Review of Taxi Driver (1976) by Spangle — 04 Apr 2014

I did not like this one as much as I expected to, but I liked it a lot all the same. I was initially going to rate this a little lower, but I paused and realized that I all of the major aspects that I look for were good to great in this film.

The acting, led by Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, was phenomenal, especially those two. Martin Scorsese is one of the best filmmakers around and this film is no exception as his direction is on point and provided for some really cool shots of New York City, especially those from inside the taxi cab.

The writing here was also good with plenty quotable lines and providing for a fantastic characterization of our lead, Travis Bickle. It was so painfully obvious who he was, that you could almost predict his actions before he did them, which is a sign of a great script.

We really become invested Travis and he truly comes to life in this film. Ultimately, that is the film's "claim to fame". I do not love the story and the film can be quite slow, almost boring, at times, but at the end of the day, the film is a class-A character study that really hits all of its marks.