Sometimes, movies considered by many as masterpieces don’t match modern viewers’ expectations. This is definitely not Taxi Driver’s case. This is probably director Martin Scorsese’s best film but it is also one of his darkest and most complex cinematic achievements. Therefore, people who want to just watch a feel good movie or some common drama might not appreciate this bleak but magnificent film as much as more mature viewers looking for something deeper than average. I’d wanted to watch Taxi Driver for a very long time but now I’m glad I didn’t because it’s obviously not suitable and not intended for very young viewers. You actually have to think during the movie (something most people don’t like) to completely understand the message and the ideas the movie is trying to transmit and even if you do fully understand it, you constantly find new interesting things after watching it.

The film deals with Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), who suffers from insomnia and decides to become a taxi driver during the night in New York City. Every night, Travis perceives all the aberrations of the decaying city, prostitutes, transsexuals, etc. and decides to do something about it to give his life a purpose. He violently lashes out and tries to save a thirteen year old prostitute (Jodie Foster) who’s being exploited by a pimp (Harvey Keitel).

Taxi Driver is about urban alienation, about how a relatively normal person decides to make justice with his own hands and develops into a violent guy who has no regret in killing people if that’s what it takes to save an innocent person. In order to achieve this characterization, an outstanding performance is needed and DeNiro is perfect and comfortable with his character. It mustn’t be easy to portray a man such as Travis, who’s frustrated because he thinks his life has no purpose and feels extremely lonely in a city as crowded as New York in which lots of abuses take place and he has to witness with impotence. He sometimes believes that other people have to feel the same way he does and is also frustrated when he finds out they don’t. This happens with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who works for a political candidate, of whom he falls in love. When she discovers that Bickle is mentally unstable and so different from her she leaves him. Travis is left full of hatred and thinking that the political party she represents will do no good to the corrupted city because they’re the same scum (eventually he tries to kill their leader). De Niro’s performance is powerful and also sometimes terrifying. This film is more about character dehumanization than character development. It’s about self deception but also about redemption, that’s why it’s so complex.

The rest of the cast is almost as good as DeNiro (I say almost because he has that rare ability of filling the screen with his sole presence in every scene he takes part of). Jodie Foster is tailor-made for her role of a young prostitute, of whom we don’t know very much until the very end but feels somehow safe with Mathew, her pimp. Her character is as complex as DeNiro’s and she does an excellent job portraying it. Harvey Keitel, Cybil Shepherd, Peter Boyle and Leonard Harris add more very good performances to the film.

New York City, which is way more than just a setting for the movie, plays a very important part for it by being portrayed as an extra character alongside with Travis’ cab. There are memorable shots of NYC like the one in which Travis points a gun towards a window and the whole city is displayed. Travis is so desperate to wipe out all evil and abuses from where he lives and this shot symbolizes all his contained anger. Buildings and skyscrapers are shot from ground level upwards to represent the magnificence of a gigantic city which is corroded by the very men who built it.

Technically the movie is also great. Cinematography is excellent and serves the purpose of showing a degraded New York City not in a strident but in a subtle way (from Travis’ point of view). It also helps to develop the mood of the film using contrasts and remarkable almost black and white shots at the end. The music is memorable, and we owe this to Bernard Herrman (Citizen Kane, Psycho) one of the greatest composers of all times. It also helps to develop an atmosphere for the movie. The pacing is also very good although the movie has some long introspective shots which work because the characters are interesting and they’re well spaced from each other.

The direction and the script are also remarkable, we get long dialogue scenes that work thanks to the fresh but profound script and the good use of close ups. The uses of the camera in the taxi, the masterfully directed final killing spree are some of the technical aspects which must not pass unnoticed. I frankly cannot believe how this film was not even nominated for an Oscar in the screenplay and director categories or how Rocky defeated it for Best Picture; really, now one can expect anything from the Academy.

I always try to find flaws in every movie I watch and especially in so-called masterpieces but I have to admit that Taxi Driver has none. The direction is marvelous, the script deepens the movie without making it boring, the cinematography and the score help create the tone of the movie, even the special effects are good, and there are no unnecessary scenes (they all serve a purpose). I haven’t watched all of Scorsese’s films but I doubt any will have the same impact as Taxi Driver had on me. Ultimately, it IS a masterpiece.

© Mauricio Kahn

Lima, Feb 2008

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