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Taxi Driver (1976) - Movie Review

Excuse my English as its not my first language and i know a movie like this has been covered a million times probably but this specific classic has always stuck out to me unlike any other film

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Taxi Driver (1976) A Martin Scorsese Film One of Robert De Niro’s finest works A Ride Off The Fare

As with typical Scorsese fashion, Taxi Driver is a movie that explores the human condition in depth and the problems surrounding it at times, the movie employs the character ‘“Travis Bickle” who is a mentally unstable former Vietnam war veteran and now works as a New York City taxi driver, Scorsese uses him to show the extreme lengths of depravity that even a sane person could plunge into if they suffered from extreme social and physical isolation, self hatred, anxiety, paranoia, toxic masculinity and even depression. The movie showcases how these afflictions cause the downward spiral on the mind of Travis and shatter the perspective of what is normal and what isn't and how the anger and frustration of inaction can cause a disastrous form of action no matter whether it may be rational or not

The Soundtrack The soundtrack in taxi driver is composed in such a fashion that it successfully delivers the key elements within the film to the audience. Bernard Herrmann, the composer for the movie’s soundtrack uses a range of instruments to create a beautifully entrancing and dream like atmosphere; from the brash jazz of overwhelming and menacing horns and screeching bass clarinets which give off tensing and unnerving feelings of dread, suspense and horror to the intoxicating and trance-fully soft and romantic yet tragic melodies of smooth jazz which consists of beautiful instruments such as the elegant and classy sounds of trombones and the angelic voices of harps. These plethora of tools at the disposal of Bernard Herrmann are efficiently utilized to create fantastical symphonies of loneliness, anger and paranoia are ingeniously spread out through the run time of taxi driver thus granting us to see and delve deeper into the inner linings of Travis’ mind as the movie progresses

The Direction Taxi driver was one of the films that launched Martin Scorsese's career and established him as a highly talented director in the film industry and the proof for it can be seen in this very movie. Scorsese utilizes many innovative and groundbreaking camera and composition techniques of the era to create a masterpiece. The cameras are always either too zoomed in on Travis or too zoomed out to show and induce within the audience the sense of Travis’ isolation, barely any other character ever is shown next to Travis and even if they are it's mostly a minimum amount and when the camera is pointed at another character, Travis is shown to be blurred and out of focus which further showcases the lack of self importance Travis feels. Shaky and claustrophobic camera angles and handling along with a sudden dramatic increase in volume is present when Travis experiences anger, hatred, frustration and anxiety. A bright and blurred blue and red color palette is utilized when showcasing nighttime New York through Travis’ rain soaked taxi windscreen and how these blurry red and blue hues are a direct representation of Travis’ own warped and blurred perspective since he can't distinguish right (blue) from wrong (red) and to him they all seem to mix together; these colors are directly opposed to the monotone grey and maroons of the morning scenes which show how mundane and monotone Travis’ mornings and leisure time is since his depression and anxiety have drained all the bright colors out of it so the only time he feels ‘vibrant’ or ‘alive’ is when hes driving at night

The verdict So despite being released 44 years ago, Taxi driver is a phenomenal and philosophical thought provoking classic narrative that explores hard hitting non-fiction themes of vigilantism, depression, anxiety, toxic masculinity, exploitation, loneliness, morality, twisted justice and many others that would take too long to list; alongside this Travis is a unique and well made character on who seems to be riding his own cab into a self destructive downward spiral, and seemingly by the end of the film is impossible to distinguish whether he was a protagonist or antagonist within the narrative. His mindset and actions are vile and disturbing and condemn-able but despite all that the beauty of his character remains in the audience still being able to sympathize and even relate to Travis as his feelings of isolation, anxiety, trauma and frustration albeit it may not be on the same degree and as Travis; it is still quite are common place in society. All these explored ideas and intense form of storytelling coupled with a masterfully haunting and somber soundtrack, rich characters with tons of emotional depth, the dreamy hypnotic visuals and brilliantly unnerving camera work make Taxi Driver a film that has stood the test of time and has made its outstanding mark on the film industry and no matter how many years pass by, this movie will remain a timeless classic that will forever age as a fine wine due to the brilliance of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro

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