Taxi Driver (1976)

 One of Scorsese's seminal works? Well, it sure as hell is one that made the director a household name. To be fair, you can see where all the praise comes from, even if the main reason this film is so well-known is thanks to the portrayal of Travis Bickle by Robert DeNiro. 

But I get ahead of myself.

Travis is a mentally unstable ex-marine, who has trouble sleeping. So he decides to go for the nightshift as a taxi driver. He isn't picky and goes all across town, but he ends up in the more seedy parts of New York and everything he sees there, appals him. He feels as though the city is in dire need of a solution and begins to lose all faith in humanity. Then he sees Betsy, a girl who works for a presidential campaign. He would really like to get to know her better, but because he is horrible at interhuman relationships, he completely fucks that up. Because he genuinely doesn't understand what he did wrong, he turns back to anger. He even plans to kill the candidate Betsy works for. However, his attention gets caught by an underage prostitute and Travis feels he might have some redemption if he manages to save her from her pimp. 

But things don't all go according to plan... 

Above all else, this is a different view of New York. The city can look gorgeous in a lot of media, but it has a dark side that this film brings out in all its glory. If you can even call it that. But even though the story isn't all that, it's the performances of two people that lift it all to special heights. 

DeNiro is great as the loner Bickle. Because he has no link to the rest of the people, he becomes more and more angry at the world and because he fails, even with the best intentions, this pushes him over the edge. This is nothing far-fetched and you can believe a nobody like Travis can actually go through this process and finally being pushed too far and doing something completely fucked up. You'll notice that at first, he doesn't like guns, but when his brain switches, he suddenly goes for a small armoury. The fact that he eventually wants to rescue the young prostitute can be seen as noble, but in fact, it is a futile act, because she herself doesn't want to be saved and he just can't see it. As horrible as it sounds: you can't always save everyone. 

The second best thing in this film is Jodie Foster, who plays the teenage prostitue. She was in fact still very young here, but she is possibly the most convincing of all next to DeNiro. It's not hard to imagine how she could have fallen into the hands of someone like her pimp (a sleazy Harvey Keitel) and justifying her life, because she has nothing else anymore. 

It's not a film that will lift your spirits, in case you didn't already get that. 

The ending seems quite at odds with everything before, as it feels positive and almost lighthearted. You could argue that this is ending is the dream or hallucination of a dying man and that actually makes quite a lot of sense. Or you can take it for real, as a sort of note that not everything is fucked up beyond all belief. But then it will be quite at odds with the rest. You decide which one suits your conviction best. 

'Taxi Driver' is one of those studies into the human condition that cuts deep and leaves a big impression. It's brutal, honest and raw, and sometimes, that makes for a very engaging piece of cinema. In this case, this is very, very true.