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Robert De Niro’s legendary performance of Travis Bickle is what makes Taxi Driver as good as it is. The performance is unparallel to anything he or anyone else has ever done, and it’s done so powerfully and truthfully that in some aspects we feel we can relate to this odd character. Prior to filming, De Niro worked as a taxi driver and studied mental illness in preparation for the role, and if that isn’t a sign of dedication to acting then I don’t know what it. In more recent years, De Niro has had a hit and miss collection of films mainly but no matter what he’ll never be forgotten for his portrayal of this tortured, lonely and macabre Vietnam war veteran.

Martin Scorsese’s direction is also as fierce as it has ever been and is likely to ever be again. Just simply through the camera angles he uses, particularly in the scene where Travis Bickle seeks redemption from Betsy after their bad date. The camera gently moves along the corridor and then just stops. Just for that brief moment, we feel Bickle’s pain and love even without seeing anything other than two walls and a closed door.
One of the most recognisable parts of the film is the famous “You Talking To Me?” sequence is also of the strongest parts. Just those four words et us in on the future of the film, with only those subtle four words. Subtleness is a common theme in Scorsese’s heart-breaking masterpiece that is Taxi Driver.

The screenplay especially is nothing but incredible. The funny thing is that it’s so thin and seemingly undercalculated, but it also says so much as the same time that is speaks out to it’s audience in the most unlikely way possible.

Now, that conclusion. That conclusion is brilliant. It’s sort of a three part sequence. The usual shootout, which is done in terrifying fashion and it also appears that there’s a more dormant and dark feel to the whole scene. Then it moves on to the letter. Now, this is where it gets really good. It’s often criticised but also praised for not having a definitive answer or meaning to it. It’s either a fantasy of Bickle’s or it’s actual reality and as simple as that may seem, it’s not. There are parts in the film when you’re damn sure it’s reality, but then there are the most unspecific details that persuade you over the dream part of the argument. The third part features Betsy in Travis’ taxi and this is the exact part that I mean. With all the recognition apparently showered on Bickle by the news and the locals, it could be believed that this is reality and Betsy has seen that Travis has a thicker heart to save young prostitutes from an inevitable death rather than to take girls out on dates to see porno flicks.

But in all truth, it doesn’t matter what the actual ending is. It’s part of the film’s mystery and it’s darkness and we all know by now that Scorsese’s pictures aren’t out to have a definitive meaning but to be ambigious and keep the audience thinking. A similar device in utilised in the latter pairing of De Niro and Scorsese in the 1983 The King of Comedy.

Are you talkin to me ? Today i am going do a written review of one of my my favorite movie and one of the best of the 70s Taxi driver. Taxi driver is about a man called Travis Bickle played by robert de niro who is a vietnam vet and he cant sleep at nights so he decides to be a taxi driver and do his shifts at night . of course travis lives in new york city which he is sick of because of all of the pimps and prostertutes and scum on the streets and he wants to do something about it , along the way he meets a 13 year old girl played by jodie foster in one of her first roles she is a hooker on the streets and she has run away from home and travis wants to help her out kill her pimp played by harvey keitell, from there it gets dark and just plain amazing.Taxi driver to be honest is a classic , its one of the best movies of all time . this movie is of course directed by Martin Scorsese who is easily one of my favorite directors he is the master behind Mean Streets , raging bull,after hours,the last temptation of christ,goodfellas,cape fear,casino and the departed and loads more Taxi driver in my opinion is his best film and it is also my favorite robert de niro performance he is so good as travis bickle just saying every line perfect and making one most intresting and memerable characters to date.

One of my favorites from Scorsese and one of Robert De Niro’s best performances. It is an amazing story that is both original and fearless. It spares no expense to delve into the mind of someone with nothing to lose and a lust for justice. The film style has a great naturalistic feel to it and makes the movie even more realistic and enjoyable to the viewer. It has a very interesting look on people and the way they interact with each other. Showing racism, violence, and sex is necessary in order to get inside the mind of someone disturbed and lonely.

If New York was Oz, to find The Tin Man, The Lion and The Scarecrow one would have to look inside a character like Travis Bickle. They would be there, each one an aspect of his personality, confusing, pitiful and strangely endearing in some ways. In this Oz there is no yellow brick road, just a yellow cab that traverses the streets, the cab itself embodies loneliness, without a passenger it’s meaning and purpose is almost lost. In much the same way Travis must pick up passengers in his life to have a sense of purpose, Betsy, Iris, Sport… destination unknown. The Wizard in this Oz cannot help, he is just a cab driver he cannot know the destination the passengers must decide.

Now off the bat De Niro plays his role almost too well, you actually think he is a fucking lunatic. De Niro does a great performances, that would kill any other guy. It is a absolutely excellent how Scorsese and Schrader show Travis Bickle’s descent into madness. This film just didn’t have the fell of the screenplay. So if you liked this film I say read thee screenplay, and you will understand the true brilliance of the writing.

