Taxi Driver (1976)

Taxi Driver (1976)

8/10

Starring

Robert De Niro

Jodie Foster

Albert Brooks

Harvey Keitel

Cybill Shepherd

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Whether you’ve seen Taxi Driver or not, the catchphrase "You talkin' to me?" has become increasingly popular. In 2005, it was chosen as #10 on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.

The scene has Bickle (Robert De Niro) looking at himself in the mirror, rehearsing drawing a gun at someone, saying:
"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the f#@k do you think you're talking to?"

Taxi Driver was a commercial success, mostly due to the good work done by Martin Scorsese, the director. The movie’s cinematography is also exceptional. From shots taken in the taxi to the ones of Bickle on the street, it was classic. Scorsese and his cinematographer, Michael Chapman, would fit themselves on the back seat floor and use available light to shoot.

Paul Schrader wrote the script. He made Bickle a Vietnam veteran because the trauma of the war blended perfectly with Bickle’s paranoid psychosis.

Taxi Driver follows the story of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), who works the night shift driving his cab throughout New York City. As a war veteran, Travis suffered some mental issues that made it difficult for him to sleep.
His inability to connect with anyone, not even with other cabbies, also played against him. When he became infatuated with a blondy (Cybill Shepherd), he did all he could to maintain a relationship with her but blew it.

He also developed a fatherly connection with a prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster), and tried to save her from herself and her pimp.

With all this happening, Travis buys guns with the aim of cleaning the streets of New York.

Jodie Foster was 13 when she starred in this movie. Her experience as a child star actress paid off.
De Niro was so good in this movie, it was obvious that his best days were way back then. You can’t compare what he did in this movie to what he is doing now.

The movie had a classic ending that you may interpret to be Bickle’s dying dream. But as it turned out, Bickle changed from a villain to a hero. Then, from the way he acted in the last scene of the movie, you can guess that he is probably going to break soon.

My problem with the movie is the pacing and the narrative style. The movie's first half is slow, and feels like fluff (that is all the taxi ride scenes), because the main focus is Bickle's descent to madness, not all the fluff.

I hope a remake of this movie will never be done.