So that's what a cab driver is thinking about...

Rating: 9/10 (13 March 2007)

After watching Scorsese win his first Oscar last month, it dawned on me I had yet to see any of his early films. Taxi Driver was on the top of the list. A cult classic among De Niro and Scorsese fans, this dark noir tells of Travis Bickel (De Niro), a pent-up ex-Marine who takes the late shift driving a New York City taxi. Travis' long nights working in the seedy underbelly of the city begin to take their toll on him. Travis goes from a somewhat shy person, who asks out a young campaign worker (Shepherd) with the best of intentions, to a gun-toting madman. In the midst of his transformation, he befriends a young prostitute (Foster), who he feels somewhat compelled to try and save before the dark underbelly of the city swallows her up. All of this comes to a head in a fantastically crafted scene as Travis shoots his way past the young girl's pimp (Keitel) , the brothel's manager, and a client, all on his way to her room. As Travis sits there covered in blood, the camera starts to fade away from the room and the apartment building, police moving in. And of course a much talked about ending, which can be interpreted in many ways.
Taxi Driver is certainly Scorsese's darkest film in terms of subject matter. It's a morbid look inside the mind of a man that is fed up with the failures of his society. However, a young De Niro is absolutely captivating as the deranged cab driver. It's fascinating to watch his mental transformation over the course of two hours of running time. Finding out that De Niro's "You talking' to me" scene in front of the mirror was in fact not in the original script, speak to the excellence of both De Niro and Scorsese.