Review Detail
9.2 3 10
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
9.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
8.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Taxi Driver is a masterpiece of cinema. It is however a bit of a slow grind, so I was interested to see what Maniac had done with it. This edit features the removal of Betsy and instead focusses the story on the Travis' goal of cleaning up the city.
The A/V cuts were all very well done and unnoticable. The voiceovers were removed in favour of rescores, which were fine but mostly too loud. A/V quality was excellent.
The new story was still strong despite over 40 minutes being removed. The pace is higher but not so much so, rather the story is more focussed. There are however a couple plot holes. The first one is rather minor - Travis kicks off his TV. In the original, this is due to his frustration at the character from the TV show getting a divorce against the partner's wishes - mirroring his break up with Betsy. The 2nd plot hole is more signifiant. The scene where Travis shows up to the Palantine rally is included. He alerts the suspicions of security. Later, he shows up to another rally and attempts to assassinate Palantine. This doesn't make any sense in the context of the new story. Travis shows support and admiration of Palantine in the beginning, but then decides to kill him. In the original, this is due to his resentment at Betsy and her association with Palantine's party. With Betsy removed, all 3 of these scenes should have been cut as well. Travis showing support at the 2nd Palantine rally could have been kept, but his attempted assassination seems unmotivated.
Overall, while I prefer the original, I did still enjoy this edit, as the overarching plot of Travis' anger at prostitution and degeneracy is put into focus, which is the most interesting plotline from Taxi Driver. I believe the edit would be improved by removing the aforementioned scenes that don't fit with this plotline.
The A/V cuts were all very well done and unnoticable. The voiceovers were removed in favour of rescores, which were fine but mostly too loud. A/V quality was excellent.
The new story was still strong despite over 40 minutes being removed. The pace is higher but not so much so, rather the story is more focussed. There are however a couple plot holes. The first one is rather minor - Travis kicks off his TV. In the original, this is due to his frustration at the character from the TV show getting a divorce against the partner's wishes - mirroring his break up with Betsy. The 2nd plot hole is more signifiant. The scene where Travis shows up to the Palantine rally is included. He alerts the suspicions of security. Later, he shows up to another rally and attempts to assassinate Palantine. This doesn't make any sense in the context of the new story. Travis shows support and admiration of Palantine in the beginning, but then decides to kill him. In the original, this is due to his resentment at Betsy and her association with Palantine's party. With Betsy removed, all 3 of these scenes should have been cut as well. Travis showing support at the 2nd Palantine rally could have been kept, but his attempted assassination seems unmotivated.
Overall, while I prefer the original, I did still enjoy this edit, as the overarching plot of Travis' anger at prostitution and degeneracy is put into focus, which is the most interesting plotline from Taxi Driver. I believe the edit would be improved by removing the aforementioned scenes that don't fit with this plotline.
H