A young Robert De Niro plays the role of Travis Bickle, a mentally unstable Vietnam War Veteran. He has a hard time sleeping at night, and figures if he is up anyway he might as well get a job driving a taxi and making money. When he is on the streets at night he sees all the worst parts of New York City. It disgusts him. This disgust is instilled in the viewer with the dark lighting, the blurring of lights together, the yellowness inside of buildings, etc. The viewer is purposely led to feel uneasy and awkward due to high camera angles, the use of dissolves as Travis is walking towards the camera, and quick unexpected close-ups of Travis's face.
Travis tries to be civil in this world. He seeks to hold conversations with people that blow him off like he needs to mind his own business. The people he drives in his taxi are creatures of the night and do not provide adequate conversation either. His mind becomes poisoned by the dirt on the streets that he cannot escape. His home is no sanctuary either. There are shots of him in his pathetic apartment reminiscent of the garret that Raskolnikov lives in in the book Crime and Punishment. There are overhead shots of him laying on his small bed, that seems to be too small, where he can't seem to sleep anyway. He role plays to himself a lot in his apartment as well. The famous line "Are you talkin' to me?", comes from this role playing.
Travis often drives by a building where the workers and volunteers unite for the senator running for president. Travis will park his cab close by and look in the windows. A woman, Betsy, working there (Cybill Shepherd) has caught his eye. He finally gets the guts to go in and ask her out. First he joins the party, and then asks her on a date. He is a nice looking guy usually wears cowboy cut shirts, skinny jeans, and boots. So he convinces her for a date. On the date it seems he has no sense of common decency. He does not realize that he does not, as he takes her into a dirty movie. She refuses to watch and storms out. He follows and is unable to convince her to stay with him. He starts to judge her, and she says maybe he should look at his own eyes in the mirror. Scenes follow where he is on the phone with her (or is he?) trying to win her affection and he asks if she got the flowers he sent. Later we find out that he never sent the flowers because they are in his apartment, then he burns them in the sink of his apartment. Travis becomes rejected while seeking the affection of a woman, a civilized person.
One night the senator has to take a cab because of a mixup with the limo. Of course, this is Travis's Cab. He says how bad the city is and how he supports the senator and will vote for him. The senator is satisfied to hear the general public in his support. Later Travis becomes disenchanted with the senator because of his rejection from the girl who works for him, and further seeing the garbage on the streets.
It is apparent that Travis has lost hope in the politics, or the police to clean up the streets, so he decides to take matters into his own hands, In a Boondock Saints type fashion. A dealer comes to his apartment and shows him two briefcases of guns. Travis slowly learns about each one and carefully handles each in his hand and points them in the air imagining his enemies. He ends up buying all of them. Scenes follow where he gets all the holsters ready for where he will position them on his body. He is seen taping his knife to his boot a couple times. He even makes a contraption out of the slide rail off of a drawer so that he can have a gun slide out of his sleeve quickly in his hand, so he can be quicker than his enemies. This leads to his role playing and the famous line mentioned above.
Travis has often noticed a young girl, Iris, (A young Jodie Foster) out on the streets. Obviously she is a prostitute. (a little more reminiscent of Crime and Punishment for me.) He always watches her with a type of amazement. He finally goes to see the man in charge of her (a young Harvey Keitel). He is able to get her to himself for a while. They go into a building where Travis pays another older man. They go up to a room together. Jodie Foster of course is expecting the usual, but he just wants to talk to her. Travis wants to help her get off the streets, he says it's no place for her, especially because she is 12 years old.
One day at a pep rally for the senator, travis arrives wearing his large coat to conceal his weapons, and he has shaved a mohawk. Previously he has written a letter to Iris giving her money to be able to go home, and tells her the next time she sees him he will be dead. This leads the viewer to believe he is on a suicide mission to kill the senator. As the senator leaves the stage and is escorted by the secret service through the crowd, Travis comes closer and reaches into his coat. The secret service see him and he takes off running, they do not catch him. Immediately he goes to the man that sells Iris. Travis ends up killing him, the older man in the building, and a man who is in the room with Iris. He sustains a shot to the neck and shoulder in the process.
Perhaps the best scene of the movie follows as Travis sits down dying on the couch as Iris is freaked out crying in the corner. The police arrive and are blown away by the crime scene. The camera slowly backs out of the room, showing every weapon Travis used. it backs out down the stairs, out of the building to the police holding back the crowd accumulating. The camera shows an overhead shot of the chaos of the people, flashing police lights, etc. This whole scene moves slowly with alarming music playing.
The next scene has the father of Iris narrating a letter to Travis. During the narration we see newspaper clippings on the wall of Travis's apartment, following how the press covered his story. We find out that he lived and was finally released from the hospital after being in a comma for a while. This whole scene reminds me of the newspaper montage in "The Godfather" describing the shooting and recovery of Vito Corleone. Except instead of music playing, it is a narration.
Travis returns to his cab driving. He is a hero in people's eyes. He seems to be the same. Betsy comes to get a ride from him. She is probably thinking she was wrong about him all along. All we see is her reflection from her rearview mirror. She inquires into his life and he gives direct quick answers and provokes no conversation in return. He drops her off and she comes to his window. She asks how much the ride cost. He drives off without receiving payment. As he is driving off he sees his own reflection in the rearview mirror and his shocked. The cab drives into the blurry lights of the night, and the credits start rolling.
The movie constantly has Travis's voice narrating. His narrating personality is different from how we see him on screen. The perceptions are different.
Robert De Niro's acting is incredible. He does this a lot in his movies, but he will just stare at someone. You think he will start talking, but he will just keep staring. He will get a little grin on his face and show some of his teeth, it is almost goofy looking at times. He always does this though. I recognize it from "Raging Bull" and "The Deer Hunter".
Thoughts on Travis: It seems like his perception is a little off from reality. But is it?? Who does not role play in their head or to themselves every once and awhile? Who does not imagine scenarios that they will be in? He believes he is above the law, he got away with murder, although it was of bad people. Do we think we are ever above the law? He cheated death. He is a type of superhero even. Will he ever strike again?
I did not mean to turn this into a plot synopsis, but I could not stop. It was a great movie, and I needed a little time to mull it all over in my head. I would like to watch it again to look more at the camera work, editing, and cinematography. From what I picked up on it all helped to add to the mood and theme of the film.
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