Taxi Driver (1976)

Rating: Null/10 (13 May 2016)

Taxi Driver is a true classic and one of the best films ever made. Robert DeNiro gives one of his most compelling performances as disaffected Vietnam war vet and mentally unstable loner. The film is mostly a character study of Travis Bickle, under the backdrop of NYC in the 1970's. Which was a truly dangerous, but interesting place. In this environment, our main man Travis boiling over in a violent rage is inevitable. Writer Paul Shrader and director Martin Scorsese crafted a very important, unique and real well crafted film that is a classic and influence many filmmakers to come. While there are many movies that have been influenced by Taxi Driver, very few of them are in the same class. Taxi Driver is Scorsese/Shrader's post Vietnam urban American masterpiece that is powerful, gritty and uncompromising. Robert DeNiro is pretty much always great, but this is one of his finest performances and I can't think of anyone who could play this character as well as he did here. I have a lot of admiration and respect for 70's cinema, an era where filmmakers had much more artistic control and had the balls to make movies like this.