Taxi Driver

A movie that has forever changed history. What to say? DeNiro as an insomniac Travis Bickle who treads the line between hero and sociopath has become one of the landmark performances in New Hollywood. Strong supporting performances by Harvey Keitel as a creepy (and slightly gay) John, Cybill Shepard as a yuppie campaign pollster, and Jodie Foster as an under-aged prostitute. Young DeNiro really resembles Don Draper which give the film an interesting subtext when you consider Draper's mother was a whore and he was a vet and is loner (with a drinking problem). Overall another masterful partnership between Bobby and Marty, though I prefer Raging Bull.

King Kong

I actually was surprised at the special effects in this. Yes is is puppetry superimposed on the film, but it has pretty good editing considering it's from 1933. It's funny how politically incorrect films were back then--the Skull Island residents are a cross between tribal Africans, Polynesians, and appear to speak something resembling Hindi. You can really tell that back then they were still figuring out the proper pacing of action on screen versus exposition--the cadence of dialogue is too fast and there is little time for the actors to, well, act. Sadly I still prefer this to the Peter Jackson remake.