more serious.
Yep, QT gets a few facts wrong. Good shout!
@@TheTapesArchive Great video
Are you kidding me?! That's not Tarantino's voice over?! Its AI!!?
As someone who writes a Substack about movies and features a film review section about little known or forgotten movies, I appreciate Tarantino constantly referencing barely known and unknown films.
At least someone else out there is also promoting such films. Good to know.
I'm just about to watch Joe because of this.
@@SeamusJRM Interesting film of its period. Great Peter Boyle performance
I love it too. Every video I make of his I find a new gem to watch. Link to your substack.
@@TheTapesArchive BTW
Good videos here.
Clips look nice, quality images
@@writeralbertlanier3434 Thank you! a lot of time goes into just finding the best sources of images and videos, so thank you for noticing. May I get a link to your substack?
Travis is basically an older version of Salinger's Holden
Thanks for your comment John Hinckley. 😃
@@tomripsin730 now I'm on a list, somewhere😂
It took me 10 mins to realize this is AI holy shit
Good take
Which AI voice site are you using?
Eleven Labs
You're doing God's work here, son. Or the Devil's. Whichever, it is amazing work.
Born in 62 as well
I love Goodfellas… But Taxi Driver is Robert De Niro’s best performance. In my opinion at least.
This was awesome. Don't care that the narration is AI, i couldn't tell the difference.
Thank you! I was hoping it was just a small % of the viewers that disliked it.
Fooled me lol.
Sure sounded like QT...
You don't care, but voice actors do... if AI keeps improving at this rate, they'll all be out of a job soon
@@lptomtom I agree they are doomed. I get it. The first 20 years of my life was owning record stores. But by 2011 it was over and I had to close them down. Recently I gave up doing VOs too.
Which Ai generator make this voice?
Eleven labs
@@TheTapesArchive Why did you choose Elevan Labs to make this? Also - how and where did you get the Tarantino voice samples? How long did it take to create say, this video?
I enjoyed this quite a bit.