Review of Taxi Driver (1976) by Conner W — 16 Mar 2014

Travis Bickle: Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up.

"He's a lonely forgotten man desperate to prove he's alive.".

Taxi Driver is a phenomenal film. It's Martin Scorsese's first masterpiece and one that stands up as one of his best films, if not his best, after decades of great filmmaking. This is where all the promise of his first three films, Who's That Knocking at my Door?, Boxcar Bertha and Mean Streets, is fully realized. Taxi Driver is great on many levels. It's a gritty character study, that has elements of a former soldier trying to adjust back into normal society. .

Travis Bickel is a Vietnam War vet who takes the night shift as a taxi driver in New York because he can't sleep at night. You could also call him a stalker. There's a woman, Betsy, who works for a presidential campaign that infatuates Travis and he makes sure he meets her. Then there's the twelve year old prostitute that makes Travis snap and seek out the people who control her. It's a slow build as Travis slowly loses his human side completely. .

There's a great cast of young actors in the early years of their career here. Robert De Niro, Cybil Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Peter Boyle; it doesn't get a whole lot better than that. Robert De Niro gives a haunting portrayal of Travis Bickel and his role here still stands as one of the best of his career. The other standout is the young Jodie Foster, who was always able to play extremely mature young women, as she did in The Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. .

Taxi Driver is a film that cannot go unseen. It's widely considered one of the greatest American movies of all-time and there's good reason for that. There's so many reasons to watch this movie. From Scorsese to Paul Schrader's script to Robert De Niro, it's a film that has it all. .