I read Ian Jane's DVD review of Taxi Driver at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=29454 and...great review of a great film, Ian. But, how come Marty didn't do a commentary for this? He seems to be on a role lately with his commentaries and not one on this legendary opus?

Screencaps look pretty good. The picture appears more bright and colorful, which doesn't seem to fit the movie, but it was more than likely that bright when it first came out. I'm happy with the review, and for sure double-dip for me.

I'll be double-dipping on this one as well.

woo-hoo. I've been wanting to watch this lately, so I'm glad I don't own the last edition. I will definately be buying this edition.

The ever-important reds look quite good here, you'll notice during the finale that the blood looks more realistic than in the past.

Curious about this, as it was my understanding that the film always had darker, less realistic reds (most notably in the final scene). Story goes that the blood was darkened in post-production after a meeting with the MPAA - real blood tones would get them an X. The darker, muddier blood colors got them an R, but Scorsese and others said the darker colors were an improvement, as it made it look more frightening.

The final screen comparison, then, suggests the earlier DVD is more in keeping with the original film, and the new transfer color-corrects everything all out of whack. (De Niro's way too red in that shot, too.) Other scenes seem way too bright as well.

Was any of this mentioned in the extras? I'm curious if this new brighter, redder transfer is the result of overzealous restoration folk, or if this was the intent of Scorsese/Schrader/etc.

Actually, Scorcese and Schrader recorded a commentary together for the special edition CAV laserdisc put out by Criterion. It's suppose to be fantastic, although I haven't been able to obtain a copy of it yet for myself.

The shootout scene at the end was desaturated to get the R rating, but thankfully the rest of the film was unaffected. One of the production crew (Michael Chapman, IIRC) claims on record that he much preferred the original version.

There were plans to integrate the unedited shootout scene back into the film for its 1996 re-release. Unfortunately, only one copy of the original shootout scene has been located, and it had deteriorated beyond repair.

Based on the screenshot alone, it looks like they boosted the color saturation of the shootout scene for the new DVD in order to "recover" the original colors. But it's a little hard to tell without seeing it in motion.

Interesting to hear. Didn't know there was any effort to maintain the original look. Thanks for the info!