Impeccable Masterpiece, Scorsese´s dark poetry

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2003)

In this brillant movie the creators (Scorsese-Schrader) introduced strong parameters to invert the way to see good and evil. The principal character (Travis / Robert De Niro) could be a `hero' and at the same time be completely evil, it depends our point of view. Robert De Niro composed one of his best roles, memorable, anthological. And there´s another way to observe the movie: the religious way. Catholic God becomes very upset and sent a Revenge Angel to put the order of the human world again on the way. New York, considered one of the first cities of the `New World', is the perfect place to show how the human beens lost his spiritually. Travis -first taciturn and polite- becomes the eyes of the spectator, our eyes, and then he start suffering like Christ but he can´t stand this, so he turned to be the hand of Spiritual Justice. He do all `we want to do' when we saw the scum of the streets, the lies of the politics or a woman so ungrateful: Kill with the Sword of Justice. But he is a man, he is an ex-marine who was in Vietnam´s Inferno for his Ungrateful Country, a poor simple boy with nothing to do... except one thing. He can `see' the things with innocence and perspective at the same time. The Cab is his `house' and the Night his be st moment -a spirit of the night-, he has a name but it seems that he came from nowhere. He is real and a ghost at the same time. Each tackle is a personal problem to solve for Travis, each person became his personal difficult task to do. The camera an the edition are both technically perfect showing the particular character´s behaviour. The eyes of Scorsese an his personal way of filming show early evolution, complexity and subtle. With this film one of the best american (and wolrdwide) directors composed a remarkable movie.
There´s more: Bernard Hermann´s outstanding `bolero' music making a perfect ambient -his last work -; excellent Schrader´s script and talented support actors like Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Cybill Shepherd and young Jodie Foster; all of this contributions showed one of the best portrait of the American Nightmare with polished style, magnificent work, strongly expressive.