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Taxi Driver Movie Review

Taxi Driver is a 1976 psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro. It is the magnum opus of Scorsese’s career.

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“You’re only as healthy as you feel“

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A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action. The best film of 1976 and the greatest movie this directed has ever made, Taxi Driver is such an influential story that would inspire ‘Joker’ decades after its release. It has stood the test of time gloriously and is still relevant to this day. The fact that it’s not widely recognized as undoubtedly the director’s best movie is wild to me.

This is a psychological thriller that has neo-noir elements. The atmosphere of pure dread, madness and disgust pervades this entire movie. You can just sense the despair and the detest that the protagonist feels. This is the major strength of this film that consistently shows and doesn’t tell its emotions, character moments and major plot points.

Robert De Niro was iconic in the role of Travis Bickle and this remains his most famous and best role. He was perfectly cast and constantly believable as the tortured hero. In this day and age, mentally ill people are even more neglected, which just goes to show how unfortunately timeless this story is. Society creating and fueling mental illness is a major theme here.

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The movie also deals with isolation and dissatisfaction as Travis simply cannot put past society’s darkest tendencies. He overanalyzes everything, which only further fuels his anger and unrest. The film cleverly showcases the entire journey that these people go onto before blowing schools up or doing some similar horrific action. The neo-noir elements in the dreadful atmosphere and the depiction of city life at its worst were quite evident.

Harvey Keitel plays a less important role here, but the two female characters are terrific. Cybill Shepherd was wonderful as the love interest Betsy and their scenes together are quite charming. There is also the iconic turn from the very young Jodie Foster as the prostitute whom Travis wants to save somehow. She was radiant and quite memorable.

Taxi Driver also benefits from a particularly intriguing ending that may function as an ethereal dream sequence or a real ending that is bittersweet itself. Either way, it was a poetic way to end this story and it remains among its most memorable sequences along with the iconic shootout scene and of course the famous “Are you talking to me?” moment.

The movie is full of these unforgettable moments where dialogue, acting and characterization shined bright. The film is populated with well realized personalities and strong character arcs and a storyline that deftly builds from a slow beginning to a crescendo of violence and chaos. The movie flows well due to terrific pacing and a runtime that was just right for this story.

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The cinematography is phenomenal and perfectly capturing New York City’s seediest and darkest corners. The score is very memorable and atmospheric too while the directing is consistently confident and powerful. The dialogue is both realistic and simple, effortlessly telling us a lot with very little. But above all else its pervading atmosphere of madness made for an unforgettably effective viewing experience.