I am amazed...

Rating: 9/10 (8 May 2005)

I want to explain again that I've heard what a great director Martin Scorsese is. Now I'm trying to watch all his movies and enjoy them. Some, as "Taxi Driver" are not very enjoyable, but are near excellence. To conclude, "Taxi Driver" is the best I've seen from Scorsese up to now.
This is the oldest movie I've seen in quite a while. I don't know if I said it before, but there was a time when cinema included passion, and movies were made with passion. I'm talking about before the 80's; Coppola, Bogdanovich, Scorsese"Taxi Driver" is an example of this, and Scorsese had just started.
Robert De Niro was at his top when his career started; playing main roles in his first movies, creating sensation in the audience and gaining respect from the critics. He's one of the best actors of all time. After Coppola provided for his Oscar in "The Godfather II", "Taxi Driver" was the next big step. Anyway, he was a pro already, and he was determined to deliver great performances during the rest of his life. He looks younger than his character (Travis is 26, he was in his thirties), and he says the phrase often remembered ("Are you talking to me"?) while he looks at the screen and performs the story of a man who can't sleep and writes about what he does.
The script, by Scorsese's long time collaborator Paul Schrader, is a wonderful tale of real, daily life, in a city where Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) observes the people, and wants to save them in some way: "You got to clean this up", he says to Charles Palantine, a candidate for president. He's not lying.
He only knows about Palantine because of a girl who likes; Betsy. This performance by Cybill Shepherd is honestly something to be talked about. She stepped out of being Bogdanovich figurine (even if she did it good in those movies), to play a main character in this film. Her interpretation is unbelievably natural and experienced as the rest of the cast. She doesn't seem someone who has just started. Shepherd did some movies in her career; some of them were good, some bad But she had the talent.
For Jodie Foster (Iris), at her young fourteen years, this was the first recognition that foresaw tons of awards and an excellent career. Her performance didn't show talent in best ways, but was crucial to the film's development. In Travis Bickle's mind, he has to do something for a girl he has met a few times and senses she is not living well. Who else would ask for "action" with a prostitute just to talk to her?
Then there are two other important performances; one is Albert Brooks' Tom, in a very funny way as he spied his "girlfriend" when Travis, the ladies-man, was talking to her. The other one is Pete Boyle's Wizard, whose wisdom encourages Travis in his impulses. They both have a talk, De Niro and Boyle, sitting on a cab. This is one of the best scenes in the movies. Travis wants to know more about the cab driver's life, or wants to know how is it that he has to do it; because he can't sleep. Then the Wizard delivers a speech of an uncertain exactness; because he knows, and that's why he is called the "Wizard". Travis doesn't understand; we probably don't either.
As Travis goes back into his yellow cab and looks at the city with disappointing eyes, we're waiting to listen to the music again. That fine music by Bernard Herrmann that shows peace and serenity. I loved it.
Let's just not forget about the movie director; this is Martin Scorsese. He manages to achieve great shots of the streets at night; completely narrative, following the story. Then an excellent visual labor in small takes like the shooting training and like the gun in the window. He follows his characters closely, focusing on them and what's behind them. He doesn't let them go.
About Travis Bickle's life, and what he does, it's all in his head; taken to life by De Niro. He has good, bad moments. He changes radically and starts to eat good food, drops his pills. Although then he changes again, and he introduces another pill in his mouth. His mind gives an overturnYou'll know why.
Scorsese's final shots are just an explanation and conclusion to everything. He's talking to us, and he's saying: "This is what can happen. It has happened here".