Martin Scorsese's first great movie

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2011)

By the time Martin Scorsese made "Taxi Driver" he'd already achieved a certain measure of critical & commercial success with his two previous pictures, "Mean Streets" & "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". However, these were soon to be dwarfed by the impact of this seminal film.
The story doesn't lend itself to easy categorization. In a nutshell, it concerns a New York City cab driver (Robert De Niro) who is plagued by loneliness. Brooding on the sorry state of his city he begins to lose his grip on sanity and fantasizes about lashing out violently.
This is one of De Niro's greatest performances, meaning that it's also one of the greatest movie performances, period. He was justly rewarded with an Oscar nomination for his efforts, though he ended up losing. A young Jodie Foster also picked up the first Oscar nomination of her career for her performance in a supporting role. Besides these two there are several other notable individuals including Peter Boyle, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd & Albert Brooks.
Paul Shrader's screenplay and Martin Scorsese's direction create a potent combination. The story has a feeling of authenticity and Scorsese brings it to life with a combination of documentary realism and deft camera-work. Naturally, much credit for the film's look should also go to cinematographer Michael Chapman. Incredibly, all three of these individuals were left out of the Oscar race. Bernard Hermann, on the other hand, received a posthumous nomination for his evocative score.
While I think that the plot loses a bit of focus in the later stages it soon regains its composure and ends on an indisputable high note. Even after 35 years, "Taxi Driver" remains powerful; if anything, it's only grown in stature among movie audiences. Thus, I highly recommend it to any lover of films past or present.