Just missed a cab? There will be blood.

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2008)

This is one of those classics i've always missed out on seeing- everyone has a few movies that they get yelled at for having not seen, this was mine. Finally i've caught it and as is universally accepted, it's a keeper. Writing a review for Taxi Driver is a bit useless because I can't think of many more American movies that are so often critiqued or referenced.
One thing that totally blew me away though I will share. It was incredibly simple, and I'm going to say that it was intentional on Scorsese's part, because it's pretty genius.
Towards the end of the film, after Travis has geared up and is driving off to his bloodbath, we see a shot of someone trying to flag him down, which he ignores and drives away towards his targets. Now how many movies have you seen where a character tries to pull a cab unsuccessfully, with the cab driving away into the night? I tell you, every American movie set in a city. Taxi Driver made me think, holy crap, is every American cab that ignores a fare going off to shoot a few gangsters? I realise this is a big leap, but it was the first thing I thought of, and I thought it was insane. This repeated image (that i'm sure this movie further influenced) of a cab driving off after being called is given a huge new light. If you've lived in a monkey cave your whole life and don't know Taxi Driver ends in blood, the film itself builds and gives many clues to a very violent conclusion, still placing this image of the perpetual lost cab a nasty light.