Bland Storytelling

Rating: 6/10 (22 August 2017)

This is my first review, and I think it is funny that I am starting reviewing with a 1976 movie..... This movie was on my watch-list since long and I was surely not going to miss this top rated classic in the Psychological Thriller- Genre.
This movie has top stars at the helm: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Cybill Shepherd and an IMDb rating of 8.3 so I didn't think that the film would disappoint.Cybill Shepherd is breathtakingly gorgeous.
As the this 113 minute film takes a leisurely pace. You get to see how the mind of the protagonist Travis Bickle works...
He is a USA-Marines veteran and has experience in the Vietnam War. He is not content with his monotonous life.He drives his cab in New York for 12 hours every night.
He encounters an alluring young woman at a local Political Office and asks her out. She is charmed by his manner and she agrees....they go out and the date goes well.
After some days he then takes her to a local movie theater. Except the movies are Swedish Pornography.She gets disturbed by the graphic content and leaves, Travis Bickle with his limited social skill gets puzzled by her behavior.She stops seeing him.
On one of his drives through the city Travis encounters a sex worker named "Iris" attempting to flee from her pimp.
For most of this 113 minute movie the scene revolves around Travis, his misanthropic nature, his unstable state of mind and his slow uneventful life.
As the movie crawls to the final 20 minutes viewers are already worn away by the slow storytelling and the character of Travis Bickle.
The final 20 minutes are most of the movie.If you watched the first and the last 20 minutes of the movie(you have seen most of the relevant scenes of the movie) Travis buys a battery of guns to " clean the scum of the city", He attempts to assassinate the President. His attempt is foiled by the Secret Service and he flees.
One can not develop any kind of feeling for this negative anti- social character.( I have seen many movies and shows having negative characters in the lead) but this character is not one with which one develops any remote likability.
The climax is packed with action as Travis attempts to take out the "scum of the city" and rescue Iris.After gunning down Iris's pimp and 3 others,Travis goes on to kill himself after the shootout.But before that he passes out from his wounds as Police arrive.
Next we know Travis Bickle is hailed as a "hero" in the papers and receives much appreciation from Iris's parents.And he goes on with his life.......
Bland.I expected this '76 classic being paced slow but it really crawled.This movie wouldn't score an 8.3 rating if it was released now in 2017