Taxi Driver (1976)

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Tell Me What You Feel

Taxi Driver (1976)

8/10

Starring

Robert De Niro

Jodie Foster

Albert Brooks

Harvey Keitel

Cybill Shepherd

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Distributed by Columbia Pictures

Whether you have seen Taxi Driver or not the catchphrase "You talkin' to me?" has become increasingly popular and In 2005, it was chosen as #10 on the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes.

The scene has Bickle (Robert De Niro) look himself in the mirror and rehearses drawing a gun at someone saying, "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the f#@k do you think you're talking to?"

Taxi Driver was a commercial success, and that can be based majorly on the good work done by Martin Scorsese the director. The movie’s cinematography is also exceptional, from shots taking from the taxi to the one’s of Bickle on the street, it was classic. Scorsese and his cinematographer, Michael Chapman, would fit themselves on the back seat floor and use available light to shoot.

Paul Schrader wrote the movie script; he made Bickle a Vietnam veteran because trauma of the war blended perfectly with Bickle’s paranoid psychosis.

Taxi follows the story of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) who works the nightshift, driving his cab throughout New York City. As a war veteran, Travis suffered some mental issues which made it difficult for him to sleep.

He also had an inability to connect with anyone, not even with other cabbies also played against him, and when he became infatuated by a blondy, (Cybill Shepherd) he did all he could to maintain a relationship with her but blew it.

He also developed a fatherly connection with a prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster), and tried to save her from herself and her pimp.

With all this happening Travis buys guns with the aim of cleaning the streets of New York.

Jodie Foster was 13 when she starred in this movie, her experience as a child star actress paid off. De Niro was so good in this movie, it was obvious that his best days were way back then, you can’t compare what he did in this movie to what he is doing now.

The Movie had a classic ending that you may interpret to be Bickle’s dying dream, but as it turned out Bickle changed from a villain to a hero and then from the way he acted in the last scene of the movie you can guess that he is probably going to break soon.

I hope a remake of this movie will never be done.