Taxi Driver

"Taxi Driver" hits a nerve with me everytime I see it. It has become so well known, so embedded with the American psyche, you can quote the famous "Are you talkin to me" speech again and again, but whenever I see it, all of the film's infamy goes away and I'm dragged down to the world of Travis Bickle.

"Taxi Driver" is about Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a lonely cab driver living in New York City. Travis is lonely in two senses, one he lives alone, and two he's alone in the mind, meaning, he's not connected with the people and places around him. The world is a stranger to him, and he can't associate with it. To paraphrase, Travis is a psychopath, and we are entering into his mind the time right before he blows a fuse.

We see Travis at the beginning talking about the streets of New York City and how he hopes some day a real rain will come down and wipe all the garbage off the streets for good. He speaks about the pimps, the hookers, and the gangs he sees every night as he roams the streets in his cab. His hope comes in the form of two women whom he meets. The first is Betsey (Cybill Shephard), who he has a crush on, he sees Betsey as a pure woman who hasn't been touched by the garbage. The second is Iris (Jodie Foster) a twelve year old prostitute he meets and decides to try and save from her sordid lifestyle.

Our first instinct of Travis not being right in the head comes at the very beginning, he goes to pornography theatres, and even takes Betsey there on a date. She is disgusted right away and is turned off. Travis doesn't understand why, he had it in his head that this is what normal people do on a date. He tells her he could take her somewhere else, but he doesn't exactly know where.

When Betsey leaves, and we can see Travis becoming more and more dangerous. He tries to confide in a fellow cab driver The Wiz (Peter Boyle), who doesn't really know what to say to him, but reassures him all cab drivers go through this and tells him to either get laid or get drunk, which will set him right.

When we see Travis with Iris, it becomes a fantasy with him or sorts to help this girl out and save her from her pimp (Harvey Keitel). Iris herself is somewhat taken aback by this gesture, she never even once seems to ask for Travis' help or want it. We get the sense that he's doing this more for him than for her.

So why do we still revisit "Taxi Driver", why does it fascinate us to no end? Is it because we can see a little of ourselves in Travis Bickle? I can understand the majority of people who have seen "Taxi Driver" don't go on homicidal tirades like he does at the beginning of the film, yet screenwriter Paul Schraeder, along with De Niro, and director Martin Scorsese have gotten to something here, which is difficult to shake. I think "Taxi Driver" is a film more about the thoughts we get that come from loneliness, it's about this depression we can experience. It's the feeling felt deeply within Schraeder as he wrote the script, and the same thing Scorsese felt when he was obsessed with directing it.

"Taxi Driver" may be the closest film to come to that feeling of sheer isolation and loneliness one can feel, and with that comes this desperation to do something, which is why the finale of this film could be seen as cathartic, it's Travis acting out these dark impulses on an unforgiving world, it's a release for him, and in a way for the audience. In our own dark perverse way, we can at least empathize with Travis' struggle.

I actually find "Taxi Driver" a tragedy the more I see it. We are seeing the disintegration of a human being, I was moved by this struggle, of him trying to sustain this monster inside of him. Travis is a tragic figure, because he never figures out how to exist in this world, he is beyond help when the film opens up.

At the same time, there is something repulsive about this film, I can't quite shake. The whole world it depicts sends shivers down my spine, but at the same time, I can't deny the effectiveness of this world, it's the depths of hell on Earth as seen by Shraeder and Scorsese.

It's fair to say Robert De Niro was never more commanding as an actor as he was back when this film was made. I'm amazed at the courage both he and Scorsese went through in all of their projects they made together and apart. De Niro is the third piece to this puzzle to help us understand Travis the most. Each movement is perfect, each expression is spot on. De Niro makes the sickness in Travis so real and surprisingly so moving.

"Taxi Driver" is an anomaly in American film, it was even an anomaly in the 1970s which had its share of dark, edgy films which tested boundaries. But nothing could come close to "Taxi Driver", it was a benchmark of what 70s cinema was all about. It was dark, personal, shocking, violent, and it was a success. There was no other era which this movie could've been made, and be a success.

What's left to say about "Taxi Driver"? It still exists, it still shocks and horrifies me. It speaks of that dark place of desperation, loneliness, and despair. Those aren't always the nicest things to see depicted in a movie, but they are difficult to deny. "Taxi Driver" brought something up to the surface and people were ready to see it, even if it still makes us uneasy.