aasthat-98209 I have seen this movie 3 times. Today when I watched it again, I was thinking what a wonderful masterpiece it is. I've always loved De Niro, not just for how handsome he is but how good he is at dialogue delivery and expressions. Also, other reason that I might be biased towards writing only positive comments about this movie is because of the director, Martin Scorsese. These two have never disappointed me in the work they do. Talking about the movie, which can be considered more about a story of a taxi driver named Travis Bickle starts with his little introduction that he served in Army and he is a Marine veteran. This introduction establishes a lot about why Travis behaved certain way in rest of the film. The way Scorsese has directed the movie by unfolding about Travis's character is just brilliant. You will learn so much about Travis's character that not just he hates all the filth in New York but also how the small things that he notices everyday during his job affects him. For example, the guy who sits in the taxi and talks about how he is gonna kill his wife and her lover for infidelity. All the loneliness in Travis's life, the filthiness around the city and his past encounter with violence make him want to go back to being violent. Travis's life in the movie is shown to be very lonely. But, it's shown that he does like a girl and go after her. But, after she stops taking her calls. His dialogue that says a lot about how he feels about people, " I realize now how much she's just like the others, cold and distant, and many people are like that, women for sure, they're like a union." Travis wants to save the world from that filth and it can be seen when he says "Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up." To sum up, the movie depicts urban alienation and loneliness very well with great acting by Robert De Niro. It shows how Travis starting as just a cabbie end up saving a child prostitute by killing some people and becoming the hero he wanted to be.

Pjtaylor-96-138044 'Taxi Driver (1976)' is an interesting, subversive and unflinching character-study, an amalgamation of genres that provides unexpectedly effecting results. You'd expect it to be a thriller, but it is actually more of a slow and methodical drama - despite all of its violence and otherwise seedy elements. As with most of Scorsese's work, the picture isn't interested in judging any of its characters or mindsets, no matter how deplorable they might be. Rather, it depicts its events with a candid honesty and asks us, the audience, to make up our own minds about them. This could sometimes be misconstrued as glamorisation, especially in its sequences involving guns and the 'cool' portrayal of 'masculinity' surrounding them, but I don't think this is the case. By portraying every scene in the same 'flat' way, the feature opens itself up to analysis, which is necessary on the part of every viewer - or at least those willing to think, and invites interpretation and critique, not of itself but of the choices of its characters. Speaking of characters, this features some of the most deplorable characters in any of Scorsese's work. These mostly arise in the latter movement of the piece, surrounding Jodie Foster's child prostitute character, and the moments including them are uncomfortable to say the least. As is the implication that more of them exist within the city, unseen but ready to crawl from beneath the surface or having just scuttled back down below. The feature is disturbing, especially in these harsher sequences, but it never crosses the line. It just maintains its method of being as candid as possible, portraying its seedy situations and asking us to do the judging for it. These moments don't make it hard to understand our protagonist's mindset that the city is filled with scum, though. Speaking of our protagonist, 'Travis Bickle' is easily one of the most unique and well-realised characters ever put to film. He certainly isn't a hero, he isn't even an anti-hero, but he also isn't a villain. He's just a man struggling, alone, to cope with his mental-illness and otherwise keep himself afloat. His deterioration from lonely and despondent to angry and disturbed, ultimately homicidal, is a compelling and engaging one. You like him and want him to be okay, but the events of the film weigh down on his already damaged psyche and turn his disillusion to all-out rage. The delusion that his violence could be motivated by pseudo altruism, a need to save - or 'clean' - his city, is one that only serves his need to justify his actions. He needs to act out his newfound impulses for no-one other than himself. Whether his first attempt fails due to extenuating circumstances as it appears or if it is due to his conscience is up for debate, as is if he wants to 'save' anyone at all. What isn't, is that he needs to act out his urges on someone, and he just so happens to do it on the right people. That's the only way he could ever be labelled a 'hero', and dangerously so. The 'downward spiral' arc isn't often done, though, and that, along with the fact it is done so deftly, is why it is so captivating to watch. The structure of the overall piece is unconventional, too, with a dream-like feel compounding its sort of 'aimed aimless' vibe. The performances and writing are excellent, both combining to make one of the most nuanced characters in film history. For me, this is the definitive Robert De Niro role. He should have won an Oscar for his work here. The two-handed score is phenomenal, as well. It combines flashes of our lead's possibly traumatic past with another character's certainly traumatic present, foreshadowing their fateful meeting. The direction is great, too, and serves to add to the effect that we are peeking into a man's life, a man who could be living next door. That makes the film quite scary. It's also sublime. A fantastic piece of work that's subversive, unconventional, uncomfortable and deeply effecting. 8/10

pdortic Everyone knows that Robert De Niro is one of the all time greatest actors... at least in my opinion. The story line follows a man who is in the world running through it like a lone wolf. Everyone has quoted "You talkin to me?" even if they don't realize where its coming from. The interesting perspective of the movie makes it that much better. For a man that can not sustain any relationships with a single human being he makes the audience love him.

e-clayton-01810 First off, the cinematography was great, Robert De Niro was great, and the plot was great. I was all just great! What I like most about the film is it's unique yet mundane plot. Well, Its base is in the mundane life of a New Yorker. It's uniqueness come from these very "New York" esque random occurrences. The things that happen in the film are very out-there but could easily happen to any taxi driver in NYC . Its New York! It's a crazy ass city and the film says that perfectly. Secondly, I appreciate how the romance wasn't predictable. Anyone accustomed to mainstream film would've expected Cybill Shephard's character to forgive and fall in love with De Niro's character, but she didn't. In a way, that IS what drove the plot. It's interesting because in most film, romance drives the plot, but in this case, a lack of romance is what keeps the story moving. I also appreciate how un-Hollywood De Niro's character is. He has the makings of a secondary character due to his odd, quiet, "no-one-understands-me" personality. I think it is cool that the main character has such un-likable characteristics. i.e when he stalks Betsy (Shepard) and tells her about herself (which is apparently attractive), or when he threatens to kill her after she stops returning his calls. He is simply a weird guy and I enjoyed that. In terms of cinematography, I love the initial scene where there are a series of close ups of the taxi itself. I think that was a great choice and an interesting way of making the taxi feel like an actual, independent character. The building of the conflict and resolution were compelling as well. It's like the plot switches up on the De Niro as well as the audience. It's very clever. At the end of the day, Taxi Driver is a cinematically gorgeous film that illustrates a life not yet seen or understood by the mainstream; a seriously lonely man turned hero in the weirdest, most New Yorker way.