Mean Lean Scorsese

Rating: 10/10 (6 April 2001)

Hot summer nights in New York City,rain soaked black patent leather streets shine and glisten as a lone, looney & lonely taxi cab driver stalks the streets in his bright yellow cab. This is Martin Scorsese's taxi driver played by Robert DeNiro, at the height of his powers as an actor. He's so young, taunt & handsome & totally out of it, in a totally out of it city. DeNiro plays Travis Bickle (great name) who we see in a series of memorable scenes is a time bomb ticking away, ready to blow up in society's face. And even though we know the big bang is coming, we are still shocked, surprised & disturbed by the bloody ending. This was Scorsese's second big time Hollywood feature, done after his light but very likeable "woman's picture" "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" which won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar. This is a young director's movie, exciting,dangerous & full of great images & scenes, that exhibit a willingness to take chances which mostly pay off big time. It's also a scary movie, an urban horror show for real. The city of night in this movie is both beautiful with neon colors reflecting on wet streets, and ugly in its deprevation and decay. The film is "religious" & spiritual taking us along for the anti-hero's long dark journey through hell, both internal & external and his violent and bloody redemption. This Scorsese landscape is littered with human garbage: child whores & pimps, criminals & politicians, crazies who want to do terrible things, politicians who want to get elected. This is a beautifully made and crafted film, full of memorable lines & images. Gliding taxis with steam rising from the streets, Bernard Herrmann's last great score, jazzy and mournful rides along for the trip. Notable performances by little miss Foster, before she became the Oscar winning movie star, rigid & uptight. She's so good eating her toast & jam, trying to sex up Deniro, slow dancing with Harvey the greasy pimp, that we almost think she's the real McCoy, a miniature Mary waiting to be saved. Also good are the already mentioned Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks as the campaign worker luckless in love with blonde venus Cybill Shepherd (also never better) & the director himself as the taxi passenger from hell,who wants to do terrible things to his cheating wife's private parts. This guy is so bad & creepy that even Travis is frighten. Also of note is Michael Chapman's candy colored cinematography & the gorgous Diahnne Abbott (married at the time to DeNiro)in a bit part as the porn theatre cashier. Although I'm not crazy about the epilogue ending,(was this used to make us feel better?) this is still one of the great films, if not the greatest film of the 70's, and one of Scorsese's masterpieces. Hard to believe that he did not receive a best director Oscar nomination, and that the film itself lost out for best picture to the simple and sentimental Rocky. Well actually maybe I shouldn't be surprised.