Review of Taxi Driver (1976) by Migz P — 19 Aug 2012

Taxi Driver is a brilliantly subversive film. Trevor (De Niro) is an ex-Marine who is unable to switch off once he returns to civilian life. The audience witnesses his decent into a psychopathic state climaxing in a suicidal blaze of glory. Trevor takes up taxi driving to do something useful with his insomnia. The taxicab is a metaphor for male drifting loneliness, reinforced by the cityscape of New York. The city is the classic place where one feels the loneliest because people surround them. The city is also the place where people can be crazy and get away with it because of its large-scale, anonymity is easier. Trevor is a contradiction, which continually reinforces his psychoses. Betsy (Shepard), a woman Trevor becomes obsessed with, brings this element out. Trevor takes Betsy to see a pornographic film on their first date. He both desires to sully her and to driver her away so he can continue is solitary existence. His goal is to purify the world and himself but he simultaneously continues to pollute himself with pills and pornography. This pollution prevents him from ever achieving his goals.

Trevor is sent on his psychotic vigilante mission once Betsy breaks it off with him and his encounter with a vengeful husband (Scorsese) who is bent on killing his adulterous wife. Trevor's mission is to cleanse the streets from scum, prostitutes, pimps, junks, etc. inspired by a local politician's slogan "we are the people" urging people to rise up against injustice and corruption. A 12-year-old prostitute named Iris (Foster) is a reoccurring character through out the film, who becomes a major focus of Trevor's mission to purify. Trevor encourages Iris to get out of prostitution. After Trevor's failed attempt to kill Palintine (the politician) Trevor returns to Iris's apartment. Trevor proceeds to kill all the men involved in pimping Iris. He runs out of bullets and is unable to commit suicide. The taxi driver, however, in a subversive twist, is held up as a hero who saves a minor from a life in prostitution. The film ends as it begins with Trevor driving around the streets of New York to commit some other unknown atrocity in the future.

Scorsese does some really interesting and dynamic camera work in the Taxi Driver. For instance, the camera focuses on Trevor in a room and then will pan/ dolly around the room. The camera will then come back to Trevor. This is seen in the first scene when Trevor walks into the cab office. This was very unusual camera movement at the time. Other interesting shot is after the shoot out in Iris's apartment, where the camera dollies from the roof looking down over Trevor, out of the room over the dead bodies, down the camera and out into the street.

The performances are superb in Taxi Driver and the bar is obviously set by De Niro. As Cybill Shepherd said De Niro is a 'master of underplaying.' De Niro put a lot of work into preparing for this role. Before shooting began De Niro got a taxi driver's license and actually drove around NY. De Niro also worked a lot with Jodie Foster (then 12 yrs old) taking her to dinners all over the city. Initially, he did not speck to her, so she would mess about, talk to other people in the dinner and play with her food. After about the third time he started practicing their lines until Foster became comfortable with him to the point of boredom. Once he had established this and she knew her lines off by heart he started to improvise. Harvey Keitel playing Iris's pimp, Sport, put a lot of work into developing his character, which was originally a minor role. Keitel developed his image and lines, particularly the slow dancing scene with Iris, basing his lines on something that would be in a Barry Manilow song.

This is a must see film for all film-buffs.