"Well, I'm the only one here."

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2005)

Look for no further proof of what a great actor Robert De Niro is than in Martin Scorcese's "Taxi Driver". De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a racist, mentally unstable, violent, lonely, and scarred Vietnam vet. "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets," he says while driving his taxi through the dark and dangerous streets of 1970s New York City. But the amazing feat of his performance is that behind all of the character's hateful traits, De Niro is able to make him likable. During the film's brutal climax, we somehow cheer for him.
Travis takes the job as a cab driver and takes all kinds of people in his backseat, from hookers to politicians to men more mentally unstable than he is. The city of New York has barely ever looked so menacing. The alleys are all crowded with punks, gang bangers, teenage prostitutes, XXX movie theaters, all of this accompanied by Bernard Herrmann's jazzy melancholic music score. You can nearly understand why Travis hates the world around him, how he isolates himself in his taxi cab, and why he will eventually take action into his own hands.
But then comes Betsy, (Cybill Sheppard) a political campaign worker who Travis falls in love at first sight one day when she enters her office in a white dress. All of the sudden, Travis starts wanting to "fit in" and attempts to get close to her by working in the campaign office and going out with her on dates. Betsy obviously doesn't love him, but does see him as an interesting character. This all shatters when Travis takes her to see a "dirty" film as it is his idea of a romantic evening (this was the post-"Deep Throat" era, when hardcore porn films got theatrical releases) and Betsy finally sees that beneath his strange charisma, Travis is a troubled man.
Feeling rejected and realizing she is just like the others, Travis goes on a moral outburst of rage. He decides to free New York from its scum by himself, with his own hands. Hee trains with firearms, works out rigorously, and isolates himself from society even more. One day, he kills a black criminal wanting to stop him from robbing a grocery store and the owner lets him go, while taking his anger into the dead body. That is Travis' first experience as a hero, but it doesn't come even close to his major mission: Rescue a 12-year old prostitute named Iris (then "newcomer" Jodie Foster) from her corrupt pimp (Harvey Keitel).
Screenwriter Paul Schrader originally wrote the pimp character as black, and then changed it not wanting the film to expose Travis' racism to a point where the audience despises him. As with most of Schader's work, "Taxi Driver" deals with a dysfunctional hero who wants to stand up against the dark forces surrounding him, but this film is the exception, where De Niro's character becomes the deranged madman he so despises.
The film could be compared to a superhero origin story, since we see the hero from the middle stage of his life as he slowly goes from a common man to someone who wants to make a difference. We never flashback to his true origin though, since we never learn what exactly happened to Travis during Vietnam. I've never seen anyone use this film to compare it with the Columbine High School shootings either, which always amazed me. The two kids who opened fire into their classmates perhaps weren't much different from Travis. They saw high school pretty much the same way Bickle saw New York, wanting to "clean" it from popular cheerleaders and jocks.
"Taxi Driver" indeed is one of the greatest American films ever made, one of the most important films of the 70s, and it deserves every bit of hype as it gets. From Schrader's script to Herrman's music, (his last work as he sadly died the night after the recording) everything works to an outstanding level. However, I usually disagree when people call this Scorcese's finest hour. Although by no means am I stating Scorcese's work was below par, this isn't exactly what one would call a "Scorcese picture". In fact, I would say Paul Schrader deserves more credit for this than Martin usually gets, especially when watching Schader's other films, like his sophomore directorial effort "Hardcore". I would personally prefer "Raging Bull", "Goodfellas", or even Scorcese's criminally underrated effort "After Hours" to this as a "Martin Scorcese film".
***spoilers*** And much has been said about the ending. . I am one of the supporters that the final moments of the film are Travis' dying thoughts. Both Schrader and Scorcese have spoken against this theory. After starting a shootout and killing the pimp and other bordello employers , Travis lies deeply wounded on a chair and the camera pans all the way outside where police cars start piling up. We then learn Travis was seen as a "hero" by the media, and how he is now a finally happy man. He picks up Betsy again, and this time she seems to be more interested on him. We are supposed to believe that not only Travis wasn't arrested, or killed by a bullet in the neck, but also that Betsy would actually want to get back with him again. I also find the shot of Betty seen by Travis' mirror a bit too "dream-like", the way it is lighted and the wind blows her hair like she is a supernatural life form of beauty and sensuality. But interpret it in your own end, it is still a great ending, and it does give the film a sense of closure, since it begins and ends with Travis driving through the dark streets of New York in his yellow taxi.