Grabs you by the balls and refuses to let go.

Rating: 9/10 (26 August 2004)

It is obvious from the opening scene, that this isn't you usual run of the mill film. A young Robert De Niro, driving around the streets of New York, scoping the streets for scum, with his harsh voice over, expressing his dismay and disgust at all the "rubbish polluting the streets", and with the piercing and disturbingly memorable score from Bernard Herrmann, make the opening few minutes of Taxi Driver memorable, and sets the mood perfectly for the next 105 minutes.
Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a deeply disturbed insomniac who finds some solace becoming a taxi driver. His already unstable nature is swayed from psychotic to calm during the course of the film. After his newly appointed job as a taxi driver, he witnesses the many harsh realties that plague his city of New York. Working five, sometimes six times a week, and only at nights, he truly sees what a pathetic halt the world has come to. Drug dealers, prostitutes, and pimps line the streets. In an heroic act that can only be admired, he takes a young prostitute under his wing and attempts to get her out of the apparent rut she seems to be stuck in. With a lot of money, but not much to live for, Bickle decides to "clean" the street of New York himself. The results is a violent lash-out, which can only be described and brutal and vicious.
This unsettling film, from director Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull 1980, Mean Streets 1973), is truly able to connect with its audience, and leaves them with a sour taste, as it should. In a director/actor relationship that is envied by many in the industry, the Scorsese/De Niro team once again bring realism to the screen, which touches upon a sensitive nerve in us all, as well as being visually appealing and dramatically intense. De Niro, gives a stellar performance, perhaps his second best effort to date in the Scorsese/de Niro partnership (the first being Jake Lamotta in Raging Bull). His portrayal of and unhinged Vietnam war veteran is played to precision, as the audience feel as though they are moving with him through his extreme moods. We see the sensitive guy who has fallen in love, the naive boy who takes his new girlfriend to see a porn film, and then we see the obvious anger and hatred towards the world, and the violent actions that follow. Scorsese direction is to be admired. Although he has denied it in many interviews, Scorsese has the ability to connect with his audience. But not in a way that Spielberg or Lucas would. Scorsese is able to put forth a realistic view on the world in which we live. The film is bleak in the point it tries to portray, and its dark settings and meticulously placed lighting creates a world that would really exists. Much like Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange", this film presents to the viewer a shocking reality that many people would prefer not to know about. It is this element however, that is evident throughout many of Scorsese films, and the reason as to why his films have such a huge effect on many people.
A brillaint film.