A tale of masculine loneliness and one of the greatest films of the seventies

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2007)

Taxi Driver is one of those films that a lot of people will be able to relate to. That might sound a bit melodramatic given that it culminates in the main character losing all control, trying to assassinate a senator and then shooting up a whore house, but it's true. Okay, maybe not completely true as its hardly likely that everyone who has ever felt a tad isolated is going to turn into a gun totting lunatic, but nevertheless, Taxi Driver will be a familiar story for any man who has ever felt serious disillusionment about life and a growing sense that something is terribly wrong, but are unable or unwilling to do anything about it. God's lonely men are everywhere, this film is their voice.
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle is a revelation. The Greatest Method Actor Of All Time handles his subject with aplomb, turning Travis into a very believable and troubled man. He is a sad, lonely individual who is also kind of creepy, but nonetheless he is a recognisable and even quite sympathetic one, De Niro all nervous smiles and delirious ranting. When he sits in a café with his fellow taxi drivers for instance, focusing on a set of painkillers fizzing away in a glass of water, the conversation drifting past him and staring into the water's healing potential, his position becomes all too clear - this is a man with nowhere to go, nobody to turn to and who blames the ills of society on his own self loathing.
Furthermore, there is a very keen sense of urban paranoia running through. Surrounded by the seedy underbelly of New York city, Travis is faced with violence and sexual depravity every single day. And this turns into guilt on his part too - when a young prostitute barrels into his cab, pleading for help only to be snatched away by her pimp who leaves a crumpled bank note on the seat as thanks, its easy to see Travis's shame catching up with him. Soon, he is ranting about "cleaning up the mess" and ultimately becomes a vigilante, his disturbed mind resorting to simple, base aggression as he lashes out at the evil around him, trying to atone for his own sins.
Needless to say, it is undeniably De Niro's film. Only two scenes focus on people other than Travis but even so, the support actors do a terrific job breathing life into their characters. The then thirteen year old Jodie Foster in particular displays incredible skill and maturity for her age, her depiction of Iris a jumbled mixture of cynical world weariness and teenage naivety. Harvey Keitel meanwhile has never been more sleazy than as 'Sport,' her pimp, a strutting, cocksure and thoroughly detestable scumball. You can't wait for Travis to take his new .34 Magnum to him, but this of course is where things get nasty.
Taxi Driver you see is not afraid to show just how ugly violence is. Here, gun battles are gritty, dark and altogether real. Bullets tear holes in stomachs, blow hands apart and rip a man's face into a bloodied ruin, Scorsese may have been criticised for championing violence but such a criticism never really paid enough attention. When the blood flows as freely and bodies reduced to wreckage this easily, you find yourself revolted at the effects of Travis's rampage, despite yearning for it earlier in the movie.
In short then, a dark classic and one of the best American movies of all time. Too much has been written on it for me to add anything extra but in terms of addressing masculine loneliness that like as not, strikes all of us at some point, nothing else comes close.