Classic Review: Taxi Driver (1976)

Martin Scorsese has certainly carved his name upon modern cinema, although to be perfectly honest I have always found him a bit hit and miss. He hasn’t made any movies that I have hated, but he has made some that I have felt surprisingly apathetic about, which in my opinion is perhaps worse then being hated because that would be at least eliciting an emotional response. Taxi Driver is a film of his that I sat down to watch recently and it has certainly stirred a deep reaction. Robert De Niro playing the unhinged Travis Bickle explores the streets of New York and in the process explores how perspective can shape both heroes and villains alike.

This film has style. The jazz/blues that cruises along and washes over the streets of New York settles the audience gently under the lights and faces of the evolving city. The contrast between light and day allows for the setting to take on two opposite, yet clearly partnered roles, with the day forming its face and the night becoming the beast that dwells within. All of this frames Travis Bickle, an honourably discharged marine as he tries to find a way to help a city that he sees has gone to hell, whilst in the process woo a young lady. The characters in this film all seem a little clichéd (with the exception of Travis whose evolution is the underlying thesis), but this isn’t necessarily as bad thing- the characters all seem more to be products of the world they live in this way.  Also, keep an eye out for a young Jodie Foster playing a role so different to that which she normally picks up.

De Niro is simultaneously enthralling and horrifying as Travis walks the thin line between vigilante and deranged villain.  It is this performance that allows the movie to haunt you for so long, Travis feels so damn real, his character that seems so simple at first emerges at the climax as a multi-faceted and convoluted mess of the human experience. I wanted to like Travis and during the first act you are lured in by his frank simplicity, but the way in which the world has shaped him becomes more apparent as he hurriedly forms a bond with campaign volunteer Betsy (Cybil Shepherd), an attachment that very deliberately leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

To say that this film has been thought provoking would be something of an understatement: I am truly having difficulty removing it from my cranium. The dark tones and meditations that it lulls the audience into come on subtly and by time you realize the horrifying way in which this film is going to climax it is too late- you’re trapped. The pacing is slow and at first this is a little frustrating, I found it took a little too long for me to attach to Travis and for the actual story to emerge from the woodworks, although this is probably the reason why it was so able to capture my contemplative side. You spend the first part of the movie not really thinking, relaxing as the sounds and sounds wisp around you, only to realize that a truly predatory transformation is taking place.

The climax of this film attracted a deal of criticism at the time of its release and you will see why. Apart from the fact that this scene is intense on the action from, it is also very jarring, and places the audience in the awkward grey area where they are forced to question the perspective the director has placed them behind. It is a brilliant example of forcing the audience to consider that perhaps good and evil are truly relative terms. 

Taxi Driver is a film that clearly made me think, and to be honest it has become more apparent to me in this day and age that so many films do not even try to acknowledge the fact that the person watching them may be able to produce the etchings of a thought. If you want to switch of and watch an escapist thriller, this is not the one for you, but if you want to consider the darker sides of human nature within the vice of an urban setting look no further then Taxi Driver, a very title very worthy of the ‘classic’ label.

Alex
Yeah I'm lookin' at you