Dated but still worth watching.

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2006)

When this movie first came out in 1976, I found this movie to be absolutely astounding. But alas, time marches on and thirty years later this movie is a dated relic of a bygone era. The New York City of 1976 is not the New York City of 2006; indeed the same can be said for all of society. But that's not the movie's fault. Rather, in the ensuing thirty years since this movie was first released, so much has happened, and so many technological and demographic changes have occurred, that the movie is now passé. What was considered shocking then is now almost commonplace in movies today. For instance, the idea of a 13 year old girl being a prostitute certainly raised lots of eyebrows in 1976, but today would gain scant notice. Even the main character, Travis Bickle, being a Vietnam War veteran today would mean little if anything. Indeed, would a guy like Travis Bickle even be driving a taxi in New York City today? Could he even afford to live in New York? And would a guy like Sport be a pimp? Not likely. Nevertheless, this movie still provides a credible story about the effects of social isolation in an impersonal, hostile, violent, alienating and degenerate urban environment, which is the one thing that has NOT changed except for the worse, and for this reason is still worth watching.