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Like a drowning man, Travis reaches eagerly for someone to hold on to, a foundation to anchor him. Unfortunately all that's available are slickly coated hookers, people in a hurry and his aimless fellow drivers. On these folk his psyche can find no purchase or connection to reinforce his humanity. Travis drifts until a fateful summer's day, when Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) cuts from the crowd like an angel in mortal form. Entranced by her seeming purity, Travis takes to hanging around her workplace, the campaign office for Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris). With time he works up the courage to stride in and ask her out, ignoring the oily presence of co-worker Tom (Albert Brooks). She agrees; Travis is unlike anyone that she's ever met.
Elsewhere in the city the streets are dark with filth and bright with explicit neon. Travis continues his rounds, barely raising an eyebrow when one intense passenger (Martin Scorsese) explains how he's going to kill his unfaithful wife. On a busy street Iris Steensman (Jodie Foster), a too-young whore, leaps into the back of his yellow cab and demands to be taken anywhere, fast. Too late. Sport (Harvey Keitel) reaches in and drags her out, oblivious to her cries. A crumpled note arcs towards Travis, soiled payment from an act of mechanical fulfilment. While Travis seems inured to the blood and come, this is a turning point. In his mind, Travis and Sport will have cause to meet again.
Under the guiding touch of Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver is a vision of New York as hell, an open sore on the body of America. Viewed almost exclusively through Travis' eyes, the sidewalks are populated by the purveyors of filth, the many who buy it and those who tacitly allow it. Simultaneously repulsed and attracted, Travis finds himself obsessed and alienated, unable to relate to anyone. The net effect is that through being powerless to change his own situation, Travis transfers his attention; he desperately wants to save others, regardless of what they want. The beauty of Taxi Driver is that this doesn't make Travis a monster, instead he is a victim and an object of pity. Everyone can understand the searing loneliness of the city, such that Travis could be almost anyone; it's just that most people manage to deal with the problem.
Present in nearly every scene, De Niro gives a stupendous performance, thrusting Taxi Driver along like a ship's turbine. Whether he's driving a fare, engaged in a monologue or simply standing still, De Niro simply becomes Travis Bickle. Spending all night dwelling on his dark thoughts and reinforced prejudices, every day takes Travis just a little closer to the precipice. This slow but steady transformation, catalysed by a few regrettable events, marches across De Niro's face and into his actions. The slide feels inexorable, yet De Niro never makes Travis a lost cause; he's merely lost within his own black and white construct of the world. As the women Travis aims to save, Shepherd and Foster are fine; each is believable in their reaction to Travis. Ironically they are both as removed from society as Travis, with the difference being that they cope. As the men Travis aims to kill, Keitel and Harris perfectly fill out their small roles, giving each the necessary level of emotional spin.
New York at night seems to be, in Scorsese's view, an ambivalent place -- beautiful and detestable -- reflecting Travis' split personality. With some tremendous photography, Taxi Driver blurs the background into reds and yellows, the colours of body fluids. Seen from (and besides) the cab, this is a panorama which varies only in the details. Neglecting to pass judgement, the impact of this cinematography is a physical blow to the senses. No wonder Travis flips out. Backing, and sometimes overwhelming these visuals, Bernard Herrmann's final score is an awesome, jagged beast. It scrapes at your nerves, making you twitch in sympathy. Slung together by Scorsese these elements ensure that Taxi Driver is a gruelling but rewarding ride. Powerhouse acting, graphic violence, steady pacing and excellent opening credits make this a classic.
This film was nominated for review by Deepak Singh.
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