Taxi Driver (2007, DVD)

When I watch an American film from the 1970s or 1980s I really look for the ones that give us a gritty sense of reality built in. Granted, I don't remember the 1970s at all and in the 1980s I never visited the places most movies in this style are set (NY or LA) but I do enjoy the feel.

Taxi Driver is a film from 1976 that gives you a feeling that you could walk right into it and find yourself standing in the middle of 1970s New York. Though the film doesn't appear to have been shot in any special type of camera/film combination the lighting, scenes, and costumes really locked into my mind as being authentic.

The plot, including spoilers:
Robert DeNiro stars as a Travis, a Taxi Driver who works the night shift. We ride with Travis and hear the thoughts in his head as he works. His disgust for the "filth" in the city is easy to sympathize with given his typical routes. Of course, the character proves to be something of a hypocrite in that he joins into some aspects of the very crowd he denounces without seeming to realize he's done it. Would you take a first date to a porn flick? And act like it's normal? Me neither but Travis does.

Cybill Shepherd plays Betsy, an election campaign worker that Travis happens to see from the window of his cab. After seeing her he goes into something of a pseudo-stalker mode and begins to give us a look into the dementia in his psyche. He does advance to a date level (incident referenced in the previous paragraph) and ends it by losing the relationship he'd so carefully planted.

Losing this relationship seems to have a profound effect on the troubled Travis. He begins working to "make every muscle tight" and to stop putting junk into his body (booze, pills, junk food). Travis starts to arm himself with several illegal pistols and ammunition. He even fashions himself a sleeve holster with an autodrop out of a drawer slide (sounds cheesy I know but it works for this film). An assasination of the politician Betsy volunteers for is in the works!

An image from this part of the film that haunts me for some reason is the sign Travis buys. It begins as an inside joke between he and Betsy and ends as a physical manifestation of psychosis and fixation (in my opinion). The sign is a picture of a desk with falling over paper stacks and the phrase "one of these days I'm going to get organized". The misspelling is intentional, it's supposed to be a joke. Boy does Travis get organized in his attempt at a bloody rampage including a political assassination!

Through Travis' adventures he meets a young prostitute, Iris, and attempts to persuade her to return to her family and previous life. This meeting also begins with a chance happening that transpires in the cab between Travis and Iris' pimp.

After a series of mishaps in which Travis' attempt at a killing spree and rampage goes wrong, he ends up cast in the media as a hero or knight in shining armor type. WOW!

Seem hard to follow?
Does that plot description seem hard to read? It's because the plot is handled somewhat chaotically in the film. I felt Travis' madness even more because the plot was as disjointed and semi-reasonable to me as it was to him. All the while I felt I saw that same pall of dirt over everything that the character himself saw and despised.

Fit for kids?
No way. This one has plenty of profanity, violence, gore (though the special effects stink), shady characters, and a study in preparation for violence that is as complete as the training scenes in Rocky or Karate Kid.

Overall:
This movie left me feeling dark and dingy when it was over. I truly felt like I'd spent two hours in the head of a man who was somewhat deranged but not completely off the deep end. I was troubled because the movie convinced me that people like Travis exist because it was so believable!

I'd watch this one again but I wouldn't watch it often...it's too heavy for that.

One last tip: watch it at night with the lights off. It really helps you feel like you are seeing the world through Travis' eyes.

Notable Cast Members:
Taxi Driver was really packed with young people that would go on to be stars.
Robert Deniro - Travis Bickle (starring role)
Cybill Shepherd - Betsy (significant screen time)
Peter Boyle - Wizard (a fellow cabbie, small role)
Jodie Foster - Iris Steensma (one of the more troubling characters)
Harvey Keitel - Sport Matthew (makes the Iris character troubling)

Other films you should see
If you are still considering Taxi Driver consider these also:
The Deer Hunter
You can't spell excellent without the X
Casino