MovieChat Forums > Down in the Valley (2005) Discussion > WAY too similar to Taxi Driver

WAY too similar to Taxi Driver

posted 16 years ago by piquebu
6 replies | jump to latest

I watched the actor/writer /director Q&A session before watching the movie and was moved by the director saying how much of the movie's inspiration came from his own childhood.

I was surprised, however, to see so many scenes similar to those of Taxi Driver. The main character, the teen girl and the movie's general theme? Taxi Driver. It's as if the writer(s) took Taxi Driver, took out a few characters, added a few others and then added a Western theme.

I love Edward Norton and would probably pay just to watch him read a phone book. However, this movie (because it was so similar to another) was a disappointment.

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[–] DroogAddict 16 years ago

Especially the scene where Norton is talking to himself in the mirror.
Still, I like the movie. I think the 3rd act is a little sub-par.

[–] BleekersPorkSword 16 years ago

totally felt like they switched it from urban to rural and copied alot from the greatest movie ever T.D.........still Evan killed in it as usual, I bought the dvd, good movie overall.

Accentuate the negative

[–] !!!deleted!!! (19821846) 16 years ago

Let me direct you to a thread that was started 2 years ago about this very thing:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398027/board/flat/62762791?d=62762791#627 62791

Enid:Oh my God. He just ordered a giant glass of milk.
Josh:That's a vanilla milkshake.

[–] jamesericmcgee 16 years ago

I think it's more like Jessie James than Travis Bickell.

[–] przgzr 14 years ago

Norton's character is too similar to deNiro's one, but this is either Norton's or director's fault. The plot, the screenplay, other characters are much too different. You can always find some similarities if you look for them, but if it wasn't for Norton's acting nobody would even get the idea to compare these two movies.

PS: just found a thread mentioning similarities to Badlands. I can agree with that, replace Sheen's character Kit in Badlands by Travis and you'll get the basic plot of Down in the Valley.

[–] Killingforcompany 14 years ago

have you ever heard of a "homage," bro?

you might not want to see any quentin tarantino films if that's how you feel about originality.

the film was much different than taxi driver, which was a character study of isolation and urban alienation. there were some obvious parallels in this story, however, so i can see why the homage was suitable.