Taxi Driver is a towering classic of American cinematic power. Martin Scorsese teams up with one of the most intense actors of our generation to create a masterpiece of urban alienation. Paul Schrader's magnificent script paints a portrait of loneliness in the largest city of the world. Travis never once enters into a meaningful relationship with any character anywhere in the film. He is the most hopelessly alone person I've ever witnessed on film.
Despite having an unsurpassed shoot-out bloodbath and having a timeless and touching storyline, the aspect that I like most about Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is the music. Bernard Herrmann provides a melancholy feeling to the movie. This is perfect because Travis Bickle's loneliness is the heart of the story.
The script is brilliant because the detail is engaging but it is this descent into a very modern type of madness that drives the film forward. Travis has just enough about him that is recognisable that it makes it so easy to go along with the rest of his madness. Scorsese injects a real understanding of the place and a real sense of foreboding into even the earliest scenes. He inserts clever and meaningful shots into scenes that other directors might just have filmed straight and his choice of scene and shot compliments the script is depicting Travis descending into madness. What makes the film even better is De Niro showing the type of form that makes his recent form such a major disappointment. He is outstanding as he moves Travis from being relatively normal to being eaten up from the inside out. His eventual implosion is impressive but it is only as impressive as the gradual slide he depicts over the course of the film.
DeNiro alone is worth the price of admission, and this classic is probably the role that received the most bravado. He does every pause, smirk, and stare in exactly the right time. He transformed a despicable and psychotic character into a lonely and desperate man, who the audience can relate to and understand. His scenes of him talking to himself in the mirror was entertaining, yet terrifying at the same time. He flat out 'dominated' and transformed himself into Travis Bickle.
A transformation of that magnitude is undeniably rare, even to this day. Tom Hanks depicting Forrest Gump, Heath Ledger portraying the Joker in the Dark Knight, Marlon Brando portraying Vito Corleone in The Godfather, Daniel Day Lewis portraying Daniel Plainview in There Will be Blood, and Malcolm Macdowell portraying Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange are a few of the rare cinematical performances of classic transformation that I can relate to. All except Malcolm Macdowell, won oscars for their respective roles, including DeNiro for this film. This alone is what gives this authentic masterpiece its title. He set a new standard.
Travis Bickle is a Vietnam veteran who cannot sleep at nights, so he decided to work long shifts at night driving a taxicab. As Travis drives around New York City, his feelings and emotion soon show: he is disgusted and angry at sleaze in the world, he hates pimps, and he is prejudiced against blacks.
Travis then falls to a beautiful campaign worker named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), and he persuaded her to go on a date with him. Betsy is clearly intrigued by Travis' character, so she agreed. Their relationship is going well, but when Travis made a mistake on bringing her to an X-rated movie, she decided to ignore him.
In a later conversation with a fellow cab driver named Wizard (Peter Boyle), it is shown that Travis is on verge of going psychotic. The next sequences show Scorsese's genius. We clearly see how Travis slowly creates his plans and how he prepares himself. DeNiro's narration shows signs of breakdown, saying things like `here is a man who cannot take it anymore' and `loneliness has followed me all my life.'
Travis also befriends a twelve-year-old prostitute named Iris, played by a young Jodie Foster. Travis tries to convince her that she is hanging out with scums, and that she should be at school and making friends. One of the best acting scenes I have seen is when Travis talks with Iris in a restaurant. As Travis tries to convince Iris to give up prostitution, she manages to keep a steady face but clearly is suffering inside. Travis' emotion is clearly anger but he tries to hold it because he does not want to scare Iris. Foster and DeNiro play the scene with wonderful realism and emotion.
Overall this is an impressive and morally depressing film that deserves its place in cinematic history. The portrayal of a city and a man slipping into moral insanity is convincing and engaging and it shows how well to "do" modern madness and the effects of the moral void on certain aspects of society. Scorsese directs as a master despite this being at an early stage in his career while De Niro is chillingly effective as he simply dominates the film in quiet moments and quotable moments alike. The hypnotic cinematography is a standout, as if your seeing the harsh & gritty New York streets and twisted people through the eyes of Travis when he is driving his cab. A great screenplay, a stunning score by Bernard Herrmann and a superb atmosphere created. I rarely use phrases like "modern classic" because I think they are lazy but this is one film that certainly deserves such a label.
This performance defined a genre of cinema in the 1970's. It would give new meaning to the acting phase of 'transforming' into the films title character. Robert De Niro accomplished this feat. Other actors had done it prior to him, but not in the same manner as De Niro in my opinion. Two years prior, in a sequel to one of the biggest perrenial cinematic landmarks in the history of film in the Godfather, De Niro potrayed Vito Corelone, and made it, quite possibly, superior to the original classic. This will be debated forever, but many believe that De Niro portraying Vito Corelone might have been better than Brando's original breathtaking performance as the italian mob boss; the performance that some consider to be the best performance by any on screen performer of all time. De Niro was outstanding and the star yes, winning the best actor oscar in 1974, but the combined performances of Al Pacino, Robert Duvall and the rest of that stellar cast also contributed to that films greatness and overshadowed his amazing and grand performance as a whole.
Taxi Driver puts him in the spotlight in a limelight that he shares with nobody. It is with this performance, that a legend of cinema, and one of the godfathers of acting transformation, was ultimately born and cast into the stratosphere of the profession that we call 'acting.' De Niro is one of the few performers that defines the term, and he conveys his legend and individual greatness in every character he portrays. Vito Corleone in the Godfather II put him on the map of hollywood stars, but the portrayal of Travis Bickle made him an instant legend in the mind of every moviegoers subconscious. It is hard to think of hollywood and not think of Robert De Niro. He is a man among men.
This is definitely a movie that everyone should see. It relates to every single one of us as individuals on some level and passes along some very important messages. Robert De Niro is one of the top performers of our generation, and although his portrayal of Vito Corleone in the Godfather II put him on the map of hollywood stars, his stardom was born with this 'performance for the ages' portrayal of Travis Bickle.
One of the greatest movies of all time, simply put.
A pure modern classic.
Taxi Driver. Enough Said.
