God's lonely man

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2007)

Since its release in 1976, Taxi Driver has started to become somewhat misrepresented over the years. Being considered an indisputable classic, Taxi Driver has spawned considerable talk and speculation among audiences, mainly in regards to its violence, fabricating the film a reputation similar to that of an intense action thriller. But any viewer who sees Taxi Driver and dismisses it as a thriller has completely missed the point of the film. Taxi Driver is by no means an action movie fraught with gratuitous violence, nor is the violence the centerpoint of the story. It is the study of a very lonely man, isolated in a world of filth and corruption, and his struggle to overcome it.
It's very difficult to capture the appeal of Taxi Driver in mere words, as the film transcends them. The script, masterful as it is, is used incredibly sparingly, as director Martin Scorsese chooses instead to paint his masterpiece more in pictures than in words. As it is, the film produces an utterly unique atmosphere, so thick and powerful it seems to soak into the skin, drawing the viewer in, and holding them, intoxicated, from the film's iconic opening shot of a taxi driving through a cloud of steam to the film's craftily ambivalent ending (is Travis merely hallucinating, or is the film making a point about unlikely heroism?) to the end of the beautifully shot closing credits. As such, there have been complaints that the film is slow moving and dull for the most part - again, such comments merely bring to light that the viewer has missed the point. This is not a film about non-stop, heart pounding action. It is an atmosphere piece and a character study, using the careful, steady pacing to slowly draw the viewer further and further into Travis Bickle's world of loneliness and contempt, the monotony of his life developing a steadily sinister edge. Again, words fail to fully describe the sheer force and slow hitting impact the film generates, short of telling the reader to see it for themselves, to experience Scorsese's harsh but calm, unflinching view of city life in all of its grimy decadence.
Scorsese's simply masterful camera work is what really sells the effect, and Taxi Driver is arguably one of the finest shot films in cinema history. The camera seems to drink in the heart and jet black soul of New York city, from Travis' moody late night processions of the city, eerily beautiful in their quiet despair to the slow, famished sweep as he views his gun for the first time, perfectly backed by Bernard Hermann's exquisite minimalist score. It also goes without saying that screenwriter Paul Schrader's script is one of the most bleakly powerful pieces of writing ever transferred to celluloid, almost seeming to speak more in its silence than in it's brief but poignant bits of dialogue. From start to finish, the film is deliberately paced in a truly stunning fashion, allowing the mass of emotions to slowly wash over the viewer - it is rare to see a film so subtle yet painstakingly crafted.
It goes without saying that as breathtaking and essential the film's atmosphere is, it would be nothing without the iconic performance of Robert De Niro sinking it home. If De Niro was to be singled out for a single role in a career filled from top to bottom with flooringly powerful work, his sensitive yet brooding Travis Bickle would without a doubt always come out on top. Once again, De Niro seems to have more of an impact with what isn't said than with his straightforward and bleak nighttime voiceovers and journal entries; while his speeches about cleaning up the scum of the city put the viewer's hair on end, it's his eyes that really sell the role, displaying a haunting inner passion despite the blank apathy of his exterior; the most memorable shot in the film is Bickle, having just completely his cleansing bloodbath at the film's finale, raising a single blood- dripping finger to his mohawked head, and miming shooting himself - the sheer power of this brief moment is beyond description.
De Niro's stunning performance is backed up by several brief but incredibly memorable characters portrayed by the supporting cast, including Cybil Shepherd as Betsy, a seeming shining beacon of hope in Travis' dark and despairing world, Harvey Keitel's entertaining yet gut-churningly devious pimp, Jodie Foster giving an astonishingly capable and powerful performance as the child prostitute Travis strives to rescue, Albert Brooks in a subtly comic role as Shepherd's co-worker, and Peter Boyle as a down to earth, savvy fellow taxi driver of Travis. Director Scorsese also has a cameo as a homicidal passenger in Bickle's cab, proving to be one of the more memorable parts of the film, Scorsese's charismatic brief performance driving home a message of violence in the common man in a rather poignant and disturbing fashion.
Taxi Driver is one of the few films which defies comparison - exquisitely crafted by the genius of Martin Scorsese, it is a superbly moody atmospheric reflection on the mindset of one man, tortured by the crime and corruption around him. What makes the film perhaps the most interesting however, is however much Bickle may be billed as a violent psychopath, it's doubtful that a single viewer failed to identify with his views and personality at least once throughout the film. Travis' incredibly perceptive and sensitive persona seems to speak volumes on the inherent loneliness in us all, and the desperate, violent need to be accepted in a society thriving on distance, corruption and alienation. Do not be fooled into thinking the film is simply the tale of a psychopath, fraught with gratuitous violence - Taxi Driver is far too soulful and intelligent for such a predicament, and as such is worth seeing by any and every audience willing to stomach a harshly retentive tale of despair and redemption.
-10/10