Fantastic character study with a brilliant ending

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2015)

"Taxi Driver" is a movie that thrives on the fact that anything Travis Bickle does is incredibly interesting. There's not much to the first hour, he just hangs around his apartment and occasionally drives a taxi. And yet, it's incredibly fascinating because there's so much suppressed rage in the character. You don't know what to think of him, but somehow you do know it can't go well for very long. When everything goes to hell you get a fantastic and pretty unpredictable ending, but it's the suspenseful build-up that really makes this movie a classic. Bickle is slowly driven to the edge by this filthy town full of whores, robbers, killers and Harvey Keitel with a stupid hat. You never know how he's going to react to a certain situation, which makes the violent outbursts very effective. In "Taxi Driver" Scorsese has very much the same style he was developing in "Mean Streets", but it seems like he has a lot more to say here. A truly unique movie by a director at the top of his league.