Taxi Driver (1976) directed by Martin Scorsese

 Where do you begin with this one? This is a film with a lot to tell about the way certain folks think today and the impact of folks taking for granted or misinterpretation of them have done to the world in the last few years. A semi-autobiographical screenplay by Paul Schrader of a white, dispossessed, Vietnam War veteran that wanders New York City aimlessly, while we see his mind collapse under the weight of his insecurities, obsessions and paranoia. So many fools have come to this with some naïve worship of the protagonist as the public at the end of the movie and miss the point Scorsese and Schrader was trying to make. But lets get into this film…

We see Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro) aimlessly passing time and we hear his neurotic musings to himself.  After awhile, he decides to become a taxi driver and takes any route he's given—even picking-up black passengers (shocking behavior for a New York City cab driver). He works almost all hours and hangs around an equal assortment of co-workers and develops a crush on a campaign worker for a presidential candidate That ends poorly, but around the same time he meets an underage prostitute (played by Jody Foster) who he becomes convinced he must save from the evils of the world…and the movie really goes wild.

The editing of this film is incredible and really takes us into this world along with the cinematography of Michael Chapman. This film takes us inside the heart of Manhattan in the mid-1970s with no recognizable landmarks. The camera-work also takes us into the heart of Travis. Despite him saying that he will work "anywhere, any time", when he speaks about wiping away the filth and sleaze of the city, he's usually looking at black people. Whenever we see him looking at black people he has a paranoid, threatened reaction and a sense of dread. Travis has to conversations with white supremacists in this movie (one notably played by Scorsese himself) and one of the first people he kills is black. This always fascinates me with the film because usually when American cinema wants to show a white supremacist, they show a loud, boisterous almost ogre-like character or a faux-affable neo-nazi. This movie shows a much more quiet and unusual example of one who's entire mental state is in free-fall. 

This movie is an amazing character-study and example of existentialism on film. Scorsese, Schrader, and De Niro created a strong snapshot of post-Vietnam/Watergate New York City—the kind of place where a psychopath living among assholes somehow ends up a hero who does not have to answer to no one because no one is smart or competent-enough to hold him to account.