Powerful but flawed

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2012)

To fairly review a movie from the 1970's, one must separate elements of that often ridiculed decade, such as fashion, hairstyles, technology, and jargon, from the story and the performances. S/he can't allow the plaid pants; broad-collared shirts; contrived sounding street talk; over-the-ears, less than natural, post-hippie era hair; or even the absence of I-pods and cell phones to keep him/her from directing his/her judgments only at the believability of the movie's plot and the acting.
So... keeping the popular culture of that time in perspective, I think Taxi Driver deserves high marks in part because it helped to make people aware that a soldier usually returns from war (Viet Nam or any other) troubled, not simply relieved that he is no longer experiencing horror and motivated to transfer his work ethic to the home front. The movie reveals, too, that a veteran may not have caring parents and friends and a comfortable home to ease his transition (though the difference between the memories of explosions and screams and the calm of an office or store creates its own special stress); he may have to find his way alone.
Taxi Driver succeeds, too, because of the acting. Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jody Foster, Peter Boyle, and Harvey Keitel perform convincingly as the victims, degenerates, and survivors of a depraved New York City subculture. Only the FBI agents come across as a little typed.
Taxi Driver doesn't score high in all areas, however. While the cast impresses, this starkly realistic story actually lacks in realism. In the climatic scene When Travis (Robert De Niro) rescues Iris (Jody Foster), by gunning down the miscreants who exploit her, he has carried out a rehearsed plan (he had purchased several firearms) motivated by an overpowering and unrelated rage as much as he has valiantly acted on his concern for this once innocent girl. The writers, as they should, make Sport (Harvey Keitel) and his buddies look like low-lifes, but when these men rebound growling and screaming from 38-caliber pistol blasts from point blank range they behave like zombies, not humans.
During the outcome phase the less-than-likely events continue. Newspaper recognition of Travis Bickle's act seems plenty appropriate, but a police officer, FBI agent, or common citizen would have probably seen and commented on the similarity between the man in the newspaper photo and the mohawked character who drew attention to himself when he conspicuously fled the plaza where he had considered -- he pulled out a gun for many to see -- killing a senatorial candidate as he spoke to an audience of 500+.
And not long after the newspaper makes the public aware of Bickle's courageous deed, he receives a letter from Iris's parents thanking him for saving their daughter. Like the newspaper story aspects of the letter rate it low on the probability scale. I can understand that such a letter would include the parents' gratitude and feelings of indebtedness toward the person who made possible the girl's return home. I don't accept, though, that the parents would also tell of their daughter's successful readjustment to her school routine and renewal of friendships. After the abuse that Iris weathered and the violence that she witnessed, she would suffer post traumatic stress that would rival that of the Viet Nam veteran's.