Freddy’s Gould records, opera recommendations and Springsteen taste invite speculation about hearing loss or loneliness; future online music and conspiracy interests are imagined. — Sean Fennessey
More background on the imprisoned chokehold officer and his potential to expose Ray would help, especially when other events already receive flashbacks. — Bill Simmons
Switching Keitel and De Niro could improve the larger Ray role but would lose the iconic tirade. — Bill Simmons
De Niro's reason for taking the small part is unknown; liking the script is suggested.
Figgsy’s cocaine use is inferred throughout despite never being shown directly; the allergy excuse is recalled.
The diagonal speech, wordless Keitel–De Niro coffee-shop tension and ensemble bar scenes are early favorites. — Sean Fennessey
Superboy’s shooting and staged jump launch the plot with enjoyable bar, bridge and evidence-planting details; Calderon’s suspicion and the bottle causing the blowout are praised.
Keitel and De Niro’s reunion and guarded Amish exchange make the hosts want more scenes together.
The bar sequence moves from Berg’s gambling dispute through Patrick’s dart confrontation and Figgsy’s demand not to be shut out; it is a leading choice.
Ray’s attempted pool drowning of Superboy is a strong dramatic candidate despite upcoming nitpicks. — Bill Simmons
Both Stallone–De Niro confrontations work, especially the famous “You blew it” tirade and the immediate realization that Freddy has revived the case.
Figgsy rejecting Freddy’s justice and warning that being right is not a bulletproof vest is another favorite.
The final shootout and De Niro’s shouted “Go to lunch” case closure are nominated.
The rooftop sequence with Berg is praised for Serpico-like tenement geography and dead ends.
The whole Figgsy bar sequence is explicitly selected as a Sopranos precursor; “You blew it” receives the other explicit final choice. — Bill Simmons
The Scorsese–Pileggi call, Henry Hill payment, a pistol-whip accident, filmmakers’ relationships, Imperioli’s injury, the painting, Oscar-winning killer roles, the closing shot, music planning, made-man rules, ratings edits, and profanity
The casting items come from the internet with uncertain accuracy; Schrader reportedly wrote Travis with Jeff Bridges in mind, which seems possible. — Bill Simmons
Keitel was definitely offered the campaign worker role Albert Brooks played and wanted the pimp instead; the studio had the pimp changed to a white character over riot and liability fears, and Keitel ended up in the part. — Bill Simmons
Reports conflict on whether Melanie Griffith was first offered Iris; a Linda Blair possibility and a Tatum O'Neal / Bad News Bears swap are also mentioned with doubt. — Bill Simmons
John Hinkley became anchored to the film: five years later he tried to kill President Reagan to impress Foster after seeing the movie many times, and it postponed the 1981 Oscars, where De Niro was about to win for Raging Bull, by a day.
The idea of blaming culture for horrible events has not faded; Schrader and Scorsese argue that blaming the movie evacuates everyone else's responsibility. — Sean Fennessey
An uncomfortable Matt Lauer interview around an anniversary had Foster decline to talk about Hinkley; it messed her up and she stepped back for a couple of years; Hinkley is called maybe the best example ever of aged worst.
The Palantine 'We Are the People' posters are almost intentionally bad and maybe go too far, answered with a 'make America great' joke. — Bill Simmons
Asked what happened when he took his future wife to the porn film on a date, the reply jokes that they got married that night. — Sean Fennessey
The porn-theater date scene has aged worse and is skin-crawling; one participant goes to the bathroom whenever it plays in a theater. — Bill Hader
The camera dollying away down the hallway during Travis's call to Betsy felt like the movie could not bear to watch, and seeing it in sixth grade turned one participant into a full movie fanatic. — Bill Hader
Porn theaters where strangers watched together in the 70s and 80s are impossible to explain to people under 25. — Bill Hader
Foster playing a 12-and-a-half-year-old prostitute is handled well, but the Keitel dance scene is uncomfortable from a parent's view; the next year's Pretty Baby with Brooke Shields raised the same question.
