Let's taxi to the Dark Side of Life

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2012)

Essential film to watch. Director Martin Scorsese, and Screenwriter Paul Schrader shows a life full of private fear, emptiness, and loneliness in 'Taxi Driver'. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is that Taxi Driver, a Vietnam Vet whom seldom speak whom drifts in and out of 1970's New York City wicked night life. He witness a lot of wrongs and faults in civilization by how the people act around him. Robert De Niro character is similar to Don Quixote and Dostoyevsky's ''Idiot''. He is a good man trapped in an evil and sick world ,the difference with Travis is that he gets through it by becoming even more vicious than the world of slime, he inhabits whereas Quixote remains delusional and dies and the 'idiot' goes insane. He slowly growing tired of it, and losing hope and looks for a way out. These supporting cast ''way out' are Betsie and Iris. (Cybil Sheppard & Jolie Foster). Both being symbolic of Travis having a madonna/whore complex somewhat. Betsie is a campaign volunteer for Sentaor Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris) who is running for President.. Iris is a 12-year-old child prostitute who is attempting to escape her pimp Matthew 'Sport' (Harvey Keitel) who he becomes obsessed with helping her return to her parents' home, sending her money to do so and a letter in which he states he will soon be dead. Disgusted by the street crime, politics and prostitution that he witnesses through the city, Travis finds a focus for his frustration and begins a program of intense physical training and shaving his head into a mohawk as he become a weapon for violence. The scary underlying concept in the movie that many overlook is that Travis Bickle is the manifestation of America of the 1970s. A confused society recovering from the failed war in Vietnam, from poverty of the working-class, from racism towards blacks, from drug addiction, and from mental illness. Bickle has adopted the confused mix of the military values of militancy, honor, and chivalry (his initial modest courtship of Betsy) with sexual perversion, racism, and disillusionment with society. The ending of the movie can be interpreted in many ways. Was Travis a hero or villain? Did he die or live? Some people might not like the movie, due to the sexual and racist undertones in the film, the violence, and the cursing. Taxi Driver is and will always be a disturbing film, however it's thought provoking and now there is a lot of depth to be seen in this very critical film. It's an experiment, NOT entertainment, only vaguely art. It presents no solutions, promotes despair, and really is a glorification of violence, and of the filmmakers own self conscious congratulations of himself on his own daring. It's a experiment of the mind.