Jodie Foster's Sunglasses are the only good thing

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 2002)

About this vastly overrated "classic." There's just nothing here beyond clever film-making trying to disguise a hopelessly thin screenplay. What do we have? Travis, borderline psycho to start the movie, goes completely psycho. No real reason given for it. He's full of hate at the beginning of the movie, he's full of hate at the end. No evolution at all. No convincing reason for him to go on a wild shooting spree. No convincing reason for him not to. The film is just one boring, pointless scene after another, often feeling like a really bad art film where the characters emptily mouth lines that the writer must have felt were deep, profound, and meaningful, but aren't, really. And so damn many times the characters *repeat* themselves, stretching 30 secs of dialog to 2mins of annoying chatter.
Irony? Travis has none. And even if he did, De Niro doesn't do irony very well. Travis is a typical one-note De Niro performance--all weirdo, all the time. No shadings at all. Yeah, yeah, De Niro *is* Travis Bickle. Problem is, Travis Bickle *is* boring until right up to the end of the movie, where he gives us a few minutes of shoot-em-up, then, for absolutely no reason goes right back to what he was before.
Realism? Give me a break. A guy shoots three people, one of them point-blank in the head, and is declared a "hero" rather than sent to prison for the rest of his life. Uh-huh. Sorry, but only in Scorcese's mind is New York that f'ed up. Doubtless some people see this as an ironic twist. For me, it's complete bunk, the final insult after having wasted almost two hours watching this crap.
Points for De Niro's pre-punk 'hawk and Jodie Foster's sunglasses. Other than that, you're left with a lame "prostitute with a heart of 14k gold" storyline, and a main character who's utterly pointless.
Some classic.
Robert St. James Albany, Oregon.