God's lonely man in hell

Rating: 10/10 (12 May 1999)

A real modern-day drama cleverly directed about the universal theme of the average urbanite's loneliness. The first scene I enjoy is the meeting and the intense dialogues of the pre-"Maniac" Joe Spinell as the cab dispatcher. Then, the Travis Bickle's alienated character and his inability to communicate and share with others. For instance, the relation with his colleague, Wizard (Peter Boyle), in the café is important to understand his behaviour and the close-up of the aspirin glass symbolizes well-enough Man's distress. Remember this existentialist monologue : "I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person, like other people..." The burning desire to get out of his own nightmarish routine life is in the utopian relationship between him and Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) who both come from very different worlds. Violence frees himself from his schizophrenic impulses. He becomes the cold exterminating angel who gets rid of the devilish-pimps in one of the most terrible manslaughter. Remember this determinist monologue : "Now I see it clearly, my whole life is pointed in one direction... I see that, now. There never has been any choice for me..." Robert de Niro's tour de force performance with his best-remembered monomaniac monologue : "You talkin' to me ?" belong to every film fans. The importance of the guns as iconic props is showed when the nihilist, Travis Bickle, uses a sleeve-gun gadget inspired from "The wild wild west" series. Martin Scorsese's performance is funny as the cuckhold husband with his 44 Magnum. Bernard Herrmann's dreamlike and haunting music emphasizes the theme of the obsession which is, unfortunately, his last score. Michael Chapman's sharp cinematography makes the New York City location hellish. The whole mood of the film is scary, realistic, violent and sordid. Dan Perri's title design makes the opening and end credits just weird and outstanding.