Gritty, enthralling and iconic masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2016)

Gritty, enthralling and iconic masterpiece.
Travis Bickle is a New York taxi driver. He is also socially awkward, a loner, an insomniac, a Vietnam veteran and has issues. He sees the criminals - prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers etc - on the streets and views them as dirt, and wishes that a rain would come to wash them away. Initially he is just talk but over time he becomes more angry, bitter, delusional and open to vigilantism and taking matters into his own hands...
Brilliant movie by Martin Scorsese. He builds up the story well - first painting Bickle as all talk and no action but then showing us how he develops more into a man of action...radical action. Even once it is obvious that Bickle is now beyond just talking about doing something, you don't know how it is going to pan out. Scorsese toys with the audience, giving us a red herring as the entrÃ©e for the final showdown. Even then there's another twist in store...
This slow-burning build up and portrayal of the escalation of Bickle's outlook is superbly aided by a searingly good performance by Robert De Niro as Bickle. He inhabits the character, and a very complex character it is. I doubt that anyone else could have played Bickle that convincingly.
De Niro got a Best Actor Oscar nomination and was only prevented from getting the award by an equally brilliant Peter Finch, for Network.
Good support from Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel and Albert Brooks. Foster was 13 years old at the time and got a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance.