100 Movie Project - Taxi Driver

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The following post contains spoilers for Taxi Driver and Blade Runner.

Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is considered a classic and I guess I can see why. But I had a very hard time enjoying it. While I enjoyed Michael Chapman’s cinematography and De Niro’s performance it was hard not to look at Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) and see a shadow of the current gun violence plaguing the United States.

I realize the character had war related PTSD which probably explains some of his behavior but I still found it very uncomfortable. But he seems not to have many friends. He fantasizes about violence. He seems unable to handle himself around women and becomes upset when they rebuff him. He seems to lack proper social awareness. He kind of stalks a woman. Considering the current…climate in the United States it was really hard to enjoy the movie, regardless of how objectively good it was.

And some of it was objectively good. Michael Chapman and Martin Scorsese did a great job making New York look kind of dark and gritty, especially at night, to reflect Bickle’s deteriorating mental state and it contrasted well with the sort of preppy, upbeat scenes at Charles Palantine’s campaign office.

Robert De Niro did a great job playing Bickle as a barely contained Vietnam War veteran with PTSD who seemed to have everything together when he was interacting with other people but then came a little unhinged when he was home alone.

That’s not to say it was perfect though. Just like in Blade Runner the love story subplot didn’t seem to make sense. Unless dating in the 1970 was waaaaay different than now (and admittedly it probably was) I just don’t see any reason why Betsy would go out with Bickle. Even before taking her to the adult movie theater he was already a little weird. Like she should have noticed something seemed off about him. I have to wonder if it was a necessary plot point they needed to make Bickle just a little crazier and give him a reason to try to assassinate Palantine.

Overall I can see why it was a classic but couldn’t really enjoy it myself. It just didn’t age well. I hope future classic films trend more towards Blade Runner, which I enjoyed, than Taxi Driver.

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