Taxi Driver: "You talkin' to me??!"

OK so this post is a blog revist of a post I've already done which actually originally appeared on my previous tennis blog (bit confusing I know sorry!) and it will be on Martin Scorsese's classic film Taxi Driver.  So let's flag this one down and give it a closer inspection.... and a quick warning PLOT SPOILERS LIE AHEAD! 

So to begin with a look at the story it begins with Travis Bickle (De Niro) taking a job as a taxi driver so he work long hours to help deal with his insomnia.  Travis spends his nights alone, and usually frequents Porno movie theatres to try and help him sleep (to no avail).  Whilst driving the streets one day he spots a beautiful young woman, Betsy (Cybil Shepherd) who does voluntary work for the Presidential candidate Senator Charles Pallantine (Leonard Harris).  Travis soon goes to the office where Betsy works and asks her out, and Betsy is initially and accepts, and they go out for lunch.  However on their second date, Travis unwittingly decides to take Besty to see a dirty movie at a porno theatre, as those are the only films that he knows of, which causes Betsy to walk out of the theatre in disgust and leave Travis on his own.  A few days after Travis repeatedly tries to contact Besty without success, he confronts her at the office, where berates her and says "you're in a hell!  And you're gonna die in the hell like the rest of them!", before being lead out by Betsy's co-worker, Tom (Albert Brooks).

Now feeling more and more frustrated by his lack of direction and by the corruption and decadence he sees daily on the streets of New York with all the lowlifes in the city, Travis decides to make changes in his life, through strict daily exercise.  Travis also buys several guns from a travelling salesman, Andy (Steve Prince) with intent on defending himself.  Travis also encounters a couple of indicents that have an effect on him, the first being where he shoots a robber at a local convenience store, who the store owner takes responsibility for.  The second is a young girl who Travis has a fare one night, who wants to get out of the streets, but it turns out she is a prostitute, and her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel) comes along and pulls her out of the cab.  Later one night, Travis nearly runs her car into her and stops just in time, he stares after her and drives off.  The next day, Travis goes to the girl (Jodie Foster) looking for "action", and he speaks to Sport, the pimp, who mocks Travis for his unusual quiet manner, and winds him up for looking like a cop, but tells him the girl is only 12 years old, but she will do all sorts for you "but no rough stuff".  Travis takes the girl to a room, but Travis isn't interested in sex, he wants to try and save her from Sport and from her sleazy life, the girl, who reveals her name to be Iris, is initially resistant to Travis's offer but she appreciates what he is trying to do for her, so they agree to meet again the next day for breakfast.

Next day when they meet for breakfast, Travis becomes more insistent that he save Iris from her sleazy life, calling Sport a killer and that he is a real low-life.  Travis then leaves her some money in an envelope for her to travel back home to her parents, and a note that says by the time she reads it he will be dead.  At this point Travis's paranoia and contempt for the city's lowlife inhabitants reaches its limits, as he then shaves his head into a mowhawk hairdo, and attends a rally for Charles Pallantine, intent on assassinating him, but before he can get the chance, secret agents spot him, and he quickly flees from the scene.  Travis then turns his attention to go after Sport, in his mission to try and rescue Iris from her sleazy employer and the life that she has been thrown into.  And this is where the film culminates in its bloody climax.

Taxi Driver is without a doubt one of the best modern films in American cinema, and even nearly 40 years on, its still as powerful as it was then.  Travis Bickle is almost seen to be like the lone gunman figure, almost like a Charles Wittman, who suddenly snapped and went on a killing spree, except on a lower level.  But Travis at the same time also sees just how sick and depraved the city has become, and he reasserts that to Pallantine in the scene where he drives the Senator in his cab and says that the city is like "an open sewer".  And Travis in a strange way is almost like a moral avenger, as he clearly is a moralistic guy, as he wants to uphold the American dream, a better way of life, and has nothing but contempt for the elements that surround him.  But at the same time Travis is as Besty also says "a walking contradiction", on one hand he wants to see Iris to leave her sleazy street life and go back home, but one the other he spends his nights watching Porno films in movie theatres.  You also get that Travis is clearly a racist character as well, as he even gives his fellow cabbie, Charlie T, a look of contempt, as well as the pimps he sees on the streets, but again it doesn't make any difference to him who he takes as a fare in his taxi.  Overall Travis is a rather complex character and while his morals appear clear, there is a great deal of conflicting emotions going on in his head as well. 

