Review of Taxi Driver (1976) by Marlon B — 11 Apr 2018

I just re-watched this recently due to boredom, and despite having seen it countless times, it unsurprisingly held up. There isn't much I can say about this movie that hasn't been said already. We're all familiar with the mohawk, the climactic bloodbath, and the famous quote, but there's more to the film than that. Taxi Driver isn't so much a movie but as an experience. Watching it is like experiencing a nightmare. It is one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen and the most disturbing aspect comes from just how relatable it is.

We see the character of Travis Bickle in ourselves at our worst: when we are suffering, lonely, or pissed off. De Niro and Scorsese created not only one of the most iconic characters, but a living, breathing portrait of humanity that slowly crumbles under isolation and detachment in the neon hell of New York City. Travis Bickle is a modern day Sisyphus, doomed to wander the streets of hell as his life goes on over and over and over again. We watch as he slowly turns from a lost and traumatized veteran to a machine-like mass killer, and we are with him throughout the whole journey.

It doesn't have the high budget like most of Scorsese's later films, but Taxi Driver still succeeds on a technical level as well as a story level. Scorsese's direction and camerawork are on point; De Niro gives a raw, unflinching performance (not to mention the great supporting cast); Paul Schrader wrote one of the greatest screenplays of all time; the cinematography by Michael Chapman is hallucinogenic; and Bernard Herrmann delivered a fantastic jazz score which alternates between romantic and ominous. All these elements make for an engaging character study like no other.

Taxi Driver takes a lot of the last third of its plot from John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers and its nice to see Scorsese pay tribute to his idol without blatantly plagiarizing (I'm talking to you Tarantino).

Although this was made in the 70s, it is a film which doesn't age. It remains just as relevant now as it was then, if not more so.