Existentialistic abyss in downtown New York

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2012)

"Taxi Driver" is the classic picture that put the combination Scorsese plus DeNiro and as an extra Jodie Foster seriously on the map - all in one go. Supported by Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle and accompanied by one of the last of Bernhard Hermann's brilliant scores the movie struck a nerve in the audience of the Seventies and paved the way for more explicit violence to come to the silver screen in the following decades. Which is not a good thing in itself, but an inevitability with "Taxi Driver" at the forefront. However, the outstanding performance of DeNiro and the painstaking perfectionism of Scorcese's direction make a psychotic taxi driver's prowling through New York's underground on the edge of reality absolutely worthwhile.
According to screenwriter Paul Schrader his script was influenced by French existentialism, particularly its primary representatives Sartre and Camus. Indeed, the plot of Camus' novel "L'Etranger" ("The Outsider") parallels the movie in key points - loneliness, isolation and estrangement of the protagonist are enforced by the absurdity of the world around the protagonist and lead to a deadly outcome. The alienation Camus defined as an existential category, Schrader transfers to the urban jungle of NY. While hinting at a Vietnam trauma taxi driver Travis Bickle might be suffering from, this background is never actually explored, thus providing ample opportunity for the viewer to connect with the character. As such "Taxi Driver" is more than a movie about a madman. It is a thought-provoking and dangerous look into the abyss that lurks beneath skyscrapers and into our souls, a place where only we ourselves can answer.