Taxi Driver Reviews

I find Taxi Driver to be one of the most powerful films ever made because of the characters and their behaviour. It is like the attitude of some humans at the present time. It is a story of loneliness, slowly falling into madness and a story of different twists and turns that occur for Travis. It is a very heartbreaking film because of Travis's downfall and turning himself into a murderous monster. I would call Travis Bickle Martin Scorsese's most powerful character. I do think that Taxi Driver anlong with The Godfather and A Clockwork Orange are the start of classic crime films. Taxi Driver is the start of the eight Scorsese-De Niro films that have been made so far. This is the best of the collaboration between the two.


Robert De Niro gives out a performance for the ages. He truly reveals how twisted people on Earth can become and how much of a different type of person one can be. The Godfather: Part II is Robert's ultimate start after winning his first Oscar in his first nomination. Taxi Driver is the ultimate start to seeing Robert De Niro in a leading role. It is weird at the start because De Niro hadn't played a villain before. I have mixed feelings about Travis being a villain. I think he is a villain because he becomes mad and kills people. However, I think he isn't a villain because he becomes sort of confused with himself of why he is so lonely. In this case, I think I find it similar to Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight apart from that Harvey did it because appears different and dramatic twist occurs. Travis must have certainly been mad enough to cut his hair from ordinary black hair to a black mohawk. But De Niro truly delivers the most powerful performance of his career. Jodie Foster's performance is another outstanding performance that outdid me and blew me away with my expectations because she was only 13 or 14 at the time of the film but she is playing a 12 year old child-prostitute. It must have been hard for Foster because she was only a kid and she was playing a very crude character. This is a performance that she will be remembered for but will be remembered more for The Accused and especially The Silence Of The Lambs.


The directing was really good from Martin Scorsese. He reveals human behavious in his very own way like David Fincher does in Fight Club. Scorsese shows what life can be like and how it can affect a person's life. The writing was very good. It is like the start of awesome cult films. It was written like it was either trying to make a point or making Taxi Driver a cinematic experience that can teach a person what life would be like if you start to ruin it.


In my personal opinion, I think that Taxi Driver is the best film of the 1970s. It is the best of De Niro-Scorsese films. It is Robert De Niros best film and also Martin Scorseses best film too. Love this film. Always have and always will. It is a masterpiece and it is as simple as that.

Here's a film that will leave you speechless. The rampage of Travis Bickle is one of the most unpredictable, yet best written stories of the 70s. The script is so surprising, that you never know what will come next. This is actually an easy thing to achieve; what is not easy is capitalising on this element of surprise by throwing the thing you least expect and still making it feel logical straight at your face. Taxi Driver does just this, and it's a masterpiece of film writing. All the segments in it seem to last just the right time, which can be credited to either the script or the directing. It's a damn near perfectly composed picture when you look at the technical aspects. It's also a very impressive whole, as it has no holes left in it after it's over. It does not explain itself all the way, leaving just the appropiate amount for the viewer to ponder about. It balances what it shows and explains and what it doesn't show nor explain, and it balances it perfectly. But, and you knew there was a but when I gave this a nine, the film is something of a mixed bag as far as our main character goes. He is child-like in nature, but an adult in heart. Yet he seems very schizophrenic for the entire duration of the film. Perhaps it truly is what Scorsese had in mind for the character, but I believe it occasionally hurts the movie as a whole. When you have him doing one thing first, then essentially acting the opposite in the next scene, the behavior jumps at the viewer as slightly odd in a way that made me feel uncomfortable and dislike the film slightly. Overall though, it is a nitpicky thing that probably no one else will complain about except for me, so you really ought to see this film. And also, it's a very stark thing to look at nowadays as the contrast between the DeNiro we see in the end really doesn't look like any DeNiro we have ever seen, and I say that in the utmost positive aspect.

In my opinion, this was the first film to establish Robert Deniro's persona-stereotyped method of acting that he's known for even up until to this day.
And that's probably more because the film's director, Martin Scorcese really seemed to allow Deniro's mannerisms to freight this portrayal of a cab diver whose loniless in the vast sea of grime that was '70's era New York City to consume him to the point of razor-edged madness.
It was an acting freedom that Scorces used to maximum effect also allowed also with the suporting characters, including Jodie Foster, Cybil Sheperd, Harvey Keitel, Albert Brooks & Danny Boyle.
While Martin Scorcese is more famous for his mafia-themed films, I feel that his talent for depicting the grit of the streets, particularly of the time-period cannot be understated & is what really carries the feel & weight of this film.
A true staple in the decade of 70's films, that I just enjoy watching over & over again.

And yeah.....
I'm talking to you.

''You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK.''

A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as nighttime taxi driver in a city whose perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out, attempting to save a teenage prostitute in the process.

Robert De Niro: Travis Bickle

Quite simply, Taxi Driver is one of the best films ever made. This is one of those films that you do not get tired of seeing and every time you watch it you realize a little detail that you have not seen before. Excellent actors, a good director, an impressive soundtrack and a real story are the main appeals of this film.



