Scorsese, De Niro paint portrait of madness with ‘Taxi Driver’

TAXI DRIVER (1976)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

From the minute Travis Bickle explains he is a Marine, many people quickly lump “Taxi Driver” into the category of movies about crazed, mentally disturbed Vietnam veterans.

But Martin Scorsese’s film is about more than Vietnam. While the specter of America’s failed Vietnam policy haunts every minute of “Taxi Driver,” Scorsese’s movie in the end is about redemption.

That’s what makes this movie so memorable – and such an important part of Scorsese’s overall body of work. For all the problems and issues “Taxi Driver” touches on and the character of Travis Bickle raises, in the end everything comes down to redemption.

Whether or not that redemption is real or a fantasy is debatable. But make no doubt about it: Scorsese slowly and methodically layers his film and tightens the tension as he approaches an unforgettable denouement.

Robert De Niro stars as Travis Bickle in one of his finest screen performances. De Niro is quietly intense playing a lonely, depressed New Yorker searching for inner peace, incapable of maintaining relationships and unable to sleep.

In order to deal with his increasing insomnia, Travis decides to drive a cab at night along the damp, crime-ridden, late-night and early-morning streets of New York City. Scorsese pairs vivid screen images of the city with voice-over narration of Travis reading excerpts from his journal.

ROBERT DE NIRO

“Taxi Driver” is the portrait of a man already gone mad. Travis is no longer sitting precariously on the edge – he’s already fallen off. He’s attempting to survive day-to-day, trying to right a broken life, trying to make sense of his mounting problems.

But he can’t. The more he tries to break through, the deeper he falls back. Travis can’t even forge a relationship with the only woman he finds attractive, Betsy, the campaign worker of a presidential candidate.

Betsy, a young Cybil Shepherd in one of her best performances, tries to relate to Travis. When she suddenly ends her date with Travis – after he takes her to an adult film in a seedy New York theater – he grows more desopndent.

You watch “Taxi Driver” in quiet fascination and with mixed emotions. You feel sympathy for Travis’ inability to identify and overcome his problems; you feel anger for his inability to understand how his behavior affects other people.

Later in the film, when De Niro befriends a teen-age prostitute – and takes on the cause of reuniting her with her parents – he gives Travis the kind of warm-hearted center that he lacks earlier in the film. De Niro is pitch perfect throughout the film.

Travis’ relationship with Iris serves as the catalyst of the film’s turning point – and eventually leads to the stunning, although deliberately ambiguous, ending.

TAXI DRIVER (1976)

Let’s talk about that ending for a minute. A seriously,p perhaps mortally, wounded Travis sits on a couch in the room where he just killed Iris’ pimp. On the soundtrack, we hear the voice of a lady reading a letter thanking Travis for his heroic actions that returned their daughter to her family.

Scorsese leaves his ending open to broad interpretation. Does Travis’ violent action saving Iris and killing her pimp redeem him and make him a hero in the eyes of his acquaintances and the public? Or does Travis hallucinate that possibility in the minutes just before he dies?

Travis Bickle is one of many Scorsese characters who spend an entire film seeking redemption. Fighter Jake LaMotta in “Raging’ Bull,” mobster Henry Hill in “GoodFellas,” Teddy Daniels in “Shutter Island” – all are deeply flawed characters seeking redemption for wrongful acts.

“Taxi Driver” is a film perfectly in tune with the 1970s. Cinematographer Michael Chapman paints a dim, dark picture of New York; composer Bernard Herrmann, working on his last film before his death, adds a sad, somber feel with a rich musical score.

And none of this would have worked without the Paul Shrader screenplay. Shrader collaborated with Scorsese again in “Raging Bull,” “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Bringing Out the Dead”; Shrader’s themes meshed wonderfully with Scorsese’s vision.

Columbia Pictures recently released a restored version of “Taxi Driver” in high definition. The Blu-ray disc offers a pristine print of the film and a host of great extras including running commentary by Scorsese.

“Taxi Driver” is available for rent or purchase on DVD and Blu-ray high definition disc. Click here to purchase the film in a Blu-ray, high definition collector’s edition through Amazon.com. You also can click here to purchase a two-disc DVD version. “Taxi Driver” is rated R for violence, nudity and profanity.’

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