Taxi Driver

Genre: psychological drama 

With: Robert De Niro (Travis Bickle), Cybill Shepherd (Betsy), Jodie Foster (Iris), Harvey Keitel (‟Sport”), Albert Brooks (Tom)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Release: 1976

Studio: Columbia Pictures, Bill/Phillips et al.

Rating: 16

MBiS score: 9.0/10

An Angel Perhaps… With a Mohawk and a Gun

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Story-line: a lonely New York City cabbie incensed by the decadence around him comes to see himself as a man on a mission.  

Pluses: Robert De Niro’s unforgettable performance as the disturbingly disturbed Travis Bickle, strong turns by Harvey Keitel and a very young Jodie Foster, a terrifying screenplay by Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese’s superlative direction and harrowing cameo, evocative shots of NYC’s seedier side and, of course, Bernard Herrmann’s fabulous score that seduces one second and threatens the next.

Minuses: the movie features foul language and violence.   

Comments: if TAXI DRIVER was released today, we might refer to Travis Bickle as a lone wolf, an extremist or a radicalized individual… which shows how much this brilliant and atmospheric film is still relevant in our times of disenchantment and anger. Don’t miss this Palme d’Or winner and American masterpiece inducted into the National Film Registry in 1994. ‟You talkin’ to me? Well I'm the only one here.”  

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