Taxi Driver is about loneliness, about the isolation of a man in a society full of scum. His objective is to finish with the scum of the streets. The story uses a taxi driver as a metaphor of loneliness and it has definitions of irony because we can see that a city which is full of people can be the most lonely place for a man to be. The long nights in the city, the night environment full of whores, junkies, pimps and thieves are the main elements of the world in which Travis Bickle lives. Travis is a misunderstood guy who is seeking desperately for some kind of companionship because as he says ''Loneliness has followed me all my life, everywhere'' but at the same time he seems not to do anything to avoid his situation and it is seen when he goes with Betsy(Cybill Shepherd) to a porn cinema. At the end of Taxi Driver the character makes real his most violent visages and dark recesses of fantasy, with a burning scope of various soldiers from fighting in Vietnam, and he behaves like this because of his loneliness, his alienation and because he does not find any purpose to his seemingly empty life. The violent behaviour evolves and shapes Travis into a hero, although he had killed many people and he could on a whim or for a purpose resort to doing it again. Although he acts with an extreme violence the spectator understand him and the reasons why he acts that way. The soundtrack of the film, which is composed by Bernard Herrmann, inspires that same kind of loneliness and isolation, sometimes mistyfying into an absolutely haunting horror film genre. This music and the slow camera showing the streets all help to introduce the spectator into the world of Travis, to know what he is thinking and to know what he is doing, it's beautiful.

So put into an equation of sorts, Martin Scorsese wisely teams up with one of the most intense actors of the time to create a masterpiece of urban alienation. Paul Schrader's magnificent script paints a portrait of loneliness in the largest city of the world. Travis never once enters into a meaningful relationship with any character anywhere in the material given. He is the most hopelessly alone person in celluloid.

''Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man... June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is a change.''

He is alone with his thoughts, and his thoughts are dark ones. The film fools you on a first viewing. Is Travis an endearing eccentric? Sure, he's odd, but he's so polite, and he's got an enduring sense of humour. His affection for Betsy is also pleasant and kind. But on more viewings, you see it for what it is. The audience comes to see Travis's psychology gradually, but there's actually far less development than one might assess. When he talks about cleaning up the city, the repeat viewer knows he doesn't mean some sort of revolutionary change. This is less a film about a character in development as it is a kind of snapshot into the psyche. To be sure, it takes the stimulus to provoke the response, but does that imply some kind of central change in the character?

Tremendous supporting roles are brought to life through vivid performances by Keitel and Foster especially. Shepard's character, Betsy, is little more than a foil to highlight Travis's utter alienation from society, but she is still impeccably portrayed. With only two scenes that don't center on Travis, it is unavoidably De Niro's show. The life with which the supporting cast imbues their characters is a credit to themselves, and to the director's willingness to let the film develop from the intersection of diverse ideas and approaches. What would the plot lose by eliminating the Albert Brooks character (Tom)? Nothing at all. He makes almost no impact on Travis's life, which is where the plot lives. But his inclusion makes the film as a whole much richer and fuller.

''You get a job. You become the job.''

What makes the film even better is De Niro showing the type of form that makes his recent form such a major disappointment. He is outstanding as he moves Travis from being relatively normal to being eaten up from the inside out. His eventual implosion is impressive but it is only as impressive as the gradual slide he depicts over the course of the film. Although he dominates it, others impress as well. Foster stands out in a small role, while Keitel makes a good impression as the pimp. Shepherd is not quite as good but her character was not as well written as the others so it isn't all down to her. Regardless, the film belongs to De Niro and although the quotable scenes are the ones that are remembered it is in the quieter moments where he excels and shows genuine talent and understanding.

Overall an impressive and morally depressing film that deserves its place in cinematic history. The portrayal of a city and a man slipping into moral insanity is convincing and engaging and it shows how well anyone can spiral into modern madness and the effects of a moral void in certain or all levels of Western society. Scorsese directs as a master craftsman, despite this being at an early stage in his career and De Niro is chillingly effective as he simply dominates the film in quiet moments and quotable moments alike.
Vietnam war veteran Travis Bickle is a lonely, lonely man and I cannot stress this point enough. His mind travels through sleepless nights , but he then takes a job as a taxi driver in New York City. As DeNiro's Travis drives around at night as Bernard Herrmann's beautiful and subtle score plays, you can't help but just stare and gaze at the wonderful cinematography which puts you in the spot as if you are there.

''I think someone should just take this city and just... just flush it down the fuckin' toilet.''

A true milestone and blessing for 70s American Cinema. In essence, one of the greatest achievements ever put into Modern Cinema, a modern Classic. Martin Scorsese's direction is just absolutely superb, he makes it unique and wonderful. Herrmann's score, in which he shortly died after completing the score is by far, one of the best. He was passionate and let his soul pour out here. Paul Schrader's career-defining script is just widely unique and fantastic. So many memorable quotes, incredibly unforgettable. From "You talking' to me?" to "Taking me to a place like this is about as exciting as saying to me "Let's f*ck." Said to be semi-autobiographical of Schrader (paranoia, obsession and porn), Schrader sang his whole heart out as he wrote this masterful creation.

Disturbing, dark, subtle... So many words to describe the wonderfulness that is of Taxi Driver. Beautiful music, the amazing cinematography that makes you feel as if you are there. The acting from our leading man, Robert DeNiro is honest, compelling, dangerous and wonderfully structured. This movie will change your life. Scorsese's masterpiece. Incredibly thought-provoking. As we ground upon the final act, Taxi Driver just leaves you standing still...

''Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man.''