On the performance side of things, Robert De Niro, undoubtedly gives one of his best performances here as the lonely insomniacal Travis Bickle, and he has so many memorable scenes and moments that are covered in both his narration and character.  And as a few examples for starters there is the scene where Travis drives his taxi around near the start of the film and he narrates "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal.  Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets!".  Then there is the scene where Travis confidently walks into the campaign office and asks out Betsy and says to her "I'd like to volunteer" and Betsy's office colleague, Tom offers to take him over to his desk but Travis says "I'd like to volunteer to her if you don't mind" and Betsy asks why and Travis sincerely says "Because I think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen".  Then there is the scene where Travis meets with Iris at breakfast and he tries to get through to her to leave her sleazy life as a prostitute and says to her "Hey, I'm not square, you're the one that's square. You're full of shit, man. What are you talking about? You walk out with those fuckin' creeps and low-lifes and degenerates out on the streets and you sell your little pussy for peanuts? For some low-life pimp who stands in the hall? And I'm square? You're the one that's square, man. I don't go screwing fuck with a bunch of killers and junkies like you do. You call that bein' hip? What world are you from?!".

Another memorable scene from De Niro is of course the "you talkin' to me??" scene which he improvised and he looks himself in the mirror and says "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?!".  And in the same scene Travis narrates some great lines as we see him pose standing in front of the mirror he says "Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore.  A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit!  Here is a man who stood up!".  Another good scene comes when Travis unwittingly has picked up Senator Pallantine as his fair and he starts to talking to him.  And Pallantine asks Travis what bugs him about New York the most and Travis says the city is like "an open sewer" which is full of "filth and scum" and "Whoever becomes the president should really clean it up and flush it down the fucking toilet!".  Other scenes also include where Travis confronts Betsy at her work after she doesn't call him back and he says to her "You're in a hell, and you're gonna die in the hell just like the rest of them!".  And the film's bloody climax where Travis shoots Sport on the steps of the building saying "Suck on this!" before going inside and killing the other pimps and eventually sitting down on the sofa in the room pointing his finger to his head like a gun just as the police arrive on the scene.      

The other performances are also similarly great, Cybil Shepherd is really good as the cool headed Betsy, who you get is a girl who wants to be wooed, and while she is amused by her work colleague Tom, she is more intruiged by Travis, until he blows his chances by taking her to the naughty film.  And Cybil also has some good moments such as the scene where Betsy meets with Travis for lunch and she seems amazed at how different Travis is as a person and she says "I don't think I've ever met anyone quite like you".  And in the scene Betsy describes Travis like a character in a Kris Kirstofferson song "He's a prophet and a pusher, partly truth, partly fiction, a walking contradiction" and Travis defensively says "I'm no pusher, I've never pushed" and Betsy says to him "No, no.  Just the part about the contradictions.  You are that".  And later on there is the scene where Travis takes Betsy to the porno theatre and she soon walks out of the theatre in disgust and angrily says to Travis "Taking me to a place like this is as about as exciting to me as saying "let's fuck!", leaving Travis embarrassed (but let's face it that is pretty exciting).    

Peter Boyle is also great as the veteran cabbie, Wizard, who tries to impart advice to Travis in their scene where Travis is clearly frustrated by his lack of direction in life, and Wizard says "Like I've been a cabbie for thirteen years. Ten years at night. I still don't own my own cab. You know why? Because I don't want to. That must be what I want. To be on the night shift drivin' somebody else's cab. You understand? I mean, you become - You get a job, you become the job".  And Travis shakes off his advice by saying "That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard!", and Wizard says "Well its not Bertrand Russell, but what do you want?  I'm a cabbie.  I mean I don't even know what the fuck you're talking about!".

Albert Brooks is also very good in his role as Tom, Betsy's co-worker, whom he has a good rapport with Besty, although Tom is basically in his own way trying to win over Betsy with his wit and charm but ultimately falls short most likely because of his average looks.  Brooks also has some fun lines of dialogue in the film such as the scene where Betsy teases Tom and tries to get him to light a match without using his thumbs and he ends up failing.  And as he tries to do without his thumbs he fails and says "I can't do it!".  And also when Betsy notices that Travis is outside looking at her from his taxi she says to him about it and he says "Does he bother you?" and Betsy says no and Tom says "You really men yes and you're being sarcastic!" and Betsy smiles "Oh you're quick!".     

