A Classic Film from the 1970's

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2011)

Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) has become one of the most iconic characters in the movies during the 1970's. Even after three and a half decades, people of all ages get jittery even after watching and just can't get enough of the brilliant performances by the cast and the dynamic directing job of Martin Scorsese. What makes this film really special is that it defines antiheroes that are not intended to likable but intimidated. But at the same time you just get entranced by the charisma of De Niro's performance you have no other alternative but to admire this psychologically scarred Vietnam vet Travis Bickle.
Bickle is a decorated war veteran who finds himself working as a New York City taxi driver as a way to make money and to keep in touch with the outside world. Bickle is a social outcast, even though customers are just a seat him he's still alienated from them. His self-alienation comes to the point that even looking through the mirror, he can't even identify his own reflection. But this is because that's the way he chooses to be because the rage inside of him manifests within him as the inner scars from Vietnam are still with him and may linger with him till the day he dies.
He finds the love of two women that are woefully mismatched with this walking time-bomb. One of the women is named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) who's a campaign manager geared to elect a new President. She out of better judgement voluntarily obliges to go out with him, but surely regretted it when he took her to see an X-rated movie. But Bickle was not seeing the raunchy movie because he's a pervert, but because he's trying to rectify his humanity that's been absent from his war days. The other girl he's smitten for is the preteen hooker named Iris (Jodie Foster) as he defines sex as a symbolic synonym for inner rage as he defends her against her pimp (Harvey Keitel). He believes she's crying for his help, when in reality, she's chosen this life for herself.
As the days go by, Bickle's inner rage takes its turn for the worst as he decides to eject himself from getting in touch with reality and has decided to bring some people down. One of the first targets is the Presidential hopeful that Betsy is campaigning for. When that didn't work out like he anticipated, he decides to go after Iris' pimp daddy. After the carnage is done, we can see the power of what De Niro, Scorsese, Paul Schrader and even Mr. Bickle himself is getting at.
De Niro gives a whole new and original concept of sexual aggression as being both grotesque but understand through the eyes of Bickle. He wants to take that aggression to other people, when in fact, the only person he's appalled with is himself. He has an unintentional misunderstanding of what love is all about. He wants to make people's life a living hell, but can't control the inner demons so he takes them down with him. And it's all explained by the famous talking to himself in the mirror. To him, he thinks he's pointing a gun at someone, but in reality he's unconsciously pointing a gun at his reflection.
Martin Scorsese was at the top of his game in the 1970's as "Taxi Driver" was the film that made Scorsese a household name. The opening shot kind of reminds me of the opening for the 1977 equally successful film "Star Wars" with the big yellow cab moving off-left. The inner demons depicted in "Taxi Driver" can stem from two possibilities. It could be from loneliness, alienation or just a way to prove you're right when the whole world thinks you're not. That may explain why Bickle decided to break ties with humanity.