Robert De Niro is to film as Pink Floyd is to music.

Rating: 7/10 (8 April 2007)

This movie is enjoyable. It is notable for its good acting, intelligent, but not masterful directing, and thoughtful ponderous score.
However, these elements in combination do not make a great work of art, nor do they qualify Taxi Driver, as one of the all time great movies. Yes, it was one of the better movies of the 70s, just as the Graduate was one of the best of its decade. But I really don't think anyone is seriously going to hold up De Niro to Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, or Marlon Brando in well, anything at all.
Furthermore, to suggest that De Niro's character is mentally unstable is preposterous. Yes, it's a bit out there for someone to shoot a political candidate. But given that it has been proved time and time again that in the right situation, 99% of the human population will kill someone sitting in front of them (this was found in numerous psychological studies conducted in the 50s, showing that most humans would shock a fellow human being until they were dead, for a small sum of money or approval from an authority figure), the character is not insane, or unbalanced. Simply, he knows how to shoot, to kill, and he is lonely without much else to do.
After watching this movie it is clearly evident as to Scorsese's many years without an Oscar. He is cognizant to De Niro's talents, and he lets De Niro run with the movie. Scorsese backs off, and lets the characters do the talking. Talking heads, do not, and will not, ever, making a great movie. A good movie, yes, but a great movie, no. Even Brando in On the Waterfront required a director that was willing to take the movie past the actors, and communicate using the camera more than schematically. What I mean is that while the cinematography was nice, it did not show much more than what was happening. For instance the shot at the end of On the Waterfront where Brando walks towards the warehouse shaking and barely able to stand up is not simply communicated using a locked down camera. The camera moves, shakes, jitters, and communicates with the viewer in concert with the actors. Scorsese, yes, uses some novel camera angles, but new camera angles, while memorable, do not communicate directly with the audience in a real fashion. Scorsese informs, there is more to art than informing.
In conclusion Taxi Driver is a very gritty, almost documentary-like, story of a disaffected man. Further, De Niro is able to convey a sensitive likable character who experiences many difficult situations, that almost every person imagines that they identify with (in reality very few men watching the movie ever prepared in earnest to shoot someone, and very few women watching it were ever child prostitutes, but the magic of movies is that they allow the viewer to over-extend and go on ego trips).
7 out of 10. Great acting, decent directing, thoughtful music.
-John