The films of Martin Scorsese: Taxi Driver.

Rating: 9/10 (10 August 2005)

Taxi Driver (1976) was a very controversial film from the team of Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader. The movie shows the decay of the inner boroughs of Manhattan and the decline of a disturbed individual's mind.
A former Viet-Nam vet turned cab driver (Robert De Niro) is roaming the streets watching the world go to pot. The line between fantasy and reality is ever blurring because of his mental status. Slowly over time he imagines that society needs someone who will clean the streets and get rid of the vermin that runs rampant. After having a falling out at an attempt to have a normal relationship with a w.a.s.p.y woman (Cybil Shepard), he decides to become a young prostitute's savior (Jodie Foster) and bump off her sleazy pimp (Harvey Keitel). After trying to impress his ex-girlfriend by nearly killing her political employer, the cabbie decides to go out in a blaze of glory whilst confronting the pimp and the prostitute's client in a nearby flop house. Instead of being locked up in a loony bin, he's proclaimed a hero.
A strange film from Scorsese. It was made during the last phase of his innovative career. After this film, he went on to direct more subtle fair. Paul Schrader would become Hollywood's next wunderkind and have a brilliant (but short) career himself. Even today, this movie is still rife with controversy. The inflammatory racial content and views of mental illness still ruffle people's feathers.
Highly recommended!