A masterpiece in every sense

Rating: Null/10 (25 September 2019)

Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a great character analysis and brought to life by a fantastic performance by Robert De Niro. Taxi Driver paints an extremely disturbing portrait -- we find ourselves understanding Travis' mindset. This is expert film making from Scorsese, cinematographer Michael Chapman, and the actors. Schrader's script, which was inspired by such diverse works as Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground and Harry Chapin's song, "Taxi," is a masterful psychological study, the depth of which can only fully be appreciated on repeat viewings. Even though more than 4 decades have passed since the film's release there is nothing dated about Taxi Driver. The message still rings as true as ever, and the characters are as shockingly believable as in the mid-seventies. The ending is a shocker to the psyche- Steeped in irony, the five-minute epilogue underscores the vagaries of fate. The media builds Travis into a hero, when, had he been a little quicker drawing his gun against Senator Palantine, he would have been reviled as an assassin. As the film closes, the misanthrope has been embraced as the model citizen.