Review of Taxi Driver (1976) by Lawrence G — 24 Sep 2014

Taxi Driver is a modern masterpiece of carnage about a man on the very edge of sanity's tight rope who completely loses his footing. The film defined the careers of so many involved including Robert Deniro, Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Sybil Sheppard, and the rest of it's stars (as well as by proxy Quintin Tatintino) but is it a western? If your classification for such a genre is based solely on the time period then no it isn't. HOWEVER in this post modern age of genre mix and matches I find Taxi driver is highly a western based on several elements.

Firstly it has it's anti hero in the role of Travis Bickle, yes he is a racist, homophobic general piece of crap however he also reflects qualities of a classic, gritty anti hero to match the films tone. Also Travis represents the wilderness, he's the wild man in a modern day wilderness of 1970's New York filled with robbers, pimps and other nefarious nasty low lives so in contrast as loathsome as his character is there are arguably worst people in that world. This leads me to my critiquing of this as a film in and of it's self.

So, what worked about this film? Firstly Deniro is the ONLY actor who could play this character which is an astonishing feat in and of it's self (the only other examples I can think of is Orson Welles as Kane, Samuel L Jackson as Jules in Pulp Fiction, Peter O'Toole as T.E Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia and Andy Serkis as Gollum/Smegoul in Lord of the rings). Another major plus to the film is the pairing of the astonishing screen writer Paul Schrader whose dialogue and characters are VERY interesting even if they are extremely nefarious and dirty. However while I don't believe in the auteur theory which attributes all of a film's prose to the director alone Taxi Driver most definitely is an altruistic film I'm one who's FAR too indecisive on things in general to decide upon what I think is "THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE" HOWEVER I do think IN MY MIND Taxi Driver ties with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights as the greatest films ever made. Keep in mind that isn't in a personal preference sense rather the sum of it's parts.

While many would argue for this title to go unopposed towards Kane I VERY respectively disagree on a few points. People have been constantly praising Kane for being able to find so many things in so many shots of Kane WHICH IS TRUE, HOWEVER I feel that Scorsese masters this by branching outside of the comfort and control a studio film could bring one like Welles and instead is able to get more of that in the city of New York I can't help but feel how I've always felt that SCORSESE KNOWS NEW YORK better then any other director. I know this is another bold statement but in this film he seems to get the soul of New York at night beyond what other film makers get and is able to perfectly show the darker more cynical side of New York tourists never see. I would argue Spike Lee is able to do the same but I've embarrassingly only seen two of his films.

I also feel that within every shot is a different film which could also be argued for Kane. I also feel that while Kane at the time perfected the role of a man turning into a villain I feel at this time Breaking Bad has perfected that. I also feel that to some extent audiences should like Kane in the beginning much like Walter White HOWEVER I think Scorsese and Schrader have done something all the more bold by making a truly villainous person the focal point in the story only made remotely sympathetic by us as the audience's physical proximity to the character. Also while in Kane one feels detached from the world of Kane and thus there's less of an emotional pay off I feel Taxi Driver like a Hitchcock film builds it's tension and emotional suspense and by the end you're almost exhausted emotionally the way an effective film should. All in all I could literally go on all day however I feel as for a review I couldn't recommend Taxi Driver high enough for ANYONE interested in film HOWEVER it's not for the squeamish cause it gets DARK.