A Scorsese/De Niro Classic

Rating: 8/10 (4 March 2015)

The directorial genius that is Martin Scorsese and the cinematic magic he has created with the gifted Robert De Niro was never seen to greater advantage than in the 1976 classic Taxi Driver.
This is a chilling and bold character study that takes a look at the effects of loneliness, isolation, alienation, and PTSD and the effects that politics and violence can have on an already mentally shredded psyche.
De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a slightly disturbed insomniac who gets himself a job driving a taxi because he cannot sleep and he basically has no life. We then watch as Travis' midnight to six sojourns throughout the violent underbelly of Manhattan and how his already questionable mentally instability cause him to become obsessed with murdering a political candidate and an equally strong obsession with a 12 year old prostitute who he decides it his responsibility to rescue from this life that he has decided for her she no longer wants to live. He also becomes obsessed with an icy blonde who works for the political candidate he wants to assassinate.
Scorsese brilliantly recreates the seedy and often bone-chilling atmosphere of Manhattan after midnight, making Bickle's comfort in the atmosphere all the more unsettling, not to mention the atmosphere created by the few scenes that take place in Travis' apartment, a sparse place of convenience that contains a little more than a bed and some weights and the sparse equipment that Travis feels necessary to complete his "mission." Sometimes watching Bickle at home is even more unsettling than when he is in the taxi, making the character equal parts creepy, fascinating and pathetic. It's sad to watch how socially inept Travis is when he gets the blonde (Cybill Shepherd) to agree to go see a movie with him for their first date and he actually takes her to a porno film, not having any idea how inappropriate this is for a date movie and his confused reaction to her walking out is almost as heartbreaking as it is pathetic.
De Niro gives a powerhouse performance as Bickle, which galvanizes the screen and mention should also be made of Jodie Foster's Oscar nominated performance as Iris the hooker and Harvey Keitel as her pimp, who are centrally involved in the film's shockingly violent denouement. De Niro received a Best Actor nomination as did the film for Best Picture. Fans of Scorsese and De Niro probably consider this film their masterwork and deservedly so.