A certified masterpiece of American cinema

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2008)

As highly regarded as Raging Bull is, I truly think that TAXI DRIVER is the greatest collaboration between Martin Scorcese and Robert DeNiro. There's just something raw, pure, and real about this film that gets to the core of humanity. A highly controversial film to this day, Taxi Driver packs a 100% emotional punch. Personally, this film makes my top 10 films of all time. It just has to b/c I can't imagine a top 10 w/o Scorcese and I believe this to be his greatest work.
Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro in one of probably the 5 greatest film performances in history) is a workaholic, world-weary, insomniac, (slightly) deranged Vietnam war veteran who now drives cabs for a living in New York City, circa 1976, the year the film came out in theaters. Bickle sees the world through jaded eyes, mind, heart, body, and soul. Scorcese literally takes the viewer into Bickle's mind by using his actual thoughts to narrate the film. Through thoughts and looks, it appears that Travis is frustrated, angry, suspicious, lonely, and perhaps even racist. DeNiro masterfully conveys all these emotions and characteristics throughout the film.
The film has 2 femme fatales: A politician's aide (played by an utterly fascinating and desirable blonde bombshell Cybill Shepherd) and a 12-year old prostitute (played by Jodie Foster in a performance that established this young actress as a major talent). As odd as it appears at first, you really understand what Bickle sees in these 2 females. They provide him with qualities that he otherwise doesn't possess. Shepherd makes him think that he could have a normal relationship with a woman and Foster taps into his paternal instincts. It's almost like he has an adopted family with these 2 females. Ironically, or not so much, these 2 'relationships' occur exclusive to each other b/c Bickle has real trouble connecting or staying connected to anyone for too long b/c of his not-so-great social skills. A lot of the 'conversations' and interactions that he has w/ these 2 women and other characters end up as incomplete or muddled, but this is the point: to illustrate that this man is himself an incomplete human being who desperately needs something or someone to make him believe in humanity and that he has a place in this world.
There are quite a few minor characters in the film that only add to its humanity and brilliance: Albert Brooks as Shepherd's humorous political co-worker, Peter Boyle as Travis' fellow cab driver who he has a rather touching conversation w/ outside a café where the cabbies hang out, Harvey Keitel as Foster's 'Indian' pimp, and Mr. Martin Scorcese himself as one of Travis' fares, an angry husband who wants to commit a heinous act and relays all of it to Travis.
DeNiro's character appears to spiral out of control as the film progresses and there are points it looks like he's going to literally explode before our very eyes. Then something will happen to reign it all in. The climax of the film is one of the most disturbing moments in all of film history. I won't spoil it, but it is violent, scary, gory, sad, and heartbreaking. And it is all b/c of Travis Bickle. You literally have become so involved w/ this man throughout the film that you feel his loneliness, bitterness, and pain in the end and knew it had to culminate to this. The real ending may surprise some, but it doesn't take away from the humanistic mastery of this film and of DeNiro's legendary performance.
Scorcese has long said that Taxi Driver was inspired by the John Ford/John Wayne collaborative masterwork The Searchers. And I totally believe it b/c I've seen both films many times and understand the comparisons: A roaming, lonely, jaded, racist antihero 'searching' for something/someone in a dangerous, cruel, me-first world and doing this for mysterious reasons that is never really understood w/ a cast of memorable supporting characters to round out the action and the film. And as much as it is influenced by The Searchers, I still stand Taxi Driver out alone as influential in its own right.
MASTERPIECE! CLASSIC! SUPERLATIVE! All of that.