Taxi Driver
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Featuring Robert de Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel and Cybill Shepherd
Dendy Cinema, Brisbane, from April 18
Reviewed by Giovanna Castellani
This year is the 20th anniversary of one of Martin Scorsese's greatest films — Taxi Driver. It is a showcase not only for Scorsese but also for the acting abilities of both Robert de Niro and Jodie Foster.
Scorsese has been involved in film for over 20 years, with a parade of features and documentary projects — most often focusing on his Italian-American background and incorporating the mob and other underworld figures. Films to date include Mean Streets (1973), Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990) and his most recent, Casino (1996).
A common underlying thread throughout most Scorsese films is the theme of sin and redemption. This is heavily portrayed with Taxi Driver. The film is a case study of Travis Bickle (Robert de Niro), a psychologically unstable ex-marine who becomes a taxi driver at night due to his insomnia. We follow Travis through his infatuation with political campaigner Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) and its eventual demise, and his relationship with 12-year-old sex worker Iris (Jodie Foster).
From this, we witness Travis' descent into an obsessive and depressive loneliness, fuelled by his disgust at the horrors and contradictions of the New York ghettos he works and lives in.
This begins a series of events that lead to Travis' personal purging and redemption. It is initially expressed through the failed assassination attempt on presidential candidate Senator Palantine (Leonard Harris), then in the terrifying slaying of Iris' pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel), and his associates.
Travis' murderous atonement is applauded by middle-class USA, and he is hailed a hero. This an interesting irony, as both targets (Senator Palantine and Sport) contributed to Travis' repulsion from inner city New York, personified by Iris' existence as a sex worker. This is a characteristic trait of Scorsese, creating a film that is both blended and transfixed between documentary reality and subjective fiction.
At the time of its release, Taxi Driver created great controversy over climactic sequence of graphic and psychotic violence that erupts with Travis' retribution. Even today with our constant barrage of violence through various multi-media, Scorsese's style and use of slow motion makes the slaying of Sport and his colleagues a scene of intense viewer voyeurism, as such very unsettling.
Taxi Driver is a must see film for those who didn't get the chance to see it the first time. Watch for the cameo appearance of Scorsese as the deranged husband who gets a lift in Travis' cab — a very interesting insight into the man as director and actor.