The loner who wants to bring in the Apocalypse

Rating: 10/10 (5 October 2019)

I will be honest, I struggled to appreciate Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver". Despite the insightful script by the self-consuming Paul Schrader who created one of the most opaque and great film characters of all time, Travis Bickle, frighteningly good portrayed by Robert De Niro there was nothing that I could put my hand on. But I did not hate it either, and I felt if I was not praising it, I would be doing something wrong.
The reason why I believe it was so difficult to enjoy this film is because this film is not made to be enjoyed, is made to be experienced. We are put in intimacy with Travis Bickle, but he is a sick man. An incurable loner and a racist, he seems unable to connect with anybody. It is like a disease. So we feel his frustration and his anger. He blames his inability to bond with other human beings on the world. He would want an apocalypse that would clean all the "scum" off the streets yet throughout the movie, he keeps attempting to connect with it. This inner struggle and his lack of understanding of his own condition makes this movie a nightmare, yet one constructed on a deep psychological level.
I feel Scorsese has a love-hate relationship with New York, the city where this movie takes place. He depicts it in a noire-inspired style, steam rising from the canals and surrounded by a bleakness as if hell itself lurks just below. But New York is something else for everyone and here, we see it through the eyes of a self-inflicted sociopath. Throughout the movie, Travis tries again and again to socialize and it is difficult and painful watching him fail. He first tries to flirt with the cashier at an X-rated cinema he frequently visits, he then briefly dates a political volunteer--everything ends in failure yet he keeps struggling through this Sisyphean nightmare just hoping to find something.
Travis Bickle it's a difficult man to comprehend. Another reason why I struggled to love this movie is because I felt like so many of his philosophies, his thoughts were hidden away from me. He does not speak a lot and the gap between his words and his actions leave much to the interpretation. Scorsese and Schrader briefly reveal to us his thoughts through narration but these are more haunting and disturbing than explanatory. The way he would repeat his last sentence with emphasis denotes an insane determination, almost like a mind-control.
But there is one thing to realize about Bickle--he is looking for a purpose which he finds when he attempts to rescue a young prostitute who ran away from home. In his insanity, his appearance and mannerisms become more and more twisted yet you can feel a determination because he feels he is heading towards some sort of peace. Then there is, of course, the ending. It's impossible to know whether it is real or not but in both cases this is true--it represents his most hidden desires. He just wants to mean something. The sudden way in which the film takes a turn towards a more positive atmosphere is so sudden that you have a feeling it was done intentional. It is impossible for Scorsese not to be aware of such a sudden slope.
"Taxi Driver" can be a depressing film. The way Bickle drives his yellow cab through the slums feels like Dante taking his tour through hell. But what an achievement for Scorsese and Schrader. They took a man impossible to connect to and they made us connect to it. What I realized after watching this movie and what made me decide that it is, indeed, a masterpiece was just how relatable Travis Bickle can actually be. How many of us are looking for peace? How many of us have attained it and how many still have hope that they will attain it eventually?