Taxi Driver was made in 1976 and is the story of Vietnam Veteran Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) It begins a couple of years after his return home but doesn't really touch on his experiences in “Nam”, other than to let us know he was there. After seeing Travis get a job as a Taxi Driver, we discover that he is a loner who feels alienated from society and is trapped inside a living hell, which renders him incapable of seeing anything other than the depravity in his surroundings. At one stage Travis finds a glimmer of hope when he meets Betsy (Cybill Shepherd). He goes out on a date with her and things don't workout, this propels Travis further into isolation and reinforces his already anti-social outlook.

He then turns his attention to a presidential candidate and embarks on an assassination attempt. (The scene when Travis buys a vast array of guns for the job is a classic.) When the assassination attempt doesn’t go to plan, Travis goes on a crusade to save a young teenage prostitute (Jodie Foster) from her vicious pimp (Harvey Keitel). Harvey is excellent in this and delivers some great lines; his portrait of a speed using pimp is spot on.  Director Martin Scorsese even makes a brief cameo as a bitter husband who wants to blow away his cheating wife; the scene with him in the back of Travis’ cab is yet another highlight in a film full of them.

With Travis off his head and armed to the teeth with weapons, the film pretty much delivers what it promises but with an added twist.

For me the underlying theme of the film was isolation and how being in a city of millions can actually reinforce that feeling of isolation. It was obvious to me that Scorsese wanted the audience to empathize with the psychotic Travis because he is in every scene of the movie bar one.

Taxi Driver is propelled by a great jazz score, has atmosphere to burn and the cinematography is excellent. 5/5 for one of the all time classics.

It's alright, if not a bit overrated.

Raging Bull was Martin and Robert at their best, I believe. Everything else is just "meh" Taxi driver delivers in the end scene, but only for the realistic scope of what happens. If made today... It wouldn't play out near as realistic. As a matter of fact, he'd go in guns blazin' doin' back flips, kicks, diving thru windows and blowing up grenades on the fly.

The realism of the 70's is gone. Everything is over the top, bull shit, ballz out, ludicrous now. Nothing can just be even kill. Everything has to have bullet time. Double kick back dip flip shit and massive explosions.

Anyways, Taxi Driver... realism A+ the rest... so so... Ya know?

Baltis~

Taxi Driver is a great film, IMO. I love the development of Travis. That saxophone theme fits so perfectly with the lonliness and isolation that Travis is feeling.