Still don't get it?

Rating: 4/10 (21 August 2002)

Just forced myself to watch this film again for the third time thinking maybe I had some Natural Born Killer prejudice against this movie, which I kicked, but after painfully sitting through this thing again for the last time all I can say is I'm tired, depressed, and befuddled at the high praise for this darkly disturbing film. Or maybe that's the alure for some people. If you look at the votes for this thing people either love it or hate it. I'm mostly indifferent. The problem I have with Taxi Driver is that there are too many unanswered questions about Travis' background, experience in the Marine Corp, etc. We know he was discharged while Vietnam was winding down but we don't have a clue what the source of his "instability" is! Are we to assume that he had suffered some sort of trauma during the war...did he ever see any action...was he really discharged because of his instability? In fact, the guy seems perfectly normal other than a slightly obsessive compulsive complex which 70% of society is sporting, and he can't sleep. Awwww, poor thing. Well neither can I, and a lot of people can't sleep at nights. Does that alone make Travis a candidate for the nuthouse? Nope. The truth is, we don't know what his problems stem from and that is a major problem with this movie. His descent is so spontaneous when Betsy reacts about being dragged to an adult film, and he just snaps, we don't know why?!? (spoiler alert) Next thing you know the guy is buying guns like there's no tomorrow to feed his all-of-a-sudden John Wayne complex that springs from a source we can't as an audience connect with. Good performances overall don't salvage the many holes that litter the canvas of this highly overrated drama. And somebody please explain to me all this talk about Travis searching for "redemption", from WHAT>?>? Jeez! The final shootout is a little too reminiscent of the Wild Bunch where spurting blood and bad editing wooed critics all around. Amazing. 6/10