Scorsese, Schrader, and De Niro combine to deliver a masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (25 April 2010)

In Taxi Driver Scorsese gives us a deep character study of a lonely man, "God's lonely man" if we're to believe our narrator Travis Bickle (De Niro). Travis is a Vietnam veteran who takes a job as a taxi driver at night in New York because he can't sleep. He cruises around New York looking for a fare and constantly finds himself drawn to the seediest parts of the city, despite his hatred of everything these places stand for and the people who live and make their living there. Right from the start we have an idea of where Travis is going from when his cab emerges from the white smoke of hellfire. Not literally of course but there is plenty of similar imagery throughout from the overhead view of the guns that the dealer lays out on the bed like a priest looking down at the altar to when Travis holds his clenched fist above the gas fire stove. Like all of Scorsese's greatest films Taxi Driver is imbued with ideas of religion and guilt.
There is little plot to this film but that is unimportant, real life has no plot. Taxi Driver is about character and the character of Travis Bickle is so frighteningly real that he is captivating throughout. This is a man who fails to connect with those around him on almost any level, his date with the beautiful, idyllic, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) goes disastrously wrong and there is even a lack of camaraderie between him and his fellow taxi drivers who are the closest thing he has to friends. And yet Scorsese makes him fascinating to watch, of course De Niro is great here and how he manages to get us to empathise with Travis is no small feat.
This is a film that I could watch again and again, and I surely will, it is a classic. The way Scorsese shoots the film, New York has never looked so gritty and Herrmann's accompanying score is fantastic, the only shame being that this was his final work. Films like this just do not get made any more.