A classy character study of a disturbed individual—but what is the point?

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2015)

Insomniac Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) takes a job driving a New York taxi cab, becomes obsessed with beautiful political campaigner Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who gives him the cold shoulder after he tries to take her to a skin flick on a date. Bickle then becomes obsessed with underage hooker Iris (Jodie Foster), buys lots of guns, and goes trigger happy on her pimp (Harvey Keitel).
As a fan of gritty 70s movie-making, I find it hard to believe that, until now, I hadn't seen Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver; I think perhaps the problem was that, having heard so many good things about the film, I didn't want to risk disappointment. Unfortunately, that's precisely what I felt when I finally got around to watching the film.
It's not that it's a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination—on the contrary, it's a skilfully assembled character study of a self-destructive loose cannon that boasts excellent cinematography, great music, and superb performances—BUT in the end it just didn't grab me as much as I would have liked. The story progresses very slowly, which in itself isn't a massive issue for me, but the payoff simply isn't as satisfying as I felt it needed to be given all that has gone before.
After all of his stalking, inane rambling and meticulous planning, Travis Bickle's rampage is over in a flash, after which he is proclaimed a hero and freed to roam the streets once more (unless you prescribe to the theory that everything after the shootout is in Bickle's mind as he slowly bleeds to death). Perhaps Scorsese's point was to show us just how easy it is for a dangerous loony like Bickle to be overlooked by society until its too late—but it sure felt like a letdown to me.
6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for Keitel's hair.