Taxi Driver

Plot synopsis:
Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) goes to a New York City taxi depot where he applies for a job as a driver to the tough-talking personnel officer (Joe Spinell). Travis claims that he is an honorably discharged Marine (it is implied that he is a Vietnam Veteran). After making an impression on the personnel officer, Travis gets the job for the night shift due to his chronic insomnia.Via his narrative journal, Travis is soon revealed to be a lonely and depressed young man of 26 years. His origins and hometown are unknown. He sends his parents letters as well as birthday and Christmas cards, lying about his life and saying he works with the Secret Service. Travis spends his restless days alone in his rundown apartment somewhere in Manhattan, or in seedy porn theaters on and off 42nd Street. At one porn theater he tries to make an advance on the concession lady to no avail. He works 12 or 14 hour shifts during the evening and night time hours carrying passengers among all five boroughs of New York City. Sometimes during his breaks, he goes to a local all-night diner to have something to eat or just a few cups of coffee where fellow taxi drivers also hang out during their late-night lunch breaks. One of whom is a self-appointed philosophical type named Wizard (Peter Boyle). Wizard talks about the degradation of the night time in the city. Travis barely interacts with the other taxi drivers, mainly speaking awkwardly and shyly when he's spoken to.During taxi driving, Travis spies and becomes infatuated with a woman named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a campaign volunteer for New York Senator Charles Palantine, who is running for the presidential nomination and is promising dramatic social change. Travis spies Betsy joking with a co-worker named Tom (Albert Brooks). Travis works up the nerve to ask her out and Betsy is initially intrigued by Travis. She agrees to a date with him after he flirts with her over coffee and sympathizes with her own apparent loneliness. She compares him to a character in the Kris Kristofferson song "The Pilgrim."Travis is further revolted by what he considers the moral decay around him. One night while on shift, Iris (Jodie Foster), a 12-year-old child prostitute, gets in his cab, attempting to escape her pimp. Shocked by the occurrence Travis fails to drive off quickly enough and her pimp, "Sport" (Harvey Keitel), reaches the cab. Sport forcibly grabs Iris away with him and gives Travis a crumpled twenty dollar bill as a bribe not to say anything, which haunts Travis with the memory of his failure to help the girl.During one of his shifts, Travis picks up Senator Palantine himself (Leonard Harris) and an aide. He tells the senator he plans to vote for him and the senator, acting like a real politician, tells Travis he learns more from cab drivers than limo drivers. The senator asks Travis "what's the one thing that bugs you the most?" and Travis responds that he would like the next president to "clean the scum off New York City."On their date, however due to his lack of social skills, Travis takes Betsy to a porno theater to view a hardcore Swedish "sex education" film (titled: Language of Love). Offended, she leaves him and takes a taxi home alone. The next day he tries to reconcile with Betsy, phoning her and sending her flowers, but all of his attempts are in vain and she refuses to speak with him. Going back into the campaign office, Travis confronts Betsy and shouts that she will "burn in hell like the rest of them".Rejected and depressed, Travis later picks up a man (director Martin Scorsese) who appears to be as mentally unbalanced as he is. The man tells Travis to park outside an apartment building while letting the meter run. He tells Travis to look at the woman in the window and tells him that's his wife in her boyfriend's apartment. He tells Travis he plans to kill them both with a .44 Magnum.One evening at the diner, Travis approaches and tries to express his despair to Wizard, but when Wizard makes a half-hearted response to Travis' problems with the teen prostitute and others, Travis angrily responds with: "that's just about the stupidest thing I ever heard".Travis's thoughts turn more violent. Disgusted by the petty street crime (especially prostitution) that he witnesses while driving through the city, he now finds a focus for his frustration and buys a number of pistols from an illegal drug/weapons dealer (Steven Prince).Travis develops an ominously intense interest in Senator Palantine's public appearances and it seems that he somehow blames the presidential hopeful for his own failure at wooing Betsy and maybe hopes to include her boss in his growing list of targets. Back at his apartment with his newly purchased guns, he begins a program of intense physical training and practices a menacing speech in the mirror, while pulling out a pistol that he attached to a home-made sliding action holster on his right arm ("You talkin' to me?"). Later, he hangs around a Palantine rally and asks a suspicious secret service man about joining the service before disappearing into the crowd.In an accidental warm-up, Travis randomly walks into a robbery in a run-down grocery store and shoots the would-be thief (Nat Grant) in the face; adding to the bizarre violence, the sympathetic grocery owner (Victor Argo) encourages Travis (who has no permit for his guns) to flee the scene and then proceeds to club the near-dead stickup man to death with a steel pole.Later, seeing Iris on the street, he follows her. Another day later, Travis asks to pay for her time, and is sent to Sport. A tense conversation ensues but Sport sends Travis up to Iris's room. Once in her room, Travis does not have sex with her and instead tries to convince her to leave this way of life behind.The next day, Travis and Iris meet for breakfast at a local coffee shop and Travis becomes obsessed with saving this naïve child-woman who thinks hanging out with hookers, pimps and drug dealers is more "hip" than dating young boys and going to school. Iris considers Travis's offer but then Sport seduces and convinces her to stay, while (seemingly) Travis spies into the window from his cab. Travis writes a note to Iris including all his money and stating that he doesn't intend to survive.Any lingering doubt in the viewer's mind about Travis Bickle's sanity is obliterated when he is suddenly and shockingly shown to be sporting a crude Mohawk haircut at a public rally. He creeps through the crowd and prepares to assassinate Senator Palantine but is spotted by Secret Service men and flees.Travis returns to his apartment to collect all his guns, then drives to "Alphabet City" (an area of New York's Lower East side consisting of Avenues A through E). He walks up to Sport and confronts him. When Sport flicks a lit cigarette at him, Travis says "suck on this" and shoots Sport in the belly. Storming into the brothel, Travis blows the bouncer's hand off. Sport, who has followed Travis, grazes Travis neck with a bullet (causing an arterial gush from his neck) but Travis unloads one of his guns into Sport, killing him. Travis again shoots the screaming bouncer who follows him up the stairs, slapping him. Iris' mafioso customer shoots Travis in the arm and Travis shoots his face off. The bouncer tackles Travis but Travis stabs him through the hand and finally kills the bouncer with a bullet to the brain. He then calmly tries repeatedly to fire a bullet into his own head under his chin but all the weapons are empty so he resigns himself to resting on a convenient sofa until police arrive. When they do, the blood-soaked Travis mimes shooting himself in the head and then blissfully thinks of the mayhem and carnage in his wake.A brief epilogue shows Travis recuperating from the incident. He has received a handwritten letter from Iris' parents who thank him for saving their daughter, and the media (in newspaper clipping) hails him as a hero for saving her as well. Travis blithely returns to his job and suddenly seems on more friendly terms with the other cabbies. One night one of his fares happens to be Betsy. She comments about his saving of Iris and Travis' own media fame, yet Travis denies being any sort of hero. He drops her off without charging her. As he is driving off, he gets a strange look on his face and adjusts his cab's rear view mirror, giving the impression that his irrationality is about to break through again.

Tags: dark, psychological, neo noir, murder, boring, cult, violence, atmospheric, insanity, romantic, revenge

Review:
Travis is an misunderstood guy who is seeking desperately for some kind of company because as he says 'loneliness has followed me all my life, everywhere' but at the same time he seems not to do anything to avoid his situation and it is seen when he goes with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) to a porn cinema.
At the end of the film the character makes real his most violent fantasies, with a look of certain soldiers from Vietnam, and he behaves like this because of his loneliness, his alienation and because he does not find any sense to his life.
An excellent portrayal from Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle the cabbie and good performances from Jodie Foster as the child prostitute Iris Steensman, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Boyle and Harvey Keitel as a pimp called Sport.
In fact, it's hard to know where to begin when praising the elements of this film - such elements as the dark location shots of a (now gone) seedy Times Square, the cinema verite settings of the cabbies and campaign workers, the magnificent Bernard Hermann score, Paul Schrader's fine script, the memorable performances of Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Peter Boyle all must be mentioned.
"Travis Bickle" has to be one of the most fascinating characters ever put on film, and this has to still rank as one of the best post-film noir era "noirs" ever made.Yeah the story is a bit seedy but it's an incredibly interesting portrait of a mentaly unbalanced cab driver (Bickle, played by Robert De Niro) and his obsessions with "cleaning up" New York City.In addition to De Niro's stunning performance, we see a young and gorgeous Cybill Shepherd and a very, very young (12 years old) Jodie Foster.
Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel (with shoulder-length hair!) and Peter Boyle all lend good supporting help.Bickle's transformation from a "disturbed" cabbie to a fully-deranged assassin is fantastic to watch, and includes one of the classic scenes in all film history: Bickle talking to the mirror and repeating the question, "You talking' to me?" That scene, and seeing De Niro in a Mohawk haircut later at a political rally are two scenes I'll never forget.The more times I've watched this, the more I appreciate the cinematography and the music in here.
He's never equaled it, although I think he and De Niro almost pulled it off five years later with another whacked-out character, "Rupert Pupkin" In "The King Of Comedy." In any case, there is no debate that Scorcese and De Niro are a great team and that Taxi Driver is one of the most memorable movies of the Seventies..
Not too many hyper-critical reviews of this film have anything near as intelligent to say about what the director and the screenwriter had in mind when they created this American gem.To those people that have seen it and thought it was "slow" or the pacing was sub par, they don't know what they're talking about; "Taxi Driver" is about the gradual and eventual take-over of insanity, and not about violence, action-shoot-'em-up 'slash' car chase...
and no, I'm not anybody's grandfather, or here to tell you that movies were great in my day, but, viewers, lighten up already.De Niro, and the rest of the cast, do a serviceable job in this micro-cosmic window into the life of Travis Bickle--a Vietnam vet--who, true, writes mind-numbing entries in his diary, leads a, for the most part, dull existance as a cabbie, and strikes out with a female political campaigner who, after Travis becomes a hero, discovers she is indeed attracted to unstable, sometimes violent chauffeurs.The rest of this movie's story is for the less initiated viewer; decide whether you've truly become desensitized to sexual and violent content in today's films...
Some well known actors that were still unknown at the time of this movie make an appearance, such as a very young Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Victor Argo and an almost unrecognizable young Harvey Keitel.The entire movie is sensational- and with lots of style directed by Martin Scorsese, who knows how to set the right mood and atmosphere.
It really has.With me giving Taxi Driver 5 stars, I think that I am actually being quite generous with that rating - 'Cause, at best, this film was an average production that seemed to contain an almost endless stream of filler-scenes where absolutely nothing of any interest ever happens.Now 40 years old, Taxi Driver (which contained some of the most inane dialogue and preposterous situations imaginable) certainly doesn't hold up very well today.And fresh-faced actor, Robert De Niro, as the psychotic vigilante, Travis Bickle (and his double-talking, dime-store philosophy) was pretty dull stuff, for the most part.And, speaking about Taxi Driver's climatic final showdown - I actually burst out laughing as I watched how badly this sequence was staged.
You had the best mind for movies in Scorsese working with the best on screen performer of his time.It's a study of a man who's completely alone in the world even when surrounded by other people.
And the violence was, at times, almost laughable.This, to me, was not in any way a satisfying movie-experience, yet people seem to, literally, fall all over themselves, heaping unwarranted praise on it.Personally, I think that most of these people who love Taxi Driver to pieces are probably now in their 50s and 60s.These people saw this film when it was first released in movie theaters back in 1976.
though it had a short yet exciting action scene the ending is pretty simple and is more about delivering a simple message rather than leaving you amazed or satisfied.The dark comedy in the movie is pretty clear, it shows you how messed up society really is, the movie was executed flawlessly when it comes to cinematic and production, but it will disappoint you at the very end, the ending was just too "MEH" to bear, especially after an excellent build of events preceding it, such a pity.I'm sure the movie was a big hit at the time of its release (after the Vietnam war), but I'm not sure it would be enjoyed the same at our current time, so let me put it this way: - If you enjoy a dark Noir mood with nice character development then watch it now.
He must have gone through a similar patch before making Gangs of New York.I think the only reason why people exaggerate this movie is because they approach it with the formula: De Niro+Scorcese=Ingenious film-making.
De Niro plays You-talkinna-me Travis Bickle, a loner and a socially inept New York City cabby who takes the job because 'he cannot sleep at night'.
Shepherd makes a short and forgettable appearance as Travis his love interest and seems to be cast only for her pretty eyes and patented stare.Though wonderfully moody and well filmed, Taxi Driver is at its core an uninteresting character piece that goes on too long and tells us too little.
The film centers on taxi driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a man clearly with his own demons who finds a purpose in life when he meets a 12-year-old hooker (Jodie Foster) who he plans on saving from her pimp (Harvey Keitel).
