Making Taxi Driver (1999)
**** (out of 4)
The "making of" has become quite popular since DVD took off as fans want to hear their favorite stars and directors talk about their favorite films. This 71-minute documentary on the making of TAXI DRIVER is a rather important one because the majority of the main principles are on hand. Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, Paul Schrader, Peter Boyle, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Michael Chapman and Albert Brooks are on hand telling about the making of the film and you know the film must be something very important for everyone to be willing to go in front of a camera and discuss it. Scorsese and Schrader kick things off talking about how they met and what their main inspirations were on the film. Schrader talks about his depression and his idea of a taxi being a metaphor for loneliness. Scorsese talks about trying to shop the film but not being able to find a backer until after MEAN STREETS was released. The actors all go into great details about their characters with DeNiro, always a tough interview, talking about what he saw in Travis and the preparations he went through to get into character. Foster is one of the most interesting in her stories of Scorsese asking her mother to let the 12-year-old actress play a prostitute. Foster also talks about the real prostitute that the director and writer used as the inspiration for the character. Just about everything you'd want to know about the film is discussed from various changes that were made and of course the infamous ending that had to have the color changed to avoid an X-rating. It seems clear that no one involved thought the film was going to be something that would eventually have mass appeal as they all seem shocked that so many people were able to connect with Travis. At 71-minutes that's just enough time for many great stories and it's wonderful to see all of the main people back and willing to discuss this important film.