The girl who grabs Iris near the cab was the real teenage prostitute who served as her technical advisor, part of the film's honesty. — Bill Hader
Taxis may not exist in 10 years; Schrader recalled a New York audience cheering the title, but with ride-sharing taxi drivers no longer hold the same place, like making a movie about a samurai. — Sean Fennessey
The film made another taxi-driver movie nearly impossible, likened to how The Shining ruled out a hotel-caretaker story. — Bill Simmons
Mid-70s New York City; Joe Spinell's job interview; God's lonely man line; Harvey Keitel's pimp look; Travis and Wizard scene; De Niro's preparation; Bernard Herrmann's score; cinematography; Jodie Foster's career
The mid-70s New York setting holds up, as does the opening job interview in which Joe Spinell sizes Travis up as a lunatic. — Bill Simmons
Spinell's 1970s run, including Godfather 2, Taxi Driver, Rocky, Sorcerer and Big Wednesday, is compared to De Niro's. — Bill Simmons
The 'loneliness has followed me my whole life... God's lonely man' line is Schrader writing about loneliness after almost losing his mind. — Bill Simmons
Keitel's sleeveless-shirt, hat, hair and muscles look is floated as something that should have become a Saturday Night Live character. — Bill Hader
Keitel reportedly based the pimp on a real pimp he worked with at the Actors Studio; the pimp originally had five lines and Keitel added more, and the 'I'm hip / You don't look hip' exchange is loved. — Bill Hader
Travis telling Wizard he has bad ideas in his head is short but pivotal; Peter Boyle is great as a man who knows he doesn't know what he's saying yet is weirdly right. — Bill Hader
'You talking to me' was an omnipresent catchphrase for 15 or 20 years, though probably not as big a deal in 2021. — Bill Simmons
De Niro's preparation, including 15-hour days driving cabs, studying mental illness, recording Midwestern soldiers for the accent and losing 35 pounds, felt like the first time an actor's commitment was almost part of the marketing. — Bill Simmons
The method line runs from Brando to Dustin Hoffman in the same era, as in Marathon Man, and on to later method actors; De Niro's work is honed into behavior where others' choices show. — Bill Hader
Asked about riding with cops for eight months for a Superbad cop role, the reply says they did have to ride with a cop in South Central and calls it the dumbest thing of all time. — Bill Hader
Bernard Herman, arguably the most important film composer and known for Psycho, Vertigo and Citizen Kane, wrote his last score here; Scorsese, who mostly uses needle drops, begged him to do it, and the composer said 'all I hear is brass'. — Sean Fennessey
An editor on Barry dislikes the score and the bluesy saxophone gets a reservation, but it works and the opening music hits like a giant wave; hearing it reportedly made Scorsese feel Travis's doom and fate. — Bill Hader
The composer died right after recording the score, at 64.
The cinematography is composed, natural-light and beautiful in a style rarely seen now. — Bill Hader
The shoot came during a hot summer and the garbage strike with wet streets, and according to the cinematographer a lack of time and money forced them to let New York light itself, which turned out right. — Bill Simmons
In most versions of her life Foster might not have become one of the most celebrated actors of a generation and an accomplished filmmaker; a reply praises her acting and directing.
Most Rewatchable Scene feels odd for this film, which is rewatchable because it is great and important rather than for one scene watched 120 times, so the segment becomes a run through the best scenes. — Bill Simmons
First up is Travis driving around and describing decrepit New York City at night; the drive is only about two minutes but grim. — Bill Simmons
Producer Michael Phillips is quoted that the whole West Side was bombed out with condemned buildings, Times Square was disgusting, and they did not know they were documenting the dying gasp of New York. — Bill Simmons
Travis asking Betsy out after going into the office is a really good scene that hinges on believing she might go out with him, which seems ridiculous given where the movie goes, though she kind of buys him. — Bill Simmons
Travis comes in with confidence and reads Betsy well only because he has been stalking her; a high shot of his hand passing over her desk, amid traditional coverage, makes the scene unsettling. — Bill Hader
That overhead 'priest's view' shot returns when he buys the guns and in the long overhead pullback after the shootout, signalling something deeper, insane and spiritual in Travis. — Sean Fennessey
The actor who played Palantine made only two movies and was a culture critic brought in because the filmmakers wanted someone who did not seem like an actor rather than a Hal Holbrook type; this prompts a joke about a critic getting pulled into a Scorsese movie. — Bill Simmons
In the Palantine cab ride the actor waits a beat to find the right politician response to Travis, and Travis knows he is being condescended to and blew it.
Scorsese as the crazy cab passenger is a fun, weird five minutes, not politically correct in 2021; it is judged to work because it feels honest and nothing about it is gratuitous. — Bill Hader
Travis mastering his gun-and-knife routine shows weeks of De Niro's practice; it was filmed in one shot, ran too long in a rough cut and was cut in half around the rally scene, and the 'You talking to me' portion originally ran about 10 minutes, a smart edit followed by the name Marshall Lucas. — Bill Simmons
In the breakfast scene with Iris, her putting sugar on the jam and toast is the lasting detail, read as a callback to Travis pouring brandy and sugar on his cereal, as if they were souls meant for each other in a messed-up way.
