There are so many classic films that I still need to see and yet I never quite know what they are even about. Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver is the perfect example of this. I am unfamiliar both with the work of Scorsese as well as what this film even entailed, so seeing this for the first time was quite the experience. Taxi Driver is a peculiar noir film that invokes the same woozy feeling that one gets when faced with uncertain moral decisions. Centering around a character who is faced with confronting these demons, this film is very stylistically 1970's in the most evident ways possible. While that may not always be for the best when it comes to its script, I adore and respect the style that Scorsese has set with this movie. With incredible performances from young Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster and an ominously repetitive score, this film is one that I will not soon forget.
After being honorably discharged from the Marines, veteran Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) returns home to New York to find the city he grew up with infested by corrupt politicians, gangsters, and slum lords. Along with getting a job driving a taxi, he decides to arm himself and singlehandedly clean up the streets that he roams to restore the city back to its former glory. Paul Schrader's script and Martin Scorsese's direction are two massively powerful creative forces that have come together to create this iconic film. While they both work in harmony extremely well, there are many parts of this film in which their incompatibility begins to show. My main issue with how this script and direction present themselves is that they seem to rely on each other a bit too much at times. When the script is lacking, Scorsese seems to step in and create a surreal city for Travis to experience; when the direction is lacking, Schrader's sharp dialogue saves the scenes from becoming a visual mess. The pairing of these two aspects are very impactful but only work in specific scenes. Tone problems make up the majority of my personal issues with this movie, as the film bounced from harsh and gritty to more comedic and adventurous. Taxi Driver could have either been more of an action film as Travis and his toxically masculine persona clean up the city or it could have been more of a personal drama in which he is dealing with PTSD and his inner demons. This film characterized both decently well, but the balance between them was absent.
It is never easy to come home to where you grew up and face the fact that nothing is the same. Change is inevitable no matter how hard you fight it, but the hardest fighters are the ones who get remembered. The character of Travis is a very troubled and mentally unstable individual due to serving in the war, but his constant fight throughout this film is one worth rooting for, despite the lack of development. He is a very inspirational and truly goodhearted person, even though some of his actions throughout the film may say otherwise. This character is my absolute favorite aspect of this movie solely due to how many layers he has. The way that Schrader characterizes Travis as a veteran fighting his personal demons by inheriting a new, almost vigilante persona is such an interesting take on the character that could have gone in any direction. While this type of character has almost become an archetype for gritty stories like this one, I believe that Robert De Niro did it best. De Niro's performance in this film is unmatched and one can tell that he put his whole being (and possibly sanity) into embodying the problematic Travis. The only issues that I have with the writing of this protagonist's story are that some of his choices do not have much reasoning behind them. In scenes such as when he broke up with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) or when he decides to assassinate presidential candidate Palantine (Leonard Harris), there is not much rationale to support why he did what he did. Travis fighting his personal demons was interesting and all, but I wish there was more of a dynamic between his past to support who he was in the present.
Taxi Driver is not only a fantastic character study but has some incredible technical elements as well. Many of the supporting performances in this movie are stellar, including preadolescent Jodie Foster and mild-mannered Cybill Shepherd. These two definitely stole the scenes that they were in, especially the former. Being only 14, Foster's character of Iris was another troubled person who was just looking to go back to how it used to be. She was practically enslaved as a sex worker and the way that Foster took in this character and thankfully humanized her was amazing to see. Michael Chapman's cinematography was dark and stunning, but Bernard Herrmann's score is what really helped to bring this movie together. This renowned composer and his lethargic, saxophone-fueled score made this movie the definition of noir. I loved how it set the tone for each scene as it began, but I wish that the music in this film had a bit more variety. The same main theme was used so many times that it actually started to make me sleepy, which is also due in part to its sleazy and dirty atmosphere. Despite that, all of these pieces work together to make one of the most stylistic '70s films that I have ever seen.
I'm still not quite sure if I enjoyed Taxi Driver or not, but one thing for certain is that the kinds of bold choices the story takes are what have cemented it into Renaissance-era film history. I loved the gritty, New York atmosphere that this story was built into, but I just wish there would have been more character development and sensical writing put into this script rather than relying on the spacey tone that Scorsese has created.
My Rating: ★★★½
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