Still important after all these years...

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2000)

I've been drawn to revaluate this film recently by four critical opinions other than my own that made me question my initial judgement.
The first was hearing a story on tv that I've never come across before: a governing body forced the filmmakers to colorise the blood in the climatic final sequence to a lighter, less graphic colour. This explains why DeNiro's neck spouts orange blood as the effect unfortunately turned out to be irreversible.
Secondly I read a magazine review that highlighted DeNiro's performance. Normally negative criticism of such a revered actor is never dared uttered, yet this particular review suggested that there was nothing "behind the eyes" and that DeNiro's performance was all surface and definitely no substance.
Lastly, I recently lent the tape out to two friends. One returned it to me half-watched, it's mid-70s pacing (none of the much touted scenes of violence taking place before over an hour) boring him. The other friend brought to mind quite a valid point. That we never see exactly what makes the DeNiro character, Travis Bickle, psychopathic. On first viewing I perhaps appreciated the characterisation more as what seemed a slightly disaffected young man gradually became warped by the decadence and hostility of a harsh New York. The genius of the film is that you follow his descent into insanity and see things through his eyes. We hear his thoughts, we get to read his journal, his presence dictates the movie. So much so that we almost support his mission to "eradicate the scum off the streets", we almost cheer when he shoots a store raider dead and we agree with his justification for murdering the pimps who harbour a 12-year-old girl into prostitution. Then it hits us. We have followed, willingly, a man into a mass execution and the violence, which we have mentally encouraged, is displayed graphically before us. It causes us to question our own sense of morality and that is why it is such an important film.
Except on second viewing it is quite clear that Travis is mentally ill from the outset. The world of New York doesn't consume him, he reflects it. An alienated, socially inadequate man who takes a girl on a date to a pornographic movie. My friend questioned that there was no impetus, no genuine cause of psychosis, but that Bickle is psychotic from day one. Maybe this was a race interpretation. My friend is Asian, and perhaps had been fortunate enough never to encounter the extreme, right-wing WASP mentality that is prevalent in a thankfully small minority. The Travis character is racist, homophobic, misogynist, he rallies against the "pushers" and the "skunk pussies" that litter the streets. In many ways his views are not those of the mentally disturbed, merely those of `middle America'.
The similarly-themed "Falling Down" fails for me, chiefly because of it's self-conscious and incongruous bouts of humour, but also because it has nothing to say. Taxi Driver has plenty to say. Maybe what shocks about the violence (tame by today's standards) is it's moral ambiguity. The ultimate ironic play-out, that a murderer should become a hero, leads us to look again and question ethical behaviour. How different is the self-righteous from the wretched? What distinguishes the viewer from the `scum' of the movie? One of the most subversive pictures ever made, it ultimately carries no distinction between right or wrong and it's lead character is completely unsympathetic, an extremist who attempts murder for no other reason than personal notoriety. These are important issues it raises, and it succeeds as it doesn't spoon-feed its audience, but throws up a myriad of questionable motivations. Just how different is Bickle from the clientele in the back of his cab?
Taxi Driver succeeds over populist fare such as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs as, fine films though those may be, it occupies a space of reality that they can't, or don't wish, to encounter. Plus Scorcese gives a better cameo than Tarantino ever did.
Without question one of the ten or twenty greatest films ever made. In MY opinion, anyway...