dumb standard gun-story

Rating: 1/10 (14 July 2001)

Unless I'm hopelessly not getting it, the plot suggests that do-it-yourself-justice, including death-penalty, is very cool and stylish.

The "hero" (De Niro) is made as a figure to identify with [the viewer is put into the hero's point-of-view most of the time, and, more important, into the hero's mood all the time - the monotonous melancholic soundtrack (basically, solo-saxophone) reflects the hero's extreme loneliness, and loneliness is a feeling known to everybody], and the hero's fascist ideology (some people are 'dirt') is not questioned anywhere. The film glorifies violence and fascist ideology, and that's about most disgusting message I can think of, and not very original either.
Every James-Bond does the same, I admit, but the difference is, that in case of James Bond, noone expects art, makers and viewers know, that a new James-Bond is going to be the same old entertainment via special effects, completely lacking a story apart from standard testosterone-phantasy. Taxi-driver is like James Bond minus the special effects. If the message actually should have been "the hero is an asshole", then the film is inane. If not, it's worse.
The most overrated film I ever saw.