The pacing is literally more retarded than the main character.

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2009)

In complete opposite mentality of Taxi Driver, no one challenges things anymore. If a movie wins a few Oscars and is labeled as a "classic", the title sticks and everyone must bow down to it. If someone challenges this titleeven so much as asks, "Why is it a classic?"they're ironically turned into a laughable fool by fools laughing. The paradoxical problem with this is that no one can really defend the so-called classics. All you ever hear in the defense of films like Taxi Driver when criticism arises is a list of the film's awards, or a list of the film's critical acclaim, or just, "It's a classic, so shut up!" There have been far more original, thought-provoking, well-made movies that never even get the public's attention, much less won overrated Oscars. When people challenge the so-called classics with this fact, the notion is never entertained, and oftentimes foolishly laughed at or stupidly dismissed as childish or immature. With everything I just said as a backbone, I'm about to challenge the "classic" Taxi Driver. If you're open-minded you'll give this review a chance. If you have the arrogant mentality of a whiney 4-year-old"It's a classic, that's all there is to it!"then don't even bother reading any further. There is no hope for your immature intellect.
First and foremost, Taxi Driver is not a completely worthless film. I'm not even going to try to argue that. It has had had a major influence on the way open-world movies and video games have been made, and possibly even invented the subgenre. Taxi Driver creates a realistic world, fills it with faceless scum characters, and openly lets the main character interact with them in a completely non-linear way. Some people find this completely boring, others find it completely genius. The entire film is hinged on if or if not you can emotionally relate to the main character. If so, these opening scenes of him interacting with his environment will likely captivate you. If not, these scenes will likely put you to sleepevery single time you attempt to watch it. Stating and argument on whether or not Taxi Driver is boring or not is completely pointless because it's completely opinion-based. Personally, however, I was bored out of my godforsaken mind until the last thirty minutes of the film. Movies have presented loneliness much better, in much more effective ways than this. Another 70s film, Straw Dogs, for example, examines realistic human emotion with much more depth.
DeNiro's acting is average at best, unless you're really studying so closely it's ridicules. If DeNiro wasn't so famous, no one, not a single review, would even mention his acting whatsoever. The character he plays is also completely average. Some people state that he has mental disabilities; if so, I didn't even notice. He was an average, typical, lonely character and nothing more. The majority of his time on screen he's staring at the walls or staring out his windshieldthat's not psychologically deep, it's typical. There is nothing, not one thing, psychologically deep about the main character. It literally makes me laugh every time I hear people calling the character of Travis "one of the most accurate psychological characters ever portrayed". If so, Napoleon Dynamite is the next Freud. Neither Travis nor Napoleon do anything whatsoever except stare at things. And we all can learn so much about the human condition from that.
An actual story doesn't even develop until the last thirty minutes of the film. Though it is somewhat nostalgic, it's a pretty typical example of 70s "shock value" that is about as shocking to us today as watching a dead tree stump rot. At least it didn't have a cliché, non-graphic rape scene like the hundred other 70s movies just like itI'll give Taxi Driver that credit. The final action scene is PG-13 at worst by today's standards, but it does give some much-needed diversity to the film. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the structure of Taxi driveropen-world, followed by a mini subplotwas a pretty fresh and creative idea for its time. It's almost prolific, considering the thousands of movies and video games that came out after it with the same style. But it's executed terribly here. Travis just repeats the same lines. He never really examines human nature or human behavior. It just gets old fast. The writers could have done so much more with this formula, but their lack of creativity and imagination is absolutely ridicules.
Overall, while the formula Taxi Driver follows is essential, the overall film is bland and forgettable. There were so many missed opportunities to bring true depth and insight into the film, but the writers didn't take them. The lack of any story at all gets very annoying very fast, mainly due to the average main character, played with an average performance. But I guess that is the moral of this non-story that all future directors should take note on: meritocracy wins over the imaginationless critics. And spineless viewers agree with every word they say.
4/10