The botched assassination is short but gripping because first-time viewers assume it will be the climax; the boom and dolly shots are impressive given how big the equipment was then. — Bill Hader
When directing, he photo-boards all the coverage on an iPhone because a 30-minute TV show lacks time and money; as an actor he can bristle at storyboards and likes that Scorsese told actors to speak up if something did not work for them. — Bill Hader
A joke says the podcast is storyboarded over Zoom with pictures sent to the producer but not shared with the co-host. — Bill Simmons
The final shootout is really cool filmmaking: the X rating forced changes, some color was taken out to make it more palatable, and the wide overhead shot goes on for about two minutes. — Bill Simmons
The shootout has no music telling viewers it is an action scene; the wide shot down the hall as Travis finishes off Keitel's character feels like security-camera footage from someone trapped in the hallway. — Bill Hader
A better example is Travis first shooting Keitel's character, seen from the point of view of someone on a stoop who is left alone with the gunman after he sits down. — Bill Hader
The suicide attempt with no bullets left is played straight, with no music and no cut and crying heard off camera, compared to films by a director transcribed as Rainer Fast Thunder, where what is off camera matters as much. — Bill Hader
The film was an unexpected hit, likely because of its cathartic violent ending, which some read as Travis devolving and others celebrated as a Death Wish-style revenge; it is contrasted with Schrader-written Rolling Thunder as a more complex, sad picture of what a gunfight would look like. — Bill Hader
No most rewatchable scene is picked because that would be weird for this movie. — Bill Simmons
Stepping on Recasting Couch early: Bishop is a part for an older, 2001-style Harvey Keitel; Russo is wished for if he had not played Jimmy Jump, but the role should be older; Ricardo Montobahn, a Tony Lobionco or a Cliff Gordon (as heard) are floated.
Annabelle Seora (as heard) is floated; Julian does not work, but the idea of an out-of-place girl does.
Kelly Lynch is suggested, tying to the Chimino connection as the lawyer in Desperate Hours; a second voice says 'That's perfect. That's who it should be.'
Kelly Lynch is a little California, and a New England type unused to rough New York might be better, but she is still called a good suggestion.
Snipes's performance reads as Diet Coke Snipes until the end; his one Black cop among white cops is called a purposeful inversion of Walken's white boss with a Black gang.
The account given: Russo, a Ferrara regular since China Girl, was written Jimmy Jump and Caruso the cop to exploit their rivalry from that film, but Russo turned it down rather than let Caruso spit in his face.
Russo is said to have later admitted on Django that turning down the part was idiotic; Fishburne licks the spit and wins that scene.
Casting what-ifs is said to be done already, but more stories are being saved.
Per the account given, four years earlier Ferrara planned the film with James Remar as Frank White after The Cotton Club; later at Live it was to be Harvey Keitel, who backed out to do Bad Lieutenant instead, and then the part went to Walken.
It has to be Walken, with a distancing quality Keitel lacks; it is called the best Walken part of all time, and the whole-movie contest is a three-way dogfight among The Deer Hunter, King of New York and The Funeral.
Janet Julian as the lawyer girl is the one person who does not belong in the cast, though she wins one participant over a little by the Freddie Jackson party.
Little is known about Julian's other work and it is unclear how she won the part; Ariane, the girl from Year of the Dragon in the opening, is wanted for that role.
Karen Lingorny in Saturday Night Fever (as heard) is called the all-time watershed of 'why are you in this movie'. — Bill Simmons
Victor Argo is bad as Bishop and gets nowhere with a part with a lot to work with; a participant who knew him agrees the part deserved more than fine and thinks Argo did not believe the movie was that good.
Argo is said to be the only actor who has worked multiple times with Abel, Scorsese and Woody Allen, and Harvey Keitel's best friend.
There was not much for this category; complaints on release were overstated. — Sean Fennessey
Eating breakfast together before a heist; the female driver pulling a gun on two carjackers; how Keitel gets two shots off in the three-way shootout; Tim Roth's accent
They would not eat breakfast before a bank heist, already covered; the female driver pulling a gun on two scary carjackers is questioned, though guns and carjacking were an early-nineties thing, especially in L.A., and it makes less sense against two men than one.
How Keitel gets two shots off in the three-way shootout has bothered one host for twenty-seven years; the explanation is a vanishing quarter second in which Mr. White, already shot, turns and shoots Nice Guy Eddie, since being shot does not drop you instantly and the story needs them all to die; the curved bullet joke follows.
Earlier, during the opening scene, the crew being seen together in public in uniform before the heist was flagged for nitpicks.
Roth's accent, meant for nitpicks, goes up and down, sounding Dutch or Rhode Island; his character's surname Neuendijk (as transcribed) might excuse Minnesota, but it is a British guy doing an L.A. accent that does not add up, better in the commode scene than elsewhere.
