A cult movie

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2011)

The movie was good, especially with cult scenes of main character. In the first half of the movie, there is no flow of events; you just smell the streets of New York in the 70's. Travis presents us a frame of post war American society with crimes, prostitution, drugs, gangsters, social collapse, and much more. Travis does not belong to that society at first; because he is not a part of crimes, he is only a social observer.
His confrontation with senator reveals that only Travis is aware of the dirty smell of streets, as seen on the face of senator who seems to hear that complaint first time in his life. The second part of the movie is transition to action. Our main character prefers to be 'into frame' rather than 'out of frame'. Travis saves Money, buys guns, changes hairstyle, and prefers to clean the dirt on his own. Here presented two different faces of Travis: one is a nice guy with modest smile, alone and isolated from society; other is illegal, murderer, and part of that society. Ironically, he becomes a 'hero' after he becomes a 'murderer'. What marks you as a nice person in society is something illegal and corrupt, is not that a social message of Martin Scorsese?