Written by former film critic Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver is a nihilistic and bleak study of loneliness, paranoia and alienation. The film tells of a disaffected and insomniac ex-Vietnam vet Travis Bickle (a lean, wiry and characteristically intense young Robert de Niro) who drives a taxi through New York’s mean streets at night and doesn’t particularly like what he sees. Schrader would briefly revisit these same sleazy streets three years later for Hardcore.
Bickle meets Betsy (a glacial Cybill Shepherd), who works in the office of potential Presidential candidate Senator Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris). He asks her out on a date, but when he takes her to a hard-core pornographic film she is disgusted and shuns him. Fuelled by anger and a sense of sexual frustration, Bickle becomes obsessed with cleaning up the streets. When an attempt to assassinate Palantine is thwarted by secret service agents, Bickle becomes fixated on rescuing 12-year-old prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster, in the breakthrough adult role that foreshadowed her tremendous talent). The frank depiction of violence during the climax is just as shattering today as it was then. Scorsese’s gritty evocation of New York circa the mid-1970’s is a sleazy, rain soaked neon-lit chiaroscuro of corruption and filth that is so real that you can almost smell the fecund steam oozing up out of the subways. Times Square itself is depicted as a cesspool of hookers, junkies and porno theatres. Michael Chapman’s cinematography uses natural lighting, which adds to the oppressively bleak visual tone of these cityscapes. Taxi Driver is also driven by Bernard Herrmann’s atmospheric and final score, which starts out jaunty and jazz-flavoured, but gradually becomes more ominous and menacing.
Albert Brooks brings a touch of uncomfortable humour to the film with his role as Betsy’s colleague. Scorsese regular Harvey Keitel finds the right amount of swagger and bluff in his performances as Iris’ sleazy pimp.
But this is De Niro’s film, and his powerhouse performance takes us inside Bickle’s troubled psyche, and makes for compelling viewing even as we become repulsed by his attitude. His classic line “Are you talkin’ to me?” was apparently improvised on the set, and despite having been often imitated or lampooned is still eerily creepy and unsettling. The 70’s were very good for the young De Niro. A series of classic films like The Godfather Part II, New York New York and the Oscar winning The Deerhunter established his formidable reputation as the pre-eminent screen actor of his generation. But despite his numerous awards, accolades and film roles, Taxi Driver and Travis Bickle remain his most iconic moment.
