The Greatest Film of the 1970s

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2018)

Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" is one of those movies that sticks in your mind for a long time after you see it. You know the kind. I don't mean the interchangeable gorefests, such as the "Friday the 13th" or "Nightmare on Elm Street" films. This is a film that haunts us not with blood and gore (although there is plenty of that), but with its unflinching portrayal of the protagonist, Travis Bickle.
Travis is simply one of the greatest movie characters of all time. Despite his noirish voice-overs, he never really tells us exactly how he's feeling-yet we feel like we're almost inside of his brain the entire film. The trifecta of Scorsese's direction, Paul Schrader's script, and Robert De Niro's performance paint a vivid picture of this troubled soul without words having to come into play.
First things first, Travis is not a good guy. But that doesn't mean that he's unsympathetic. We can see how isolated and distanced he is from the rest of society, and recognize his attempts to reintegrate himself. We would like him to succeed. But we know he won't because the series of events in this movie feels as inevitable as a ticking clock.
The movie gives us a sense of how impotent Travis feels among the everyday crime of the city. The early scenes are painful, as Travis attempts to woo Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) on a date in which he takes her to a pornographic theater. After that fails, he talks to fellow cabbie Wizard (Peter Boyle), looking for advice about the bad thoughts he's been having in a rare moment of self-reflection. But Wizard offers him nothing in return, and this is the moment in the film where Travis enters the void. He makes an attempt to assassinate the political candidate Betsy is campaigning for, but after that falls through as well, he decides to go on one final suicide mission, saving the underage prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster, in one of the best adolescent performances I've ever seen) from her pimp (Harvey Keitel). The climax is chilling, as Travis walks into the whorehouse fully armed and blows everyone in the place away, the camera switching to slow motion to embody his complete detachment from his actions.
And this is where we get to the heart of the film. In an earlier scene, as Travis is rejected by Betsy over the phone, Scorsese slides the camera over to show an empty hallway, saying that it's as if we can't bear the pain of seeing Travis rejected. However, by the slow-motion finale, Travis, by way of his isolation and loneliness, has become so numb to what he sees around him that he doesn't even connect pulling the trigger with killing a human being. In his eyes, he's just pushing a button to solve a problem. In this aspect, the film remains more relevant than ever, as it goes a long way towards explaining why so many seemingly pointless crimes are committed every single day.
Robert De Niro is absolutely flawless in his greatest performance. He possesses the rare skill of convincingly showing one emotion to the characters around him while also signifying to the audience what he's actually thinking. He plays a different type of role than the macho, charismatic type he usually plays in Scorsese's films (think "Mean Streets" and "Goodfellas"), and he never steps wrong, whether he's portraying social awkwardness, deep loneliness, or, finally, a vengeful wrath.
Scorsese's camera has never been so restless and searching, his New York never so dystopian and hopeless, his view never so bleak and grim. What he's showing us is hell on earth, and you feel it in every scene.
"Taxi Driver" has as much hope as the desert has water, a portrayal of how depression and despair can lead to unthinkable acts. After it's all over, we have to ask ourselves: has anything really changed?