This film is and will always be on my top five list.
It’s acting, direction, editing, cinematography, production design, everything in it fits perfectly.
I’ve never seen a performance like DeNiro’s Travis Bickle, it’s utterly perfect and disturbing all at the same time
After watching this, I felt that Travis was a real person, I could see someone with that mentality, that drive and that skewered world view walking the streets of New York
And as for the city, the way Scorsese and his Second Unit Director shot New York makes you feel for this city, you see it as a character, how the pavement looks like it’s always fresh with rain, how the smoke bellows from underneath, it’s sweating and breathing…
It’s a haunting place that’s so appealing and you can never put your finger on why
This film is what started my love of Scorsese and 1970’s cinema
The deep meanings in the well written script by Paul Schrader, the feeling of loneliness has never been captured better in any film to me, and this is simply because of what Schrader says, “You’re only truly alone when you’re surrounded by millions of people.” and that fits Travis to a T
A social film on the discussion of war, media, psychosis, justice, companionship, unrequited love, fear, paranoia, choice, fate and the city that never sleeps with the man who doesn’t either

Travis Bickle has Important life encounters with 3 people, Betsy, Iris, and the most important, himself.
Although it may seem funny to some, Ive always seen this film to be about a superhero, and why not? its difficult for him to communicate with others, hes lonely. feels he has no place on earth.
my favorite scene, is the scene where Travis goes to the wizard for help, or guidance of some sort, because he has no one else to go to, and the response he gets back from him is laughable, and also very sad. Travis recognizes this, and says “thats about the dumbest thing i ever heard” so for the rest of the film, in his mind, Hes sane, everyone else isnt, and that makes his character so much more scary.
The writing acting, and directing is just about flawless, Scorsese beautifully shoots to the music by Bernard Hermann’s last score.
I had a strong emotional connection to this film, almost like an invisible umbilical cord to the screen, the only other film where i felt that was Citizen Kane.
this film to me is easily the best film of the seventies.

(Originally written September 2, 2006)

Taxi Driver depicts the human struggle to find companionship. Upon watching this film a second time, I forgot that this is a meditative film, much deeper than I had remembered. It explores issues of human alienation by having us identify with a character that is extremely flawed—racist and violent. The most moving scene is when Travis Bickle is sitting in his run-down apartment, holding his Magnum, watching couples dance to Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky” on television. It quietly reveals Bickle to be a human being experiencing heartache in his search for some shred of compassion. However, he is broken and does not know how to deal with his feelings. One of the great movie experiences I have ever had is catching the last half hour of this film on the big screen when I went to see Mean Streets. It was a double feature, and I was able to sit and watch perhaps the most haunting sequence Martin Scorsese has ever directed. Bickle’s bloody attempt to find meaning is uncomfortable and perfectly constructed. It is a scene that works not because of the action but because of the atmosphere developed with the different tricks played on the eye. This film is a masterpiece that holds up after multiple viewings.

Three artists at the peak of their powers (Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, and screenwriter Paul Schrader) collaborate to tell the twisted story of cab driver Travis Bickle, the definitive “lone nut”. Bickle is a ticking time bomb of rage; a sociopath looking for some way to escape what he sees as a morally bankrupt and hopelessly corrupt society. What’s remarkable is with how many people his viewpoint connects. It’s all too easy to view the world as Travis does, which is part of what makes his story so compelling. He’s a man disconnected from other people even though he’s surrounded by a multitude, and his only response is violent, bloody explosion.

Taxi Driver is, in my opinion, Scorsese’s best film. Sure, Goodfellas was really good, but I prefer an excellently well-written psychological tale of a loner over Italian mobsters any day. That’s just me, of course. Taxi Driver was a smashing hit for Scorsese, as well as for the writer Paul Schrader and helped to launch Jodie Foster’s career.

Robert De Niro is where its at. His acting talent is at its best here as the disgruntled Travis Bickle, a living, breathing walking contradiction (“He’s a prophet and a pusher, partly truth, partly fiction. A walking contradiction.”). Travis is one of the more interesting characters in film history because you’re never quite sure if he’s delusional or completely bat-shit insane. He tells the man at the taxi company that he was honorably discharged from the Marines, but we, as the audience, never know if this is even true. Judging from his character I think it’s another identity he picked up along his way through life and just added it to his being. As Betsy points out with the help from a song lyric, Travis is a walking contradiction, but you can’t hold him responsible because he is clearly mentally unbalanced. He goes from expressing his feelings of gratitude to Palentine to almost assassinating him. Travis doesn’t seem to know right from wrong. The only thing he’s absolutely certain of is that New York needs a cleaning on a massive scale to fix up the city from all the scum.

Like I said above, Travis is certainly an interesting fellow. It’s a shame that the city got to him that much, especially since he even shows signs of being a racist. However, there are plenty of other reasons to drive a man crazy in that city, especially the inhabitants like Harvey Keitel, who wears one hell of a goofy hat. Jodie Foster also does a swell job here, playing a prostitute at the age of 14, or somewhere around there.

The ending is absolutely mind blowing and left my jaw dropping the entire time. From when he first pulls out his weapon and shoots Keitel to when he slumps down on the couch and pretends to shoot himself in the head is an amazing sequence. Kudos for cutting a whole in the ceiling to perform that “frozen in time” dolly shot that tracks down out of the room. And then there comes the ambiguous ending, one which I get shitted on for having my own interpretation (prepare yourselves): I believe that Travis Bickle did not survive the gunfight and that the final scenes of the newspaper clippings and him picking up Betsy in his taxi are just the final thoughts racing through his head. Bickle obviously wanted to change the world, but in my opinion he would have just wound up in jail.

As usual with films from this era, they contain an anti-hero who tries to make a difference, but in the end he doesn’t even make a ripple, and I believe that’s the case here. Travis Bickle has a very Holden Caulfield-esque feel to him, and only makes things worse for himself but in the end he dies (?) a happy man.