Taxi Driver is by far one of Martin Scorsese’s best movies. Gritty, edgy, and with an in-your-face style of filmmaking, it very likely set the tone for the director’s future films (not mention making Robert De Nero very famous).
Is this cult classic available on Netflix, though?
It is, but it’s only available in the US. If you don’t believe us, just use StreamCatcher to check for yourself. It’s an online service that tells you where Netflix titles are available. Just type the movie’s name, and hit Find.
All done?
Told you so. But don’t worry – we’ll show you how quickly unblock this awesome movie right now!
Get Taxi Driver Unblocked on Netflix with One Simple Tool
Just use a VPN – an online service that hides your IP address and encrypts your traffic. By routing your traffic through a server that sits between your device and Netflix, it will hide your geo-location. Basically, Netflix won’t know what country you are form, so it won’t be able to redirect you to your region’s content library (which doesn’t have Taxi Driver).
All you have to do is use a VPN server that’s in the US, and you’ll be good to go. Netflix will think your traffic is coming from a US IP address, so it will let you watch Taxi Driver (and any other US-only titles you want).
Which VPN Should You Use?
We recommend using ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN. We tested numerous VPNs, and found that these two providers are able to consistently unblock Netflix. With other services, we often ended up on the Netflix proxy error page.
ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN probably did so well because they refresh their servers’ IPs very often. So Netflix has a hard time detecting and blacklisting them.
Why Is Taxi Driver Only Available in the US?
It’s due to the way Netflix licenses content. You can learn more about that here, but here’s the main idea – Netflix doesn’t own all the movies and TV series on its platform. So, it has to buy licensing rights from the copyright holders to legally stream them.
When it does that, Netflix tries to get global rights, but that’s not always possible. Here’s why:
- The copyright holder isn’t selling the licensing rights.
- A different streaming site or TV network already bought the licensing rights for certain regions.
- Netflix’s analytics say people in specific countries aren’t interested in the content they want to license. So they don’t buy rights for those regions because it wouldn’t be profitable. It’s not that Netflix are “obsessed with money,” as some would say. It’s more that Netflix spends an absurdly high amount of money on licensing content, so they can’t make investments that don’t pay off.
Whichever the reason, it’s still not fair for you, right? You’re paying for the service like anyone else in the US, so you should be able to watch it.
Well, that’s exactly what you can do if you use a VPN!
How Does Netflix Stop You from Watching Taxi Driver Outside the US?
It uses geo-blocking, which restricts your access based on your current geo-location. It Netflix’s case, it learns what that is by checking your IP address. Here’s how:
- When you visit Netflix, your browser sends connection requests to the site.
- Netflix receives your requests, and checks them. Among other metadata, they contain your IP address.
- Netflix associates your IP with your geo-location, and redirects you to your country’s library.
That’s why hiding your IP with a VPN is the best way to unblock Netflix.
Can’t You Also Unblock Netflix with Tor?
Tor is a privacy network that hides your IP address just like a VPN. But instead of routing your traffic through one server, it routes it though at least three. The result is the same – Netflix only sees the IP (so geo-location) of the Tor server (the last one your traffic passes through).
Considering that, Tor should be a good Netflix unblocker too, right? It’s even free, so that should make it better than a VPN.
Well, we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but no, you can’t use Tor with Netflix. Mostly because it doesn’t work, at least according to official Tor documentation. Our tests also confirm that claim since we weren’t able to unblock Tor with Netflix.
But Let’s Say You Somehow Manage to Do It
You used Tor with Netflix, and it worked. You look up Taxi Driver, ignore the slow response from the site, and get ready to watch it.
But what’s this? Your connection suddenly dropped and/or the movie takes forever to load. Skipping through it doesn’t help since you just deal with tons of buffering.
What’s going on?
Very slow speeds, basically. Tor wasn’t designed for streaming, but privacy. So you won’t get a smooth streaming experience. The network only has around 6,000 servers and nearly two million users. There’s clearly not enough bandwidth to go around.
Oh, and Tor encrypts and decrypts your traffic at least three times. Add to that the fact that it routes your traffic through far-away servers, and your speeds get even more sluggish.
When we tested Tor speeds, we usually got around 2-3 Mbps. That’s way, way lower than the minimum of 25 Mbps Netflix recommends for Ultra HD streaming. It’s still enough for SD quality, but not HD quality.
Whichever way you’re looking at it, you won’t have fun using Tor with Netflix.
The Bottom Line
Taxi Driver is available on Netflix, but only in the US. To watch it, you’ll need to use a VPN and connect to a US server. That way, Netflix will think your traffic is coming from the US, so it’ll let you watch the movie anywhere in the world.
If you know other movies similar to Taxi Driver that are on Netflix, or other ways to unblock titles on the platform, please let us know in the comments below.
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