Don't forget Schrader

Rating: 10/10 (5 February 2000)

I might be told I exaggerate too much, but I would rank this film as one of the 5 best films in history. And not because of Scorsese though he is one of the best. Not either because of DeNiro, also one of the best. It's because of an extremely underrated writer and director: Paul Schrader. The film is basically about loneliness. Travis Bickle is completely isolated from society. He lives in his own world: taxies, porn movies and taxies again. The relationships with Betsy and Iris are what really moves Travis. With Betsy he wants to integrate in this society, feel part of it, although he already has the idea of " cleaning up the whole mess.....and flush it down the f**kin' toilet ". With Iris, this idea is more of a reality. He wants to save the prostitute from hell. In this way, we could see the influence of greek mithology ( orpheus and Eurydice ) in Taxi Driver, although it has many other clear influences such as The nausea, Sartres existencialist novel or The Searchers, John Ford's western. Anyhow, Taxi Driver is a marvellous film thanks to a magnificent trio( not duo ): Martin Scorsese, Bobby DeNiro, and Paul Schrader.