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Martin Scorsese’s venture into the dark and mysterious mind of Travis Bickle results in a hauntingly beautiful film which has become hugely influential. Scorsese’s command of all at his disposal is flawless, his understanding of character deep, and his attention to detail displays the maturity of a far more experienced director, showing Scorsese’s talent for filmmaking.
Scorsese has the ability as a director to captivate an audience, particularly with tales of a man’s life, and Taxi Driver is in this way similar. We root for Travis Bickle, and we are right alongside him cleaning the seemingly mean streets of New York, when we realize a change of character and are shocked by Travis’ actions. This film is one of the most demanding of audiences, but if you let Martin Scorsese guide you through this plot, then you engage with the characters, the conflicts, the violence, and the emotion of this film. Taxi Driver is a masterpiece, controversial (as all classics are to an extent) and violent in its telling of Travis Bickle’s actions, and the exploration of the man’s foreboding psyche.
Martin Scorsese’s venture into the dark and mysterious mind of Travis Bickle results in a hauntingly beautiful film which has become hugely influential. Scorsese’s command of all at his disposal is flawless, his understanding of character deep, and his attention to detail displays the maturity of a far more experienced director, showing Scorsese’s talent for filmmaking.
Scorsese has the ability as a director to captivate an audience, particularly with tales of a man’s life, and Taxi Driver is in this way similar. We root for Travis Bickle, and we are right alongside him cleaning the seemingly mean streets of New York, when we realize a change of character and are shocked by Travis’ actions. This film is one of the most demanding of audiences, but if you let Martin Scorsese guide you through this plot, then you engage with the characters, the conflicts, the violence, and the emotion of this film. Taxi Driver is a masterpiece, controversial (as all classics are to an extent) and violent in its telling of Travis Bickle’s actions, and the exploration of the man’s foreboding psyche.
Robert De Niro’s performance as Travis, an ex-Vietnam war veteran who works now as a taxi driver in the urban metropolis of New York, is near perfect. His realization of Travis’ inner demons allows the skillful actor to select the tools necessary for playing the character, and then he brings Travis to life in such a way that we sympathize with the character, and then later on become so conflicted we as audiences don’t know how to feel towards Travis. Therein lies the ultimate success of Taxi Driver, while a visually brilliant and well-acted film, it is the emotional engagement Scorsese and De Niro are able to invoke that makes it such a memorable film.
While Taxi Driver takes place in New York, it could just as well take place in any other sprawling urban environment. Travis Bickle is a war veteran working as a cabbie at night in the large and gray city. He sees the people walking around at night – pimps, drug dealers, tramps – through skeptical eyes. Travis wishes that the city would be cleansed of the scum that pollutes the streets. He even voices his opinions to a politician running for office who rides in his cab. Ironically, Travis develops an obsession with a woman named Betsy (Cybil Shepard) who works for the politician’s campaign. He watches her many times and eventually asks her out on a date. Travis seems unaware of standard social conventions as he takes Betsy to a pornographic film, and obviously she leaves and is angry with him, to his surprise.
While Taxi Driver takes place in New York, it could just as well take place in any other sprawling urban environment. Travis Bickle is a war veteran working as a cabbie at night in the large and gray city. He sees the people walking around at night – pimps, drug dealers, tramps – through skeptical eyes. Travis wishes that the city would be cleansed of the scum that pollutes the streets. He even voices his opinions to a politician running for office who rides in his cab. Ironically, Travis develops an obsession with a woman named Betsy (Cybil Shepard) who works for the politician’s campaign. He watches her many times and eventually asks her out on a date. Travis seems unaware of standard social conventions as he takes Betsy to a pornographic film, and obviously she leaves and is angry with him, to his surprise.
Scorsese often has his protagonists struggle with a Madonna-whore vision of women. Scorsese first explored this in Who’s That Knocking at My Door?, his first picture. In Taxi Driver Travis imagines Betsy as an unobtainable goddess, but she is later turned to a disliked figure in Travis’ mind. He even almost kills the politician later on, as Travis doesn’t show it, but inside he seems to be a character driven by passion. Mostly, his passion to rid the streets of New York from scum. While pursuing this obsessive drive he has, Travis meets a 12-year old prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster). He makes it his mission to rescue Iris from her pimp “Sport” (Harvey Keitel). Iris seems relatively content in her role as a prostitute, while Travis is disgusted and has already made up his mind that she has to leave that life. It is around this point that we begin to lose our connection to Bickle, his obsession fueling his disgust, leading to him taking violent steps to exact revenge on Sport and anyone else in the way of Iris’ freedom.
Whether Travis Bickle is crazy is something we as audiences never really find out, but it is seems that he has social anxiety and violent tendencies. However, diagnosing Travis Bickle is not important in understanding the film. What is important is that Travis is different. He may have seen things in Vietnam, but Scorsese never mentions that, and Travis doesn’t fully understand social interactions. While we associate with Travis at first, the protagonist almost turns on us in a way that alarms audiences to this day. Paul Schrader’s script is exceptionally written, unique in its take on character, plot, and audience response. Martin Scorsese is (I believe) not only the only person who could have successfully made this movie, but was also born for greatness. Since 1976, he has turned out classic after classic, carefully selecting his team of actors to suit the demand of the role, and keeping an eye for detail which can be seen in all of his films. Taxi Driver still stands out today as not only of Scorsese’s career best, but as one of the greatest films of the decade, as well as of all time. The representation of a man’s internal demons and his metamorphosis into a realization of his obsessions is done so well here, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese truly created a very special character, as well as developing a friendship that birthed six more films together.