What hasn't been said about this film already?

Rating: 9/10 (21 June 2004)

I have started this `review' about fourteen times, fourteen different ways, because there isn't a lot that can be said about this film that hasn't already been said. The plot is fairly well known: Robert DeNiro plays Travis Bickle, a taxi cab driver who works long hours because he doesn't sleep, and lives a life of near isolation. When he does attempt to reach out to others, it becomes near-obsession and eventually ends up almost killing him. (Or does it?)
I cannot fully express the impact this film had on me at an early age. When I first saw it, in my very early teens, I was transfixed with Scorsese's direction, the gritty atmosphere and the unbelievable acting by DeNiro. It was after I watched `Taxi Driver' that I decided to attend film school because I saw something different in this film, something that was gritty, dramatic and exciting. Until then, I had pretty much seen films that had fairly happy endings, or at least had endings that were sewn up fairly tightly. `Taxi Driver' turned that whole mindset completely upside down.

The great thing about `Taxi Driver' is its compelling nature. When I recently watched it, it was probably my twentieth (or so) viewing in my entire life. Even after reading books and articles on the film and even studying this film in film school there are still elements of the storyline that are left up to interpretation, and while I thought one thing years ago, twenty years later, I think something completely different based on my own life experiences and elements (I try to) have learned about human nature since. Since I first saw this film, I have developed a very deep respect for Martin Scorsese as more than a filmmaker, due to his unbelievable series `A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American film' and the various documentaries/essays he has participated in. To me he has become more than a brilliant film director; he is a film scholar  he lives film, and breathes film and seems to relish sharing his superior knowledge of film, a level I can only dream to achieve. I was 13 years old while I first sat wide-eyed, watching `Taxi Driver' and two weeks ago I was 31 years old while I sat wide-eyed, watching `Taxi Driver' and the impact, while of a different kind, was just as strong.
--Shelly