I had a real problem with Taxi Driver when I first saw it in 1976. I didn't like or understand Travis Bickle, and what's more, I didn't like any of the other characters. I was also turned off by the violent ending and the message it seemed to be sending. I've seen it many times since, and I appreciate it a lot more now. The cinematography and music were always great, but only go so far for what I thought was convoluted - look no further than last year's The Master. But now it seems more complex, less shocking and more "normal". Ultimately, movies have caught up with Taxi Driver in content and subject matter, but most make it feel much better, both in reality and in the fact that it was almost prescient in the direction a large portion of modern cinema would take. I think it's a very good movie.
I've always loved Chinatown.
Always good to hear your thoughts Mark, interesting to hear what it must of been like to watch these films on the big screen (presumably), the 70s is certainly a fascinating period in film history and a lot of my favourite films were created during it, so it's interesting to see how these films have changed and impacted on others over time. Like you said, nowadays the violence in
Taxi Driver was nothing 'shocking' for me or more importantly 'unusual', it doesn't seem as disturbing as it would once have perhaps, when I first watched the film I immediately liked Travis Bickle and his character, and the film didn't leave me with a bad taste, fortunately
I know you didn't give
The Master a very favourable rating either, but the cinematography and sound is definitely one of the best things about it for me, hopefully in the future people will see the actual film as a great and watchable character study too, although I could equally understand why someone would fail to connect, or even like, Joaquin Pheonix's character.
And I thought that you were a fan of
Chinatown and that you had it in your top 100 (which I just checked
), your comments pretty much echo mine, I loved Huston's smaller role in the film and as I am interested in noir (and films in general, I guess) he's someone whose films I need to watch eventually like
The Maltese Falcon and
The Asphalt Jungle, the non-noir
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a film which I actually have ready to watch and I know you also love from your top 100 and avatar
The other three shouldn't be too hard to predict either if you really think about it, I'm actually torn over the order of my top four at the moment 
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