![Midnights at the Baxter presents 'Taxi Driver' [Movies]](/sites/default/files/u4217/taxi%20driver.jpg "Midnights at the Baxter presents 'Taxi Driver' [Movies]")
Remember Robert De Niro? You younger folks reading this may only know him from recent popular dreck like “New Year’s Eve” or the “Meet the Parents” series. It’s a shame, really – and even if you’ve seen him in more hip fare, such as the hyper-violent “Machete,” one wouldn’t look at this man and think of greatness incarnate. No, for that, you have to go back… back through the 90’s, back through the late 80’s, and come to rest in the mid-1980’s to 1970’s. Therein lies some of his greatest films, where he worked with Terry Gilliam (“Brazil”), Sergio Leone (“Once Upon a Time in America”), Francis Ford Coppolla (De Niro is THE reason “The Godfather Part II” is considered the best in the trilogy), and, of course, Martin Scorsese – who was much grittier back then, by the way.
“Gritty”… that is the only way to describe the masterpiece “Taxi Driver,” which tells the story of one of the greatest film characters of that era: Travis Bickle. Bickle, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, now lives in New York City and takes a job as a night-time taxi driver to deal with his insomnia. The depravity of the city takes hold of him, leading to a violent climax.
Baxter Avenue Theater presents a midnight screening of “Taxi Driver” tomorrow night (tomorrow being Saturday, April 14 [which, incidentally, is the birthday of the great Charlie Chaplin]). It is a near-perfect film, one which can only be enhanced by viewing on the large screen. It is an opportunity not to be missed.
Baxter Avenue Theater is located at 1250 Bardstown Road. Theater information and advance ticket sales can be found at the theater’s webite.
(After viewing the film, be sure to check in with the Movie Meltdown podcast. This week’s episode is an in-depth discussion of “Taxi Driver.”)
Image: Internet Movie Database
