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Taxi Driver (1976)

Dir: Martin Scorsese.

A chilling and hard hitting study of a Vietnam vet on the edge of psychosis.

Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) is a lost man in a City and a Country he know longer feels part of. Taking long night shifts as a Taxi Driver he expereinces all the evils of big city life. From drugs to prostitution. Slowly, as he vainly attempts to hold down any kind of a normal exsistence, he becomes more angry, more alienated and more psychotic. When he mees a child prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster) Travis ultimately meets his destiny........

Few films, if any, carry the power of Scorsese's Masterwork.
NO film has such an intense, multi-layered, contradiction filled character as Travis Bickle.

The teamwork here is amazing, everyone came together at just the right time in their lives and careers, it would never be repeated (take a look at one of the most disappointing films of the last few years in "Bringing Out The Dead"), it was a marriage made in often personal and career Hell for some, but a Hell in this case that became total movie Heaven.

Robert De Niro has never been better, his performance as the moralistic, caring, shy, backward and yet dangerously psychotic Travis is the finest thing in the wonderful World of U.S, 70's, adult, hard core Urban Cinema.
The script by a deeply disturbed (at the time) Paul Schrader ranks as one of the best screenplays ever written...nothing simplistic here, nothing easy for the viewer, you have to work, wonderfully work to get all you should get from this film. Add the improvisation by the cast and it's Movie Utopia.

There are few films with such a perfect and 100% on form cast.
All concerned are on razor sharp form.

We have already discussed the outstanding, total immersion in his role work of De Niro (who famously drove a cab to prepare for his role), but what about Jodie Foster? As a child star she did some of her best work and her performance here is simply amazing for a girl of her age, not only in her professional attitude to the explicit content and dialogue but in her rounding out of her tragic character (the real life inspiration for Iris, appear in the film as Fosters fellow child prostitute friend) to such a degree that her (within the whole running time of the film) pretty minor role becomes a towering part of the films dynamic.
Then there's the superb Harvey Keitel, an actor of amazing versatility and bravery he here injects a magnetism to his character 'Sport' (with improv and the famous, gut twisting dance/seduction scene with Foster) that for such a small part he is completely unforgettable.

Even Cybill Shepherd (at a time where she was almost unemployable) does a stand out job as the object of Travis's fantasy World perfection. With able support by the ever reliable Peter Boyle as a veteran Cab driver, Scorsese himself as a deranged passenger (one of the films highlights) and some very funny (but skillfully in context) work by writer/Director/actor Albert Brooks as Betsy's boss, and perfectly cast small time roles (look out for the great Victor Argo as a shop owner, an actor who is sadly not appreciated enough...just look at some of the films he's been in!! "King Of New York", "Taxi Driver", "True Romance", "Bad Lt") all add up to casting perfection. A once in a lifetime event.

The music by the late (it was his last score and he died just after finishing it, sadly not seeing the films success and impact) Bernard Herrmann is of pivotal importance to the films perfection, no other score now seems even worth contemplating...it's almost a character in itself.
The Cinematography (the wonderful Taxi driving scenes are just that...De Niro driving around with the film crew squashed up in the Cab!) by Michael Chapman is in itself just as much a contradiction as Travis. It's dirty, sleazy, harsh, violent and yet beautiful and passionate. Yet again we have almost another character added...the camera.
It tells us Travis's tale just as much as Schraders dialogue, Scorsese's direction and De Niro's performance.
The make up effects by legend Dick Smith are also top class...the infamous scene where Travis blows off the mans fingers is still a gut puncher.

Overall though this is Scorsese's and De Niro's film, and they have never made a better team.
Many people say they can identify with Travis to a certain degree, and I agree, he is the ultimate loner, the ultimate anti-social. Most of us on here have experienced what he feels in a sense. We just don't let it consume us like he does. His morals are the strangest though, he is out of Society's loop and yet he hates all the things (the drugs, the whores, the pimps, the crime) that the vast majority of Society also hates. I for one don't share (well not completely) his stance on the 'dirty' aspect of big city life as I do like to bath in the odd sinful pleasure, but a lot of his dissatisfaction I do understand. And we would all like to play the 'White Knight' to a damsel in distress!
But Travis is, despite his skill at handling the darker aspects of what he encounters in life, is amazingly backward in his handling of day to day existence. His taking of Betsy (Shepherd) to a Porno Theatre is completely innocent, he really does have no understanding of how to interact with his fellow Human Beings. It's a funny, but also sad scene that reveals to us so much of his character.

What's ultimately tragic about Travis is that he IS proud of his Country (his time in The Marines is the most explicit example) and wants it cleaner, less crime riddled, not to be drained by the Human parasites, a purer Country...a nicer Society.
But there is NO way he could ever fit in to this Society, he would not be able to function...he could never be happy in his perfect Society, NO Society.
With the 'filth' gone, he would simply have to fight against something else.
He was so obviously lost after his Army discharge without any wars to fight.
And it must be remembered that Travis is also a racist. Not a cross burning nut, but it's simmering underneath, his reaction to the Blacks in the diner and to the ones that walk past him is hostile and it's a deep rooted prejudice. It's shared by most of the people he hangs with (and would almost certainly, especially given the time, have been instilled into him to some degree during his childhood) and his 'purer' Society would probably be also White.

But this prejudice is also obviously misguided, the ultimate showdown with the 'filth' is a showdown between Whites...'Sport' and his crew are all white, probably Italian Americans, Jewish Americans...certainly not Black. The disturbed man in his cab, so well played by Scorsese, is an Italian American, the prostitute groping man he picks up (who tells him to get a move on) is obviously a pretty well off White man.
The cross-cut of the 'filth' shows it to be all colours and creeds...but Travis does not seem to see it this way...he sees the 'filth' as 'Black filth' if it's the Coloureds, but simply 'filth' where the 'filth' is White.

And his morality is so screwed. Look at the gun dealer (played by a real life dealer and hustler) Travis is perfectly happy to buy a lethal arsenal from him, something ANYONE could also do...it's guaranteed he also deals to the 'filth'...but his whole attitude changes when he is also offered drugs by the dealer, he is openly hostile against such a suggestion, forgetting he has just paid this DRUG DEALER over $1000 for the 'acceptable' guns! Money that will be used to buy more drugs...or to buy more guns TO SELL TO THE 'FILTH'. Travis is FUNDING the very people he wants to get rid of!

This is a film of such greatness, such perfection, that everyone should not only see it, but own it.
One of the TRUE cinematic greats.

The DVD of this is fantastic with some great extras and a lovely transfer...
Sadly the colour was de-saturated at the Censors insistence (much to the annoyance of Smith and Chapman) during the final shootout to lessen the impact of the blood. The original negatives of the sequence (Chapman discovered when he planned to replace the colour for a laser disk release) have degraded. But this does not explain why (with the digital technology of DVD) this sequence has not since been colour corrected via computer. It's a shame, especially as in the excellent documentary we have a screen-wipe effect, on a still from the sequence, that restores the original crimson of the blood.