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Here's another rave review, for the #2 film on my top 10....
Taxi Driver - 1976, Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster
"…You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here…" This memorable, improvised quote is the aspect from the film Taxi Driver (1976) that has become an icon in pop culture, but it’s really just one line in a film where every line is excellent. Paul Schrader’s screenwriting is brutal and personal. There’s a hard, violent edge to this story, and its truth hits harder than its violence. This movie is a character study. It is one of the best character studies ever made, in fact. It’s in the same league as 12 Angry Men (1957) and Citizen Kane (1941), although few would group them together because of their genre differences.
With Taxi Driver, we see the character Travis Bickle (De Niro) becoming numbed to the ugly world that he has consumed himself with. He becomes emotionally distant. He has associated all of humanity with porno theaters, pimps and killers. Ultimately, Taxi Driver is about one man’s self-imposed distancing from reality. Bickle is deeply saddened by his own isolation; in narration he calls himself “God’s lonely man”. With no way to rid himself of insomnia and overwhelming loneliness, he builds a violent grudge against the ugliest part of the city... a part of the city he brought himself to be exposed to night after night.
At the beginning of the film, he applies for a job as a taxi driver. He’ll work from 6pm to 6am. He tells the man he’s applying to that he wants the job because he “can’t sleep nights”. He gets the job, and he observes. Michael Chapman’s cinematography is perfect in bringing some of the most hellish parts of New York City vibrantly to life. Along with the rest of the film’s tone, the photography is dark, murky, and bordering on documentary-style. Almost instantly, Travis’s aggressive voice-over comes barreling into the picture, powered by Bernard Herrmann’s jazzy score.
Travis meets a girl named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) and thinks that he’s fallen in love. Really, he’s fallen in love with the idea of a woman who lives outside of the filthy crowds that he despises so much. She works at a campaign office. Bickle knows nothing about politics, but he wants Betsy’s affection. He tries to romance her, but he has alienated himself from people, and he genuinely doesn't know how to treat a woman. On their first date, he takes her to a porno theater, and says "lots of different couples go to these movies." As should be expected, she leaves halfway through in disgust and distances herself from him. He tries to apologize to her, saying he doesn't know much about movies, but he eventually realizes that he has lost Betsy.
This is too much for Travis to take. He stumbles across a twelve year-old prostitute named Iris (played to perfection by a very young Jodie Foster) and feels the sudden need to protect her from the sleazy pimps who sucked her into her nightmarish lifestyle. Travis wants to do something big, something different, something that will help to "clean the scum off the streets." The narration during the film becomes even darker and more menacing as the movie progresses. He becomes more certain that he has a mission and begins to buy guns and weight train daily.
We know that whatever Travis wants to do, it isn't going to be pretty. As an audience, we are fully aware that he is not mentally stable, and that his contempt at the criminals of New York could drive him to do almost anything. Watching this character is like watching a wolf. He quietly surveys his prey for the first three quarters of the film, and in the bloody conclusion, he pounces. Martin Scorsese's direction is incredibly well-executed, and the film is focused entirely on the character of Travis Bickle while also keeping a strong hold of the audience's attention.
The dedication and intensity of Robert De Niro's performance is the icing on the cake, the highlight of a movie with no weaknesses. Travis Bickle is debatably one of the most complex characters ever written for screen, and De Niro’s performance brings him to his full potential. Few actors can wield so much threatening power while also drawing empathy and sadness from their audience. His acting here is up there with the explosive work he did four years later with Raging Bull (1980).
All in all, this is a movie in which everything pieced together flawlessly. It is an important movie not only as an example of 1970's cinema, but as a part of movie history. It goes beyond technical greatness – it’s an emotionally poignant picture about isolation, and society’s potentially dangerous implications on somebody’s mentality. Ultimately, Travis Bickle is just a man who was lost in the crowds, and we have all felt this way or known someone who has felt this way. We know the killer in Taxi Driver, and that’s what makes him believable as a hero.
