by Julian Spivey

Very few films in cinema have an impact on a viewer like that of Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic Taxi Driver.

Taxi Driver follows the life of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a mid-20s Vietnam veteran who’s profession is a cab driver on the filthy streets of New York City. From the very beginning of the film it is clear that Bickle is a very lonely man, and that he’s not mentally stable. The loneliness in the movie is brilliantly conveyed through Bernard Herrmann’s haunting saxophone score (his last film score). The movie’s dialogue, written by Paul Schrader, who has said that the Bickle character was based on feelings he felt during a rough period in his life, is one of the greatest in cinema history. It is the reality of the lines written by Schrader and spoken by De Niro that give the film its darkened feel. Through Scorsese’s brilliant auteur filmmaking and De Niro’s all out performance as the unstable cab driver Taxi Driver has made its way into classic cult film status. The film also contains one of the more memorable scenes in cinematic history when Bickle armed and standing in front of a mirror gives his famous, “Are you talkin’ to me?” spiel.

The subtlety of Taxi Driver makes the movie the great cinematic masterpiece that it is, but at the same time makes it somewhat difficult for the newer generation of film-goers to view. The darkness of the film is similar to the style of film noir movies that Hollywood thrived on in the 1940s.

The way De Niro portrays Bickle is so frightening that you want to believe that his character is definitely a bad person, but in the end through the lens of Scorsese and the eyes of De Niro you can’t help but like the guy. It’s very similar in fashion to the bad guy somewhat being the good guy role that Anthony Hopkins would later play as Hannibal Lecter in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 Best Picture winning The Silence of the Lambs.

Taxi Driver is definitely a rarity among cinema’s classic films. It basically broke ground and made Scorsese and De Niro huge Hollywood stars. The film contains some of the most haunting shots ever filmed before, especially the scene where a passenger in the back seat of Bickle’s cab is discussing the ultra-violent way in which he is going to kill his cheating wife and the movie’s final scene which can’t even be described without ruining integral parts of the movie. Taxi Driver is a Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro masterpiece and the two would eventually get back together a few years later to create another masterpiece 1980’s Raging Bull. Along with De Niro’s perfect acting and Scorsese’s stellar directing the film includes a great supporting cast of Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybil Shepherd, and Peter Boyle. The American Film Institue recently named Taxi Driver the 52^nd greatest movie of all-time.