Film Review : TAXI DRIVER * * * *

Taxi Driver(1976)
CAST Robert DeNiro, Cybil Shepard, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks
DIRECTOR Martin Scorsese

Marin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is a character study paralleled by none. It encompasses the very heart of a lonely soul and how it can make anyone slip into madness.

Robert DeNiro is Travis Bickle, a twenty-six year old vietnam vet looking to occupy his time by working as a taxi driver. He works long hours in order to keep him from boredom, when all it really does is make him think about the world and the people in it as parasites. Initially wanting his job to cure his loneliness, it just brings him down more. He slowly unravels and slips in to a functioning madness.

DeNiro falls for a campaign worker played by Shepard. Not knowing any better he alienates her by taking her to a stag theatre. Its things like this that cause him to delve deeper and deeper in his psychosis. He begins to devise a plan to murder the presidential candidate Charles Palantine, simultaneusly as he tries to save the life of a twelve year old prostitute named Iris, played honestly by Foster, from a possesive pimp, played to perfection by Keitel.

The film is narrated by Bickle, and through his voice you can since a madman. The direction is classic Scorsese. Using over head slow motion shots and the continual camera shot that made him oh so famous. Paul Schrader's script is on the mark in telling the tale of loneliness bringing on madness in the seedy backdrop of New York City.

There is a scene which stands out as one of the most famous in history which serves as a perfect example for Travis' dissention into madness. We see him in his dirty cheap apartment strapped in with all his guns, practicing lines in the mirror. you can see in his eyes how bad he wants to get into a conflict with some of the "scum of the streets" he rants about all through the movie. He gets his chance when he walks in the middle of a robbery in a neighborhood convenient store.

In one of the best acted scenes Bickle confides in Wizard(played by Peter Boyle), about the crazy things he's been thinking about. We sense he is going to explode, and he eventually does.

The film is brutal, showcasing one of the most famous violent scenes in history. Thats not bad. Its a realistic sequence giving the circumstances of the state of mind of our main character. It is all too believable, once you get into the mind of the troubled Bickle. A masterwork that has staying power and serves as a study for the breaking point of every man.