Review of Taxi Driver (1976) by Sindri — 18 Feb 2011

Classic psychological drama - The Palme d'Or wiener from 1976 is a realistic depiction of a paranoid bachelor who lives in the shadow of himself and in the shadow of a condemnable society. Travis Bickle is a disillusioned Vietnam-veteran who lives in Manhattan and works at nights driving a taxi in New York City, a town he thinks is infested by animals and scum who should be terminated.

He lives alone, has no friends and only talks to his colleagues at the cafeteria where they often hang out, but when he one night meets twelve year old Iris, a prostitute and runaway, his less apparent charitable side is awakened, and he decides to do everything he can to get her away from the street life.

Martin Scorsese inculcated his name in Cinema history with this metaphoric vision of a USA in the aftermath of the Vietnam war where chaos and anarchy ravages along steaming streets. At the center of the story stands Travis Bickle, a loner with sociopathic tendencies who carries evident marks from the Vietnam war.

The pitiful creature who wanders around in an alienated and doomed society with illusions of greatness, a quality which saves him from becoming a defeatist, get's as supposed to most people witness the night life in the streets of New York so ingoing that he becomes demoralized by the repetitive deprivation he sees.

Paul Schrader's misantrophical, socially critical and chronologically told screenplay is an urgent character study about one individuals compromising behavior and moral downfall. If Bickle is a disguised Christ figure as the ingenious ending implies, or a full-blooded sociopath seeking redemption, is left for the viewer to interpret.

The only thing one can determine, which is also a reassurance, is that Travis Bickle is a fictional character, not a real person. "Taxi Driver" is told through Robert De Niro's voice-over, and the whole film is seen from Bickle's perspective.

A melancholic and often demanding point of view to follow as one realizes, already after the awkward scene where he shocks and repulses the beautiful campaign assistant Betsy by taking her out on a date to see a pornographic movie, that he is a doomed character who has burned all his bridges before they where even built.

Bickle is personified with sharp authenticity and emphatically authority by Robert De Niro, who was nominated for best actor in 1976. What is so masterful with Martin Scorsese's classic psychological drama is that the essential cinematic elements converges, reflects the main characters darkened soul and is compressed into an eminent compositions of style and form.

Another brilliant aspect is Scorsese's balanced mix of genre, where he navigates within film-noir, horror and western. The minimal rays of hope in this metaphorical inferno of a film, occurs in the sporadic and liberating moments when Scorsese drags the viewer out of the main characters frenetic mind.