Taxi Driver is easily one of the best American films ever made yet it's still being misinterpreted. It is, at times, humorous, pornographic, but also charming. Robert DeNiro stars as Travis, a lonely psychopath and Vietnam veteran. The film focuses on his isolation and phobias for half the film until he spots Jodie Foster, a child prostitute. Travis takes it upon himself and save her as well as attempt to assassinate a high political official. The film is extremely odd and intentionally so. Bernard Herrmann of Psycho helped in constructing the soundtrack and it shows. The sound in the film alone is worth listening to. Other highlights include cameos by director Martin Scorsese and Peter Boyle as the Wizard. But just what is the film about? Honestly, the film never really divulges its secrets - at least, not on first viewing. It took me several times to notice Travis WAS a veteran.
Is this an anti-war film? It's hard to say. Travis is a protagonist and a hero of some kind. But his hilarious and ridiculous letters to this mother demonstrate he is insane. And Scorsese seems to be warning against - not endorsing fascist vigilantism. Ostensibly, the story derives from the very real assassin Arthur Bremer and his diaries. (Bremer himself was inspired by Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.) And the film inspired a neo-Nazi to try to kill Reagan. Is the film that provocative or even political? I don't think so and there are various clues that the film is meant to like many Scorsese films self-consciously parodic. That said, there are strong images of violence and nudity. Beyond that a final warning is that DeNiro's infamous you-talking-to-me monologue was done because of poor audio equipment. He's repeating himself to insure his voice was properly recorded. A powerful film but one that owes much of its power to sheer accidents.
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