Harvey Keitel is very good as Sport, the sleazy pimp and his scene with Travis is really good, as he banters with him during their scene where Travis appears to be looking for "action" with Betsy.  And in the scene Sport graphically tells Travis the things he can do with Iris "You can do anything you want with her. You can cum on her, fuck her in the mouth, fuck her in the ass, cum on her face, man. She get your cock so hard she'll make it explode!  But no rough stuff, all right?".  And later on there is the scene where Sport dances gently with Iris as she tells him she doesn't like what she's doing and he says to her "Ah, baby, I don't want you to like what you're doing.  If you like what you're doing, then you won't be my woman".  And later on there is the scene where the mohican sprouting Travis confronts Sport at the steps of his building and as Sport says he doesn't know anyone named "Iris", Sport continues to get annoyed and says "Hey get back to your own fuckin tribe before you get hurt, ok man?!".   

And while its a small part, Steve Prince as the travelling salesman, Andy, is also really good, and he has one of my favourite lines from the film, when Travis puts one of his guns in his jeans and checks it out in the mirror, and Andy says "ain't that a little honey???".  And as Andy sells Travis the guns he he goes one further and tries to sell him drugs and a car "How about dope?  Grass?  Hash?  Coke? Mescaline?  Downers?  Nebuital?  Chloral hydrates?  How about uppers, amphetamines?  How about a cadillac?  I can get you a brand new cadillac with the spink slip for 2000 dollars!". 

And finally Jodie Foster, who at the time was already an experienced child actress, puts in an excellent performance as Iris, the precocious young girl who ends up leading a sordid lifestyle as a child prostitute.  Jodie also has some really moments in the film particularly the scene where Iris has breakfast with Travis and she says to him "Are you a narc?" and Travis smiles and says "You think I'm a narc?  I AM a narc!" and Iris laughs and says "God!  I don't know who's weirder?  You or me?!".  And also in the scene Iris questions Travis also when he get's in at her over her lifestyle and she says "So what makes you say high and mighty?  Will you tell me that?  Don't you ever try and look at your own eyeballs in the mirror?".    

Finally getting onto Martin Scorsese who does pretty much a flawless job, and his use of the smoke filled streets, and the neon lights on the streets are used really well.  He also does a great job with the bloody climax scene, where at the end when the cops break into the room we see an impressive 360 degree camera pan around the room, which was achieved by cutting a a circular shape out of the roof of the set, so the cameras could move.  He too also puts in a very memorable and creepy performance as one of the Travis's fares, who tells him of his plan to kill his wife, and apparently Scorsese did the part to fill in for an actor that was unavailable, which was just as well, as its great scene in the film.  And in the scene Scorsese get's some chilling dialogue as he describes how he plans to kill his wife "I'm gonna kill her with a .44 Magnum.  Have you ever seen what a .44 Magnum will do to a woman's pussy?!  Now that you should see. What a .44 Magnum will do to a woman's pussy that you should see?!".  The effects work on the film in the bloody climax are also worthy of note and really well created by the at the time Hollywood special effects make-up artist guru, Dick Smith.  Apparently the violence of the scene with Travis going on his bloody crusade was considered by the MPAA at the time (the Motion Picture Association of America) to be so violent that they insisted that the colour in the scene be diluted, which is why the colour in the print looks so pale.

And I can't finish without mentioning the film's music score, which was by the late great Bernard Herrmann, who at the time was in ill health, but agreed to write the score of the film as he was impressed by the script.  Herrmann himself actually passed away the day after he had completed the score, on 24 December 1975.  The score itself stands as one of the most memorable, moody, atmospheric and terrific scores that Herrmann ever committed to cinema, and its instantly recognisible as soon as you hear it.

As for flaws in Taxi Driver.... well there aren't many really although one niggle that comes to mind is Travis's decision to try and assassinate Pallantine as it doesn't really make sense why he would make such a shift towards trying to kill him.  Perhaps it came down to the possibility that Travis realised that Pallantine probably couldn't really do anything to clean up the corruption and sleaze in the city and it was purely endemic so he had to make one dramatic act to shake things up.  For whatever reason it does make for an uneven lurch in the story but Travis does appear to become more obssessed with watching Pallantine's campaign progress as the film goes on and ultimately he flees before he can carry it out.  And instead at this point its like Travis decided to make the choice of being either a hero or a villain and he opted to be the hero by rescuing Iris from Sport and the other pimps.  So you could argue that Travis resorted to making a snap decision on which way he was going to go and which action would he use as an outlet for his frustrations.  But that's really about it criticism wise.   

And that's it for my re-look at Taxi Driver which remains one of the best American films in modern cinema, which is still as great a film as it was on its original release nearly 40 years ago. 

So with that I shall leave yeee there.