A documentation of a man's gradual descent into madness

Rating: 10/10 (2 July 2016)

In my opinion, this is the best film of all time. The cinematography was definitely of high quality. Also, this was the final soundtrack composer Bernard Herrmann made before he died. The jazzy soundtrack captures both Manhattan in the 70s and the growing loneliness of the main character, Travis Bickle. I've always loved the way the film is almost entirely centered around Bickle. It never focuses on a character unless they're with Bickle. Aside from the beginning of the scene at the campaign office, the film is all about his mental health. In the beginning, the viewer perceives Travis as an extremely lonely and somewhat socially awkward character. As the film progresses, these two character traits cause him distress and sadness. It is the two main traits he had in the beginning of the film when he was more sane that caused him to lose his mind. Bickle had trouble interacting with other people and maintaining healthy relationships with them. He didn't have any close family or friends to support him and for him to spend time with. Because he was constantly alone and being rejected by society, he spends his time either in his rundown apartment or driving his taxi in the sleazy streets of New York City in the 1970s. When Bickle ends up connecting with a teen prostitute who stepped into his car, the underlying hero in his character begins to show, but still in a subtle way. Late in the movie, it becomes quite clear to the viewer that Travis is going to attempt to save this young girls life. This shows that some good still remains in his character. His intentions, however, are still troubling because at the same time as selflessly helping a confused teenager get a better life, Bickle begins to further succumb to his insanity and makes plans to assassinate a senator who is running for president. When this proves to be unsuccessful, he focuses on helping the prostitute. Travis's mental health is seemingly very inconsistent at this point. Why would he want to help the girl? The reason he wanted to help her was the same reason he wanted to kill the senator. All his life, he had been rejected by the society surrounding him. So, he figures if he could get any kind of national attention, positive or negative, people might finally stop completely disregarding him. Although the ending was left pretty ambiguous, we find out that he has in fact reached his goal of getting the public's attention. And instead of negative attention like he would've gotten had he killed the senator, he got positive attention. Overall, this is quite possibly the best movie I've ever seen. Every aspect of it is flawless. 10/10.