Taxi Driver is a great movie. Now, before the Feds start investigating me for possible criminal antisocial behavior I'll tell you why. First the film though released in the mid-70s feels timeless. The intro sequence with it's blurring colors of a gritty New York City really capture and reflect the main character's internal vision...in total the film does an amazing job of pulling you into the internal world of Travis Bickle.
Aspects of the story are told in Travis' voiceover which are really compelling. There is a pretty violent ending which you anticipate, but still surprises you. There are some challenging themes in the film: racism, child prostitution, pornography, so those that immediately dismiss films because of the appearance of these will probably hate this film. However, if you look beyond the surface "scum" as Travis puts it, you'll find an intriguing personal portrayal.
DeNiro is amazing in the film. You see his total commitment to the character. Scorsese himself appears in the film as an incensed husband. I perused the web after seeing the film and found some interesting notes on the origins of the film:
- Paul Schrader (who grew up in Grand Rapids, MI), the writer of the film was only 26 and destitute in LA when he wrote the film
- From www.martin-scorscese.net: "At the time I wrote it [Taxi Driver], I was in a rather low and bad
place," Schrader says. "I had broken with Pauline [Kael], I had broken
with my wife, I had broken with the woman I left my wife for, I had
broken with the American Film Institute and I was in debt." For several
weeks, he drifted around LA, living and sleeping in his car, eating
junk food, watching porn. Eventually, when his stomach began to hurt
badly, he went to the hospital and discovered he had an ulcer.
"When
I was talking to the nurse, I realised I hadn't spoken to anyone in
weeks ... that was when the metaphor of the taxi cab occurred to me.
That is what I was: this person in an iron box, a coffin, floating
round the city, but seemingly alone." He claims he wrote the script,
which he dashed off in under a fortnight, as self-therapy, to "exorcise
the evil I felt within me".
- Another interesting tidbit (again from martin-scorsese.net): "Contrary to internet rumours, there are no plans for a Taxi Driver
sequel. Arguably, Scorsese and Schrader have already made it, with
Bringing Out the Dead (1999), about an ambulance driver in New York -
although Schrader felt the film went awry when Nicolas Cage was cast in
the lead instead of his preferred choice, Ed Norton."
This is a challenging film that leaves you thinking, and getting "inside" the mind of a challenging psyche.