Review of Taxi Driver (1954) by Joe C — 04 Jan 2015

Played..no, lived by De Niro, the anarchic Bickle remains a frighteningly identifiable outsider icon stalking Scorsese's slick, sick NYC. To a country still sulking from its fruitless efforts in Vietnam, and the realization that the whole "peace and love" movement didn't amount to anything, Taxi Drive hit the American psyche like a sledgehammer.

Deeply unsettling and unrelentingly bleak, Taxi Driver is an attention-grabber that plunges viewers into the waking nightmare of alienation, obsession, and violence experienced by its troubled central character, all while being serenaded by Bernard Herrmann's classic score.

Not exactly family fare in other words, but an incredible film that very much reflected the disillusionment and general unease of its time.