TAXI DRIVER(1976)

TAXI DRIVER(1976)
[5/5 Stars]

(You talking to me? Well I'm the only one here.)

Being Alone and Loneliness are two quite different things, being alone is more often than not, a choice while sometimes forced upon a person, can be handled, loneliness on the other hand is a feeling, a gut-wrenching and an unparalleled feeling of sadness. Travis Bickle, our hero, a Vietnam War veteran, seems well aware of this difference, as he desperately tries to cling on to the little bit of happiness left in him, he does this with little success. All his attempts at any sorts of social interaction suffer because of his own prejudice towards blacks, his racism visible simply because of the seamless interaction that takes place between the characters and the camera, which with its fluid motion and the tight angles as it is placed in the back seat of Bickle's car brings us closer to the darker side of the man.

Paul Schrader's script peaks when Travis begins his description of The Big Apple as a city laced with "scum", "filth" and "shit" and begins to work relentlessly on himself as he aims to be the man who would rid the city of it. His transition is rather slow, it begins with his interaction with presidential candidate Mr. Palantine, who looks visibly stirred to hear Travis' words, then the threatening looks of the weapon bearing goons, all coincidentally black as they go about their business of eve teasing, a man describing what a .44 magnum would do to a another man's head and a woman's genitalia, the way a 12 and a half year old girl played by a 14 year old Jodie Foster in what could be described as a career defining moment in her life has unwittingly accepted a pimp, played by Harvey Keitel as her personal saviour and has been pushed toward prostitution. The final straw that broke the camel's back is his inability to handle rejection by Scorsese's blond goddess, Cybill Shepherd who plays the role of a cool and more often than not composed girl, Betsy.

His emasculation at the hands of society, the gun bearing goons, force his hand as his transformation completes into what he considers to be a righteous man, he sets out to right the wrongs in his world, he arms up against what he considers filth. Tarantino known to pay homage to his favourites does so perfectly in Django Unchained with his own beautiful version of a sleeve gun.

Scorsese, rumoured to have gone under depression himself and contemplated murdering the producers when he was repeatedly asked by the producers to edit some scenes out of this masterpiece of his so as to get it Rated R and not NC-17, is flawless in his direction, with Schrader's script falling in place naturally with the beautiful cinematography as the camera moves to show us what we must see and hide the unnecessary, and the seamless editing by the film's three editors Melvin Shapiro, Tom Rolf and Maria Lucas make it one of the most beautiful films to be ever made. Even though it lost the Oscar to Rocky, an underdog film that won many hearts, Taxi Driver would always be remembered as the closest a film ever came to achieving perfection.