TV executives think that the programs with the highest ratings are what TV viewers want, rather than what they settle for. - Pauline Kael

The critical task is necessarily comparative, and younger people do not truly know what is new.

Kicked in the ribs, the press says "art" when "ouch" would be more appropriate.

De Niro's inflamed, brimming eyes are the focal point of the compositions. He's Travis Bickle, an outsider who can't find any point of entry into human society. He drives nights because he can't sleep anyway; surrounded by the night world of the uprooted — whores, pimps, transients — he hates New York with a Biblical fury, and its filth and smut obsess him. This ferociously powerful film is like a raw, tabloid version of Notes from the Underground. Martin Scorsese achieves the quality of trance in some scenes, and the whole movie has a sense of vertigo. The cinematographer, Michael Chapman, gives the street life a seamy, rich pulpiness.