Astonishing

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2004)

Before "Gangs of New York", before "After Hours", before "Brining Out the Dead", Martin Scorsese directed "Taxi Driver", one of the most insightful and heartbreaking social commentaries every made in America. Featuring Robert De Niro at his most astounding, Cybill Shepard at her most vulnerable, and a young Jodie Foster at her most precocious, "Taxi Driver" succeeds in making the most sociopathic man imaginable into someone an audience empathizes with. As someone who has spent much of his life in NYC, I can certainly relate to Travis' feelings of loneliness and regret at an overwhelmingly bleak society. Notable: Peter Boyle as a fellow cab driver named Wizard and Bernard Herrman's final, melodic jazz score