One of Martin Scorcese's earliest is also one of his best. Taxi Driver remains a classic because it tells a timeless disturbing story and manages to get into the viewer's mind. Sad and honest, Taxi Driver delivers a great tale of mental deterioration and New York City. Early performances galore in this film.
Robert De Niro stars as Travis Bickle, a Vietnam veteran who returned home recently. He finds himself unable to sleep and, as a result, applies for a job as a cabby. He gets the job working for 6 PM-6 AM. What he sees disturbs him including a teenage prostitute who is beautifully played by Jodie Foster in her debut performance.
If it weren't for the acting, Taxi Driver could have been a film that people had forgot over the 32 years that it has been out. Albert Brooks is perfect as Tom and Cybil Sheperd is Betsy in a really early performance. As I have mentioned before, Jodie Foster does the part of Iris justice in fact so much that she was nominated for an Oscar for it. Harvey Keitel as Iris' pimp is amazing. Last, but surely not least, Robert De Niro is fantastic as the mentally insane Travis.
It is the violence in this film that causes us to remember it. Towards the end, a character's fingers get blown off by a gun. These days, this is nothing, but for the 70's this was really graphic. Still, the scenes with violence are disturbing, but not nearly as much as the used to be. A splatter of blood on a wall is no longer a taboo, it simply is very ordinary.
Taxi Driver is a memorable classic. The mental deterioration theme has been revisited in many films, but this is probably the most memorable case of it. Like many Scorcese films, when Taxi Driver gets into your head, it doesn't come out easily. The great ensemble cast and score by Bernard Herrman are superb. Martin Scorcese really makes the phrase "You talkin' ta me?" a memorable one.
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