From zero to hero

Rating: 6/10 (30 June 2019)

"Taxi Driver" is an American movie from 1976, so this one is already over 40 years old now and it runs for slightly under 2 hours. The director is Martin Scorsese and lead actor is Robert De Niro and if you take a look at how big these two have been for decades now, it is very telling that this film here is still a contender for career-best for both of them. De Niro also scored a lead actor Oscar nomination and the film managed to get in for Best Picture as well while eventually not winning any of its 4 nominations. The script writer was Paul Schrader here and this was his only Academy Award nomination, but he is still active today and perhaps was not too far away from his second with his recent work on Ethan Hawke's First Reformed. Anyway, back to this one here. It is the story of a man who cannot sleep at night and to do something useful for once, he decides to start working as a taxi driver, a profession in which he gets in contact with all kinds of absurd characters, most of them just as bizarre as himself. And at the same time, he is in a position when he is basically just their servant, barely interacting with them and most are glad it is this way like the rich guy with the Black prostitute in the backseat. Or the guy who pulls out Foster's character early on. Yep that is true Jodie Foster is in this film too. She already was a quite experienced actress back then despite her age of 14 or so and I quite like her. Still I must say the Oscar nomination was a bit much if we take a closer look at the performance. Compared to other all-time great young age (female) performances that managed such a nomination like Hailee Steinfeld for example, she was not too outstanding and I am somewhat glad she did not win. I think I even read she was considered a frontrunner, or at least second. We will never know. But she cannot complain anyway with how her career developed since then. 2 Oscar wins, a successful filmmaker as well. I like it. She is always pretty likable in my opinion and I am glad her career got a nice boost through that movie here.
But there is no denying De Niro is the film from beginning to end and he proves he is among the defining actors of his generation here without a doubt and that The Godfather was not just a one time thingey. Also the make-up crew helped him a lot. His visual appearance changes so much during this film it is pretty memorable the way how his face looks and of course I am also talking about his haircut towards the end that is kinda epic together with his entire appearance in these moments when everything escalates or is about to escalate. With that I am obviously referring to the scene when he is about to shoot the politician, but also when he saves the girl eventually. This is what I am referring to with the title of my review when he is about the become the next Lee Harvey Oswald, but instead turns into kind of a national hero. Travis Bickle sure is a really interesting character. People say he is fed up with the horrible state his city is in and the people that live there in terms of crime and sleaze and it sure is true and what he says to Palantine is not make-believe, but what also inspires him to commit this crime of politicide (is that a word? anyway, you know what I mean) is that he gets rejected by Shepherd's character and also the way how he does. He meant all well to her, but her reaction is really crass stating explicitly that he is low-class scum compared to her and the nice gesture of giving her the record is destroyed completely by the few words that she has it already and does not care one bit about having it twice then as long as she gets away from him as quickly as possible. And she does so in a taxi which is extra humiliation for him. Fate also gets in the way for once as on one occasion she is not there when he shows up at the campaign headquarter. On another, she is and after trying to talk to her reasonably unsuccessfully, we see his anger finally and also that he is a bit of a woman hater. Or maybe just a society hater as he finally sees her as part of the all-around evil as well, not just in the building, but in the rotten city. Of course, her white knight colleague stepping in is not really helping things either. I still must say I kinda wondered why he got this close to Palantine honestly, because he really does not seem like an alpha male, even if he is a decent organiser I suppose. The white knight I mean of course.
I got to watch this movie as part of a film series on the city of New York here in Berlin and while many movies felt they were really just included because they were set in New York and hardly offered anything about the city, this one here is different and there is major focus on the situation of the people there and also the cultural climate there, so good choice for sure. Except of course that this film is considered a classic by many. Take a look at the rating and number of votes and enough is said. This film moving closer and closer to its half-century anniversary is still easily filling theaters and there are so many references in pop culture about it still, that it is probably alway gonna be this way. I myself would not say it is too great or epic or underappreciated by awards bodies back then and there really wasn't a moment when I considered giving it more than 3 stars out of 5, but there also was not a moment on the other end of the scale when I thought it should get less and thus a negative recommendation. De Niro most of all, and secondly the script, really make it a worthwhile watch that feels considerably shorter than almost two hours. There are also a handful of fun scenes, such as of course the (in)famous mirror scene (that I still don't consider as epic and defining), a pretty hilarious, but also dark scene filmed inside a car that shows us why his taxi driver job was also a bit extraordinary and this one was mostly memorable because the taxi guest sitting in the back who was filled with hate was played by Scorsese himself. Pretty funny and he is so unrecognizable with his looks when he was younger haha. I think many audience members did not recognize him despite him being still among the most defining and most famous filmmakers of our generation. All this black hair and beard haha. And of course the final 15-20 minutes are also incredibly unique with how things turn out eventually and probably helped giving the film the status it has today. Even the slightly forgettable return of Shepherd's character there works nicely, even if it's tough to remember anything really that happens after the shootings. Now no more spoilers I guess. All in all a good movie. Go watch it if you want and don't mind the violence. A must-see especially for everybody who loves De Niro like myself, even if I must say this is nowhere near his finest movies, maybe closer to his finest performances. Go for it, if you are old enough that is. They had to escort a young viewer out when the film began in my screening hehe.