The casting what-ifs are called probably the best for any movie they have done, a whole alternate Departed. — Bill Simmons
Pitt bought the producing rights, planned to play the Damon part, then decided he might be too old and went to do Babel. — Bill Simmons
Debate over Pitt: good instincts about roles and a great producer, but miscast himself in Meet Joe Black and The Devil's Own; Damon was the better choice.
Ray Leota was the original choice for Dignam but declined over other commitments, his 2006 films including Comeback Season, Local Color and Even Money. — Bill Simmons
Dennis Leary was the second choice for Dignam but had to make season three of "rest of me" (as transcribed); he would have been great, though Walberg is perfect. — Bill Simmons
Ellerby was offered to Mel Gibson, who was starting Apocalypto; Queenan was supposed to be De Niro, who made The Good Shepherd; the Anthony Anderson role was meant for "the Rizza" (transcript form, unresolved), who was too old or had conflicts. — Bill Simmons
Leo was in The Good Shepherd but dropped out to play Billy Costigan, and Damon then took The Good Shepherd role; The Good Shepherd is called an unexamined movie with a dynamite cast.
The alternate cast (Leo, Pitt, Pacino, Leota, De Niro, Mel Gibson and the Riza) is called pretty loaded and preferred by one participant; Pacino would lose Costello's lumbering physicality but gain CR doing Pacino.
Would-you-rathers: Walberg over Ray Leota, Baldwin over Mel Gibson 100 out of 100 times, and De Niro over Sheen since he can underplay.
Martin Scorsese, gangster movies, the 1990 Scorsese–De Palma rivalry, the Copacabana sequence, gangster names, razor-bladed garlic, the Lufthansa heist, Joe Pesci’s 1989–95 run, pistol-whipping, mobster wigs, prison tomato sauce, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, “fucko,” and Pittsburgh drug dealers
The young Henry performance, freeze frames, Sopranos connections, narration, comedy, color, wigs, music, food, the unseen Lufthansa heist, and Henry and Karen’s fights
The opening sex scene is a really funny and effective opening but is not put forward as the most rewatchable scene. — Bill Simmons
Barinholtz's introduction at the office, smoking a joint outside and talking about bringing the baby to a concert and about Grindr, is an early pick. — Bill Simmons
The neighbors meeting that morphs into the history of frat inventions, with uncredited Lonely Island and Workaholics cameos, is liked. — Bill Simmons
The keep-it-down material and the marriage make the first 25 minutes dead on; showing up for the first party and getting sucked in, with Rogen's shirt off, is called probably the favorite scene. — Bill Simmons
The short Robert De Niro party is loved: the Taxi Driver mohawk, Franco doing a Fockers De Niro really well, and Carmichael as Sam Jackson at a different party base. — Bill Simmons
Also praised: the attempt to make peace at the party while she pushes Franco toward Efron's girlfriend, the short hungover breastfeeding scene, the fake off-probation letter with the hotbox party, and the partly improvised Abercrombie & Fitch final scene. — Bill Simmons
Going to the first party and then getting sucked in and getting high is named right after the question. — Bill Simmons
The favorite part of the movie by far is the 'Who's Batman to you?' conversation, a perfect explanation of how equal and apart the two men are. — Sean Fennessey
It has to be the first party, starting with keep it down. — Chris Ryan
Running the keep-it-down line about 15 times prompts mixed feelings that improv may have hurt tightly scripted comedy like City Slickers, though Efron and Byrne can hang with the improv. — Chris Ryan
The others mock this nostalgia for scripted comedy and its Robert Towne references, while agreeing ad-libs that crack up the crew are why these comedies run past two hours.
Usually inclined to pick the director, this participant picks De Niro because 'Are you talking to me' is the film's most remembered moment, citing De Niro telling a 40th-anniversary audience he was sick of hearing it; Scorsese wins almost every other movie he makes. — Sean Fennessey
Jodie Foster is picked because the Hinkley affair should have killed the movie and could have haunted her, yet her performance at 12 is unreal and layered, not merely a victim, and after an amazing career she remains a hero. — Bill Hader
Scorsese is picked so each person is represented: after this movie anything seemed possible for him, and it became a go-to film for influential filmmakers. — Bill Hader
Ending in three different places is called fitting for a perfectly directed, subjective movie. — Bill Hader
Scorsese's Apex is debated between Raging Bull and Goodfellas; Goodfellas is favored, while another view says he has not reached it and is still going, with a joke about his next film.
Along with Rocky, 1976 was the apex for clap pushups, the first time one participant saw anyone work out in a movie, plus the hand over the burner.
This is Apex Mountain for disgusting mid-70s New York, which no movie captured better. — Bill Hader
It is not the Apex for taxis, which came with the late-70s TV show Taxi; DC Cab with Mr. T is raised and rejected. — Bill Simmons
De Niro honoring his $35,000 deal; Connie Foster as body double; Julia Phillips's book on Cybill Shepherd's lines; Dick Smith's fake Mohawk; gunshot makeup effects; Mohawk on display at the Museum of the Moving Image
After De Niro's profile rose the producers feared they could not afford him, but he honored his original $35,000 deal, which helped get the movie made. — Bill Simmons
Jodie Foster's sister Connie, about 19, was her body double for scenes such as the last one. — Bill Simmons
Producer Julia Phillips's book says they were frustrated that Shepherd could not remember her lines in the coffee-and-pie scene. — Bill Simmons
The most shocking find is that De Niro's Mohawk was not real: Dick Smith made a bald cap with individually placed hairs so other scenes could be filmed after the Mohawk scenes. — Bill Hader
Haircuts during a shoot make producers' heads explode; productions ask to be told before an actor cuts their hair. — Bill Hader
Smith's gunshot effects are amazing, though a fishing-line pull on the neck wound is visible in slow motion; the blood running down the finger-gun hand is also smartly done. — Bill Hader
The Mohawk hairpiece is on display at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. — 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
