TaxiDriver

Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro is a potent combination that will withstand the ravages of time, as Taxi Driver proves. I saw this 1976 film for the first time yesterday and it is relevant and powerful as it might have been back then.

A disarmingly young De Niro plays a Newyork cabbie, Travis Bickle, the God's own lonely man, one of the many anonymous faces that populate New York city. He's a sleepless Vietnam vet, unstable and looking for company in the city's underbelly. Paul Schrader, the script writer in an interview in 'The Making of Taxi Driver' says that Travis Bickle reflected his own lonely disoriented existence at the time and De Niro plays the role to perfection.

Touted to be one of the cult classics of the seventies, Taxi Driver lives up to its promise. In addition to De Niro, a fourteen year old Jodie Foster and Harvey Kietal play small but important roles. Martin Scorcese's directorial style in this movie has spawned copies ever since. A classic, thru' and thru'.