Taxi Driver (1976)

         Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver explores human nature through the eyes of a taxi driver. Robert De Niro’s performance stuns in yet another movie. De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a cabbie and Vietnam vet who’s observation of sleazy, after hours New York coupled with his crushing loneliness and isolation leads him to lust after violent action.

         Careful, deliberate artistic shots created the work of art surrounding the human exploration within the movie. Shots such as the prolonged pan over the handle of the .44 the gun salesman shows Bickle emphasize Bickle’s attraction to the gun and violence and force the audience to acknowledge and take stock of these details.

         Travis Bickle transforms for the audience. At first he seems merely intriguing, although he is stalking Betsy, a woman he sees as a beacon of light in the dark city, his confidence in approaching her, and his subsequent curiosity sparking observations of her draw us into his character. However as the movie progresses, these seemly innocent quirks throw up a few red flags, namely when he takes Betsy on a date to an adult film. His isolation and loneliness only become more apparent as the film goes on. Even when he has passengers in his cab he is alone and separate from the people that enter his car. Scenes of his apartment scream of isolation as he works out and writes letters to his parents. At one point, his television falls over and breaks, cutting him off a step further. Lost and lonely, Bickle sets out to right the wronged city with violence and ends up saving a child prostitute as his final act. Before he saves Iris, however, he channels his violent desire towards assasinating Presidential candidate Charles Palentine. His character continues to develop and the audience is torn by his complexity, on the one hand his violent tendencies don’t seem to be in the name of “good,” yet he does good when he saves Iris. He is treated as a hero, and Betsy flags down his cab, perhaps to give him a second chance. Travis surprises us by turning her down, adding another layer of realistic complexity to his character. Overall, Taxi Driver is a well made exploration of loneliness, the line between good and evil, and human nature as a whole.