One of Scorcese's Best Films

Rating: 10/10 (3 September 2012)

Taxi Driver Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese is a mind-blowing piece of art that emphasizes on human interrelations and justice use. When I saw this film, I was blown-away by Robert De Niro's performance as Travis Bickles. The character, Travis Bickles is a loner with psychic problems especially insomnia, and a personality disorder. We have also learned that he is honorably discharged Vietnam veteran. He is a night-shift taxi driver who fails to make a connection with society since everyone is impersonal and cruel to others. The people treat him as an invisible being. In addition, the streets of New York City are corrupted, dirty, and immoral. Travis mentions that he wants someone to clean up the city's corruptness, and votes for the leading candidate for president. Later in the movie, when his girl of dreams, Becky dumps him for the way he acts to her because he thought that Becky was an "angel" compare to the dirty citizens of New York and thought that no one should hurt her, but he was wrong. Therefore, he decides to takes revenge on Becky by trying to assassinate the leading candidate for president, which Becky supports largely. Travis arms himself with weapons supplied from a black market, and shaves off his hair on his head. Yet, his assassination plan fails. Thus, he tries to find another way to release his anger by becoming a vigilante. As the film progresses, we begin to learn that Travis has a loath for prostitution, and he begins protecting an underage girl, Iris (played by Jodie Foster) from her abusive lover, "Sport." When Iris repudiates Travis's help, Travis becomes infuriated, and uses his anger to attack "Sport" and the gangsters in a bloody shoot-out. Eventually, he gets shot, but prevails by killing "Sport." At that point, Travis is ultimately claimed as a hero in society when he saves Iris. It is ironic because in the beginning of the movie, he followed the laws of society and acted "invisible" to others. However, when he breaks society's laws, he becomes a hero which seems to help him to escape his miserable fate in life. That is one of the themes of the movie: glorification of violence. People start to care for him. Unfortunately, in the end of the film, one can never know if Travis actually died or lived because everyone has their own interpretations. I would say that Travis's triumph is actually a tragedy since we don't know the impossible answers to the questions. He might have died because at the end, it was almost like a dream sequence that played on an emotional level, but we still do not know. The ending is supposed to be enigmatic. Martin Scorsese ended this film that way with no real answers for the ending because the director made the audience cared for Travis Bickles. We wanted to know what really happened to him, so that teaches us a very significant lesson about life. The moral of the film in my opinion was that if humans were impersonal, unfair, and unloving to others, society would deteriorate and fall into chaos in life. Another reason I enjoyed this masterpiece for the reason that it was very gritty, and realistic to the 1970s of New York City. In general, Taxi Driver is a must-see for people who love heavy dramas.