Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Taxi Driver (1976)

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Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 02-23-2008, 10:18 PM:

Taxi Driver (1976)
6 Reels
1.85:1 Flat? (1.66:1-safe) [**]
Dolby A [*]
Conventional silver-applicated track
DFS Depot
MGM / Columbia Pictures / Sony
Kodak "386" 5386 acetate-base Eastman EXR Color Print film

[*] There is some question as to the sound-format of this print. There is no pertinent labeling from the negative; some unknown projectionist has written 1.85:1 SRD on paper tape. Taxi Driver opened in Feb 1976 (($27M gross), but Dolby A was hardly prevalent then, and not featured in the stack ads, so I suspect original prints were mono.

LA Times February 25, 1976 p. F14:

The 20th anniversary rerelease in 1996 ($1M gross; 8 theatres expanding to 15) was advertised as "now in Dolby," and it seems to've been a puny release. I don't seem to have access to the 1996 LA Times, but in New York it played at Film Forum (no studio ads):

New York Times February 18, 1996 p. H23:

I speculate that the 1996 release was a Dolby A release, on the assumption that the rep houses were considered unlikely to have SR deployed making A a better choice.

This print (1998) appears to be a Dolby print of some sort, since my Cat.150E decodes it as having significant surround content, though I do wonder if it was properly encoded, since inspection suggests there's a significant left-bias. Listening, we don't really find pumping artifacts in either format, but A appears to sound nominally better, with some low-level details being more audible.

[**] Also, Sony Pictures Repertory's online database lists Taxi Driver as 1.66:1. It is safe at that aspect ratio.

==== Print-specific info
DFS Print #00001.
DFS label: "Vision / Dolby"
DFS Seattle (print label) -> Omaha (booking label) -> Boston (will return)
1998 date-code (Eastman EXR Color Print Film 5386)

Quality: Fair (6/10). Intermittant emulsion damage (a few bright green lines for some pieces of some reels), some platter damage; also a hotspot burn on R1. Excellent colors.

Phare cues timed for 7+1 seconds; original lab cues still present but at 7 seconds from the end, i.e. missing about a second at the end of each reel.

OK, Bill and Michael. Have at it [Smile]

==== Edit notes, etc:
1. Michael, I hypothesized you might be able to actually comment on this without "chit-chat." (I think you mean "correct conclusion from faulty premise.")
2. Removed claim about Dolby A debuting with Logan's Run. That was sloppily-sourced from Wikipedia (sigh...more fool I).
3. It appears my library's ProQuest Historical Newspaper Archive subscription for the LA Times terminates in 1986; this was somewhat of a shock to me, because the NY Times version goes through 2004, and I assumed they were consistent. Wrong again! Edited to remove the implication there were no LA Times ads.
4. Add that it's 1.66:1 -safe; mention note about Sony Rep's database

[ 02-24-2008, 09:41 AM: Message edited by: John Hawkinson ]

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 02-24-2008, 04:25 AM:

quote: jhawk
OK, Bill and Michael. Have at it

Now, John...It wasn't more than a couple of weeks ago that some discussion followed another speculative posting of yours in this same "No chit chat allowed" category. And the subsequent posts resulted in a testy exchange of e-mails between us as well as you going back and editing your original post to remove any wording that invited feedback. So...are you baiting me, or do you have short-term memory loss?

Anyway...your post is again inviting feedback presumably in an attempt to provide information which may be useful to you and others, and attempting to provide useful information is the spirit in which I will post.

quote: jhawk
There is some question as to the sound-format of this print. The 20th anniversary rerelease in 1996 ($1M gross; 8 theatres expanding to 15) was advertised as "now in Dolby," and it seems to've been a puny release. I can't find any LA ads, but in New York it played at Film Forum: New York Times February 18, 1996 p. H23: I can only speculate that the 1996 release was a Dolby A release

I can't say what format your print is in. What I can claim is that for the Los Angeles market, the re-issue was promoted as SR. (Not sure why you couldn't locate any ads; it opened in L.A. the same weekend as it did in New York.)

quote: jhawk
Taxi Driver opened in Feb 1976, but Dolby A didn't debut until Logan's Run in June 1976, so original prints were clearly in mono.

Faulty conclusion due to a faulty premise. I'd expect better from an MIT guy! [Razz]

With all of the recent Dolby discussion as well as the wealth of data posted here and published elsewhere, I'm surprised by your claim of "Logan's Run" being the first Dolby A release. What is your source for that?!

(Yes, "Taxi Driver" appears to have been mono in its original release. But...Dolby was releasing 35mm Dolby A-encoded tracks at that time and had been doing so for a couple of years by that point. Nor was Dolby the only stereophonic sound format available at the time. "Logan's Run," by the way, was the first **70mm** release to utilize Dolby A noise reduction.)

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 06-04-2009, 10:11 PM:

It has been 466 days since the last post.