Riding around town

I have been thinking about Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver for a while now, since I saw it last. I was really impressed by the way filmmakers moved about the city. Many elements, from Bernard Herrmann‘s score to the cinematography and generally Scoresese’s choices, are superb. There is a good sense of movement and rhythm. This is Herrmann’s last score and it is very impressive–conveying subtlety and a metered pace of an unhurried cab. (Terence Blanchard‘s score for Spike Lee‘s 25th Hour also had a very good pacing and measured beat; I’ll compare these two scores later.)

One interesting note from Wikipedia:

In the original screenplay Sport, as well as other minor characters, were black. Scorsese thought that this would make the film appear to be racist, and they were changed to white roles.