MY RATING: 5/5
Taxi Driver - 1976, Martin Scorsese
Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster
"…You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here…" This memorable, improvised quote is the aspect from the film Taxi Driver (1976) that has become an icon in pop culture, but it’s really just one line in a film where every line is excellent. Paul Schrader’s screenwriting is brutal and personal. There’s a hard, violent edge to this story, and its truth hits harder than its violence. This movie is a character study. It is one of the best character studies ever made, in fact. It’s in the same league as 12 Angry Men (1957) and Citizen Kane (1941), although few would group them together because of their genre differences.
With Taxi Driver, we see the character Travis Bickle (De Niro) becoming numbed to the ugly world that he has consumed himself with. He becomes emotionally distant. He has associated all of humanity with porno theaters, pimps and killers. Ultimately, Taxi Driver is about one man’s self-imposed distancing from reality. Bickle is deeply saddened by his own isolation; in narration he calls himself “God’s lonely man”. With no way to rid himself of insomnia and overwhelming loneliness, he builds a violent grudge against the ugliest part of the city... a part of the city he brought himself to be exposed to night after night.
At the beginning of the film, he applies for a job as a taxi driver. He’ll work from 6pm to 6am. He tells the man he’s applying to that he wants the job because he “can’t sleep nights”. He gets the job, and he observes. Michael Chapman’s cinematography is perfect in bringing some of the most hellish parts of New York City vibrantly to life. Along with the rest of the film’s tone, the photography is dark, murky, and bordering on documentary-style. Almost instantly, Travis’s aggressive voice-over comes barreling into the picture, powered by Bernard Herrmann’s jazzy score.
Travis meets a girl named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) and thinks that he’s fallen in love. Really, he’s fallen in love with the idea of a woman who lives outside of the filthy crowds that he despises so much. She works at a campaign office. Bickle knows nothing about politics, but he wants Betsy’s affection. He tries to romance her, but he has alienated himself from people, and he genuinely doesn't know how to treat a woman. On their first date, he takes her to a porno theater, and says "lots of different couples go to these movies." As should be expected, she leaves halfway through in disgust and distances herself from him. He tries to apologize to her, saying he doesn't know much about movies, but he eventually realizes that he has lost Betsy.
This is too much for Travis to take. He stumbles across a twelve year-old prostitute named Iris (played to perfection by a very young Jodie Foster) and feels the sudden need to protect her from the sleazy pimps who sucked her into her nightmarish lifestyle. Travis wants to do something big, something different, something that will help to "clean the scum off the streets." The narration during the film becomes even darker and more menacing as the movie progresses. He becomes more certain that he has a mission and begins to buy guns and weight train daily.
We know that whatever Travis wants to do, it isn't going to be pretty. As an audience, we are fully aware that he is not mentally stable, and that his contempt at the criminals of New York could drive him to do almost anything. Watching this character is like watching a wolf. He quietly surveys his prey for the first three quarters of the film, and in the bloody conclusion, he pounces. Martin Scorsese's direction is incredibly well-executed, and the film is focused entirely on the character of Travis Bickle while also keeping a strong hold of the audience's attention.
The dedication and intensity of Robert De Niro's performance is the icing on the cake, the highlight of a movie with no weaknesses. Travis Bickle is debatably one of the most complex characters ever written for screen, and De Niro’s performance brings him to his full potential. Few actors can wield so much threatening power while also drawing empathy and sadness from their audience. His acting here is up there with the explosive work he did four years later with Raging Bull (1980).
All in all, this is a movie in which everything pieced together flawlessly. It is an important movie not only as an example of 1970's cinema, but as a part of movie history. It goes beyond technical greatness – it’s an emotionally poignant picture about isolation, and society’s potentially dangerous implications on somebody’s mentality. Ultimately, Travis Bickle is just a man who was lost in the crowds, and we have all felt this way or known someone who has felt this way. We know the killer in Taxi Driver, and that’s what makes him believable as a hero.
MY RATING: 5/5