A true American Classic and probably the Best Movie ever made

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2004)

SPOILERS!!
On the first viewing of this monumental picture I was pretty convinced that it was a good movie,but after the second,third.....I was impressed:No overwhelmed by it.This movie truly has everything. A great story,beautiful settings,superb acting overall,brilliant directing,a haunting and unforgettable score,legendary characters,first class and much imitated dialogues and sublime camera work.Every segment and every scene of it confirm the absolute brilliance of "Taxi Driver".
The movie is about a guy who lives in New York in the seventies.But he's not normal.Although it is not seen as an important scene or an important sentence the core of the movie lies in the early stages.Here we are introduced to Travis Bickle,played by a brilliant Robert De Niro.The dispatcher takes a look at Bickle's credentials and notices that he's a Vietnam veteran.This moment is crucial for the entire movie as the eventual brutal climax is all based on Bickle's experiences in Vietnam.It is the ultimate decline of an American guy tormented during the war and returning as a complete lunatic. The entire movie is based on this one "confession" if you will.In two hours cinema you see someone changing from a sad into a crazy man.
Bickle accepts the job as a night Taxi Driver,with cab number 3596 hence my user name,since he can't sleep(all because of the war).In the scenes that follow we observe Bickle as he goes crazy,all caused by his experiences in Vietnam and strengthened by his observations of the declined city,depicted as a hell on earth.Travis is disgussed by what he sees:"One day, a real rain is going to come through and wash all the scum off the streets." But then he sees the light at the end of the tunnel,in the shape of a woman called Betsy (played by Cybill Shepherd).He is overwhelmed by her appearance and asks her out but eventually she turns him down after viewing a dirty movie.She doesn't understand him or his problems.This is the moment that Travis slowly but surely freaks out,he wants to kill the senator/presidential candidate just because Betsy works for him. But he doesn't go through with it.The ultimate point of no return is when he meets up with the young hooker Iris (A very young but convincing Jodie Foster).He already met her briefly during one of his nightly shifts and now he wants to save her,she is the physical shape of hope in the world.In one moment of rage and lunacy Travis kills her pimp Sport (played by Harvey Keitel) and some other people.This scene is not only the highpoint of Travis' decline but also cinematically the highlight of the movie.Iris is saved from the clutches of evil and Travis has become a hero.What follows is a coda that is,in my view,the only weak point of the movie since it isn't really necessary.But it is acceptable as a closer.In my demonic mind I would have rather had it that Travis had died in the massacre instead of continuing his life as a hero for the ordinary people.But maybe I'm too pessimistic!
For this kind of story no place is better like New York in the 1970's.Although I was born in 1980 and never experienced the feeling of the city at that time I can vision it myself because of the movies made during that decade.Other brilliant movies set in New York during the 1970's are:"The French Connection"(1971),"Death Wish"(1974) and "Midnight Cowboy"(1969).Sure,"Midnight Cowboy" isn't from the 1970's but it really exhales the sad realism of New York at that time.I must say that not each movie made in that time about New York depict a desperate view of the city.Especially films by Woody Allen like "Annie Hall"(1977) and "Manhattan"(1979) show a more fairy tale look of the city.I must say that,although fairy tales a not true,I really like these movies also. I've been to New York in the summer of 2002 and I went back a year later (just because I really love the city).Nothing from the view of the 1970's has remained,Time Square has changed from a central point of crime and prostitution into the center of Disney and tourism.I must say,I'm not really sure which version is my favorite.
"Taxi Driver" is to me the highpoint of the artistic cinema of the 1970's.Never was there any better decade in cinema history.Besides the fact that the 1970's will always be remembered as the starting point of the Blockbuster with "Jaws"(1975),it is also the decade of some really fine and uncompromising films by some of the greatest directors ever.Martin Scorsese being the best of the bunch!
The acting in "Taxi Driver" is really first class.Besides the legendary role by Robert De Niro there are great supporting roles by Jodie Foster,Peter Boyle (most famous for his role as the monster in "Young Frankenstein"(1974) by Mel Brooks and his role as the detective in Schrader's (yes the same as the writer of "Taxi Driver") movie "Hardcore"(1979),Cybill Shepherd,Victor Argo,two cameos by Martin Scorsese (one is hard to see,the other hard not to) and there is a great performance from my favorite actor Harvey Keitel as Iris' pimp.It is a shame that Keitel didn't get a bigger role as he had in Scorsese's breakthrough movie "Mean Streets"(1973).Still,it is an essential character in the movie.
Martin Scorsese is the master in this movie as he directs with great power an a superb eye for detail.Each scene is a joy to look at and has some fine trickery.He really lives up as being the greatest director of them all.Together with the underestimated "Casino"(1995) this is his finest achievement.Scorsese's uncompromising criticism of the war in Vietnam comes to an artistic explosion in "taxi Driver".He already had given his view in his classic short "The Big Shave"(1967).But now the broader audience came to close view with one of the worst chapters in American history.And then to think that there isn't a second of film in Vietnam in the movie.
The score is provided by Hitchcock protege Bernard Herrmann and again he succeeds in giving a movie something really extra.Together with "Vertigo"(1958) and "Psycho"(1960) this is his best score.The main theme is really powerful and the jazzy addition makes it even better.It almost has the sound of a horror score,it is that haunting.
Each character is extremely well worked out.Travis Bickle is the embodiment of dispare and depression while Iris is the embodiment of hope.Betsy is arrogant and the embodiment of the outside world. It is therefore impossible to hate Travis while he is becoming a psycho and a danger for society.
Some of the dialogues are simply unforgettable and mentioned in every film book.The finest examples are:"You talking' to me? You talking' to me? You talking' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking' to? You talking' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? Huh? OK." and:"Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man." The dialogue really give the characters and the entire movie an extra boost.All the sentences are filled with important words and relevant references to the war.The "You Talking' to Me?" scene is probably the best known sequence but it ain't the best.
The best scene to me is the final massacre scene.Not only is it the scene in which Travis completes his journey into lunacy,but it is a beautiful sequence to look at.The camera work is brilliant and so fluent that it is impossible to blink an eye,Michael Chapman deserves a lot credit for that since he is the cinematographer of the movie (he would cooperate with Scorsese again on "Raging Bull"(1980).To me the film should have ended right where the camera has finished his pending through the house after Travis has done his killing.The camera then takes on a broad view of the street where ambulances and police cars have arrived. It truly is one of the greatest scene in cinema history and right up there with the Odessa stair sequence in "Bronenosets Potyomkin"(1925) and the stargate sequence in "2001:A Space Odyssey"(1968).
Finally there are a few things to mention:Steven Spielberg has actually cooperated on this film,he's the supervising editor.Yet another addition to the already monumental status of "Taxi Driver".There is a funny sequence in a porn theater where Travis goes in to see a movie,the canvas is all blurry but the sound is there! What a way to to fool the rating commission. Scorsese would go on to make some sort of remake some 20 years later:"Bringing out the Dead"(1999).Although it doesn't have the power of "Taxi Driver" it isn't a bad movie,not at all.It was mown down by the critics as being bad and pretentious but I really enjoyed it.It is one of the best movies of 1999 and deserves more credit.
A definite masterpiece,one of the greatest achievements ever and a must see for every film fan. 10/10