Getting us into the mind of Travis works for many reasons but the biggest keys are the direction by Scorsese, the brilliant music score by Bernard Herrmann and DeNiro's groundbreaking performance.
Putting those three things together is what makes this a classic but we can also throw in the screenplay by Paul Schrader, which rightfully gives the movie the time and patience to let the Travis character grow right in front of our eyes.
Shepherd is also good as his Albert Brookes and the underrated Peter Boyle who has one of the best scenes in the movie where he's trying to talk some sense into Travis.
One of the most talked about films of all time is Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, it has been pored over, analyzed, and dissected to within an inch of its life it would seem.Taxi Driver is something of a bad dream, it's like we are privy to the melt down of the man next door because Travis Bickle has a certain level of believability, and it's this fact that makes Taxi Driver such a riveting and skin crawling delight.
Michael Chapman's cinematography is appropriate to the feel of the film, some how it feels off kilter to further emphasise the unease unfolding on the screen.The supporting cast are as impressive as they are memorable, Jodie Foster lays down a marker that she thankfully continued to improve upon, Cybil Shepherd gets to look pretty and convince as the intrigued but cold Betsy, whilst Harvey Keitel manages to get away with sleazy pimp portrayal by enthusing the character with menace without the histrionics.It's Robert DeNiro's show all the way tho, everything that has been said and written is true, he has the viewer firmly in his hand, from the portrayal of the uncomfortable loner at the start, right to the mohawk wearing crusader at the end, he scares and enthrals in equal measure.
Robert DeNiro, (Travis Beckle) plays the role of a Viet-Nam veteran who is trying to find himself in the wild city of New York and drives a Taxi for a living.
This too much black movie concerns on a psychotic taxi driver named Travis (Robert DeNiro) who returns from Vietnam and suffers insomnia .
THE SICILIAN CONNECTION Taxi Driver and The Winter's Tale What follows comes from work in progress on how Scorsese's movie may cast light on Shakespeare's play.At the end of Pasolini's film of dipus Rex the blind king walks out of his world into the streets of modern Bologna.
So many people seem to be confused when they watch this movie: they either root for Travis Bickle when he finally loses his marbles, or they feel that "Taxi Driver" tries to justify racism and misogyny.
If you want to see a film by Martin Scorsese, see "Taxi Driver" first - it will always will be his most interesting feature.Even if just a couple of movies have the right to be called Classics, "Taxi Driver" must be one of them.Robert De Niro is a fine actor and this is his best performance up to date.
It is perhaps only "Taxi Driver" that has convinced me that Martin Scorsese is a great director and that Robert De Niro has a huge capacity as an actor.
I think that the other things that I have seen by this couple is not even close to "Taxi Driver".Martin Scorsese´s masterpiece has turned to be one of the most referenced modern movies ever.
This being a Martin Scorsese film, written by Paul Schrader, filmmakers with a near-suicidal view of mankind, the point of TAXI DRIVER is just the opposite.
Unlike RAGING BULL, GOODFELLAS and CASINO, Scorsese films where psychotic characters exist in closed worlds where their lunatic behavior seems the norm, TAXI DRIVER underscores Travis' outsider status by giving us a realistic world that he is isolated from.
TAXI DRIVER, like DeNiro's performances, is best in its still moments of quiet desperation.The irony of the violence is that it eventually makes Travis famous, though it could have just as easily have made him infamous.
Scorsese to me, feels like Terrence Malick when it comes to the cinematography as both seem to have a clear idea of what they want and how it should look, which is the reason why their films at times can be a little bit indulgent, not in a bad way.
DeNiro plays Travis Bickle, a disillusioned Vietnam Vet who goes to work as a Taxi Driver in NYC because he has nothing else to do.
My Rating : 9/10Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a Vietnam vet trying to return to normalcy in New York City.
De Niro brings the brilliant script of Paul Schader to life, guided by the genius of Scorsese's camera and the fantastic supporting cast comprised of Cybill Shepard, Peter Boyle, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel and a young Jodie Foster.
Well-Made Film, Though Not Sure It Stands Time For Me. A taxi driver (Robert DeNiro) grows sick of the filth he sees in society, or at least New York.
Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro are a great team, and the gritty violence of this film really is portrayed in a way that captures the viewer in a death grip.
Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a riveting, disturbing and powerful masterpiece of a film that gives new meaning to the word "snapped".
The scenes, quotes and characters are legendary and so is this film giving breakthrough performances to Albert Brooks, Jodie Foster, and of course, Robert De Niro.De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a disturbed taxi driver who drives his taxi all around new York City going crazier every day.
The directing is on top level, and the great debut by Jodie Foster together with Robert De Niro's fantastic acting makes sure that the entire potential of the movie is used.
But--and the DVD version of the film helps point this out--the script is third rate (and could only have been written by a film critic), the story never really develops (the episodic format of the screenplay is an easy way out to avoid watching Travis Bickle's descent into anomie, instead we get to measure the regress by watching his hair grow shorter), and the other characters are little more than caricatures, as we never learn more about them (other than De Niro's and Jodie Foster's) after the first minute they are onscreen.Rent or buy the DVD, read the script, and see how much better this film was made by Scorsese's ability to interpolate the ad libbing on the part of De Niro (and Harvey Keitel), and his amazing ability to capture NYC at its absolute nadir, when Bickle's description of the city to Senator Palantine is not overstatement.
Gritty, grim, and depressing, "Taxi Driver" tells the story of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a desperately lonely Vietnam vet who takes a job as a New York City cabby.
I did not much like the film's ending."Taxi Driver" has evolved into a cinematic classic, owing to its social message, Scorsese's direction, and Di Niro's flawless performance as the anti-hero at the center of the urban maelstrom.
It's a beautiful and violent story that talk about a lonely man, Travis Bickle,and the city where he lives in.Driving by night, the protagonist meets the strangest people in the world.
The former marine Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) is insomniac and decides to work as taxi driver in the night shift.
Will Travis succeed in his intent?"Taxi Driver" is a bleak and depressive film directed by Martin Scorsese about lowlifes and losers in New York.
Robert DeNiro gives one of his best performances, the whole film is worth watching just for his performance, that's how good it is, but that's not to dismiss Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel and Cybill Sheppard in the supporting cast for they are just as good while Scorsese's own cameo is genuinely frightening.
Vietnam vet Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) takes a job as a taxi driver, meeting various kinds of people.
And who else other than Robert De Niro to showcase a grungy story about late-1970s New York involving cinema's most famous taxi-driver: Travis Bickle?This is not a film for casual-movie lovers: Taxi Driver is a subtle, psychological and violent film that speaks volumes about the psychology of war-veterans trying to keep a normal life for themselves.
The principle protagonist is Travis ( played by Robert De Niro) who is a marine and a Vietnam war veteran who works as a Taxi driver in New York.
Taxi Driver is my favorite film from the director Martin Scorsese and it's definitely one my favorites movies of all time.
It's brilliant direction, remarkable acting, deep writing, the dark 70's New York atmosphere that gets even better with the beautiful soundtrack score, everything is just perfect.The movie is about this Vietnam War veteran (Robert DeNiro at it's finest) that needs to get a job and, because of his insomnia problem, he decides to get the taxi's night shift.
Taxi Driver is perhaps the masterpiece of Martin Scorsese , is a very good movie , the cast is very good, Robert De Niro in one of his best performances , Travis Bickle is perhaps his most memorable character , Jodie Foster still new , this well , etc.
I thought I'd seen it several times before and yet, this was the very first time.In fact, I know so little about this film, I'm pretty sure I'm watching a tale about the day-in-the-life experiences of a taxi driver, including the multiple personalities he picks up along the way.
Well, with that, I meant exactly what this masterpiece by Martin Scorsese tried and managed to show to the world, and again on the main stage of most of his films, the city of New York.In the movie we have the story of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a veteran of the Vietnam War who lives in his small apartment in the big apple.
From the dark and misty streets of New York City's nights, two eyes contemplate the desolated degradation of society  the one who sees is Travis Bickle, Martin Scorsese's most tormented character, a cinematic icon who, through Robert De Niro's unforgettable performance, personifies the roots of violence in the most significant way.Travis Bickle, less by vocation than because of his insomnia, works as a nighttime taxi driver.
The movie follows lonely Vietnam war vet Travis Bickle as he battles insomnia by becoming a taxi driver in the dirty streets of New York.
And have always been a great fan of Martin Scorsese and there was no doubt of skipping any movie of Robert De Niro.This film will always be on my "MYSWBYD" List.