Taxi Driver

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by Paul Schrader

I watched Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” while on a plane to Mexico, and I am pretty sure that everyone else on the flight thought I was having a mental breakdown due to the sounds I was making while watching. My one and only excuse for my precarious behavior, is that this film might be the most bizarre and unique movie’s I have seen in a long time.

“Taxi Driver” is about a young man named Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, who gets a job as a nighttime taxi driver in the heart of New York City. Why would someone want such a demanding and unpleasant job you ask? To do something productive with this time as he suffers from insomnia L. This message of using one’s time wisely may be the only positive message delivered in the film, as nearly every other character is highly negative and miserable. Anyway, Travis works his shifts and nightly discusses with himself and the film audience how much he hates the filth of New York City. However, this is a not a film about how much one man can complain; there is much more depth that follows.

As an audience member, we sit with Bickle in the passenger seat of his taxi, and follow his nightlife of driving around prostitutes and mischief-makers and simultaneously his daily pursuits of a young woman named Betsy, played by Cybill Shepherd. Betsy is your pretty, perfect, and yet somewhat fake campaign volunteer for Senator Charles Palantine, played by Leonard Harris. Bickle’s many strange attempts at obtaining her affection in the early parts of the film, are only spoiled by his idea to take her to see a porn film on a date. Gentlemen, I hope all of you have enough common sense to know to NEVER TAKE YOUR DATE TO SEE A PORNO. Obviously, she responds negatively and calls off the relationship enlightening Bickle on his unacceptable behavior.

Bickle’s actions expose how truly isolated and different he is compared to everyone else in the city. Your average Jo knows that taking your date to a porn is a recipe for disaster, yet we can see from Bickle’s face his intentions were only positive and naïve. His inability to interact with Betsy is one of many clues to the audience, opening their eyes to the fact that something is seriously wrong with this man and that he is freaking crazy. While spending his days attempting to regain contact with Betsy, he drives around at night hoping for something or someone to cleanse the city of its darkness. In this manner, Travis begins to portray a character similar to the Joker from Batman by exposing his lack of sympathy or human compassion. He dreams for one day a storm to come to shake everything apart and “wash the trash off the sidewalks.”

This lack of compassion is then contradicted by the introduction of a young child-prostitute named Easy or Iris Steensma played by Jodie Foster.  The presence of her character, allows the audience to see the good side of Travis Bickle through the fatherly compassion he shows her.  He meets with her on several occasions, hoping to get her to leave the city and return to her family. This is Bickle’s last act of charity in improving the world of New York in a peaceful manner.  Foster delivers a compelling performance of this young girl who is struggling with the freedom she has obtained as a young soul in New York City and the cost it has on her body as a prostitute along with her controlling pimp.

It isn’t until halfway through the film that the rising action begins to appear. After I watched the film I asked myself why I even sat through the first hour? Aside from the awkward interactions with Betsy, nothing of any significance occurs. I then realized that Scorsese takes his time to set up Bickle’s character, preparing the audience for the shock of the latter half.  Scorsese draws you into this character by showing you how human he is until something ignites in Bickle. After one of his interactions with Iris and he begins to prepare himself for battle. He does pushups and illegally purchases guns preparing the audience for the last twenty minutes of the film when the movie screen literally turns red.

Upon watching several interviews with Scorsese on the project, one can quickly come to the realization that this film is one of his earlier “Passion Projects.” Teaming up with the writer Paul Schrader and lead actor De Niro, the group made this film because they all related to the story and themes presented in the film. They had no hopes for it being remotely successful or well received which, as it turns out, the film accomplishes both garnering the Palm d’Or at Cannes and four Oscar noms. Bickle is alone in one of the most populated cities in the United States. He allows for every audience member to feel both estranged by his clear madness and also sympathetic of his circumstances. The film is a mixed bag of emotions, which takes the audience through every emotional twist and turn possible. Shot in a dark and shadowy film-noir style similar to Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” one quickly realizes how similar these two films are. This is exemplified by the similarities in the souls of the lead characters and the heart that the director places in both films. De Niro, Schrader (the writer), and Scorsese all place their soul into this movie, exemplified by the theatrical coma it’s audience members soon find themselves in.