Is this worth seeing?

Rating: 7/10 (11 September 2008)

This story of a Vietnam vet, Travis Bickle, who becomes increasingly isolated and alienated until he explodes in violence is a fine piece of film-making. When it was over I asked myself if it was worth watching and did not arrive at a definitive "Yes."
Travis works some of the sleaziest streets of New Your City. He drives his taxi against a backdrop of prostitutes, drug dealers, pimps, porno houses, and various lowlifes. He seems repulsed by what he sees, but in other ways obsessed by it.
He tries to make contact with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) who is working on a presidential campaign. She initially shows some interest, but on one of their first times together Travis takes her to a porn movie and she is so disgusted she walks out on the movie as well as on Travis. This scene says a lot about Travis' social ineptitude, but it puzzles the viewer as well--if Travis is so turned off by the sordidness he sees, why participate in it? Before going into the movie he tells Betsy that she will like it and that indicates he is not a stranger to such movies; has he been going to them alone? This plays into the repulsion/obsession theme.
If the sordidness is what is driving Travis over the edge, why is his first target of violence the presidential candidate? Is it a way at striking back at Betsy's rejection, or just the manifestation of a confused mind? When Travis kills all of the lowlifes at the end, he is basically exonerated and applauded. If he had been successful in executing his first target, the movie would have had an entirely different outcome and audience reaction. In judging Travis it should be kept in mind that he could just as well have been an assassin as an avenger.
The acting is terrific. There are some iconic scenes like the taxi emerging from a cloud of steam and DeNiro's "You lookin' at me," scene. Jodie Foster turns in a good performance as a twelve-year-old prostitute and Harvey Keitel is perfect as a hopped up pimp. Interestingly, one of the scariest scenes has Scorsese himself playing a contentious fare in Travis' cab, with murder on his mind.
The original score by Bernard Herrmann alternates between being evocative of the sad and depressing street scenes and being overly intrusive.
I appreciated this as an accomplished work of art, but having been dragged through the hell presented, I was looking for some additional reward or meaning. The storyline of an alienated loner erupting in violence is not exactly breaking news. The one scene that was perhaps the most meaningful to me was between Bickle and his fellow driver "Wizard" (Peter Boyle). In his inarticulate way Bickle tries to tell Wizard that he is having some real problems and feels like he is going to explode. Wizard basically responds with the "Hey, everything is going to be OK," line. Maybe the message is that we should pay closer attention to what people are saying. But it is hard to see what is going to stop Bickle's slide toward the abyss.
I would like to have come away with a better understanding of Travis Bickle and his motivations. We know almost nothing of his life before we meet him, except for his tour in Vietnam. Did that contribute to his actions? But maybe the point is that there is no way to truly understand such a man.