Taxi Driver (1976)
(Martin Scorsese, US 1976, 114 min., DCP)
Martin Scorsese’s grim parable of isolation, despair, and violent redemption is without question a pivotal film in the history of American cinema — a brutal mix of realism and lyric dreaminess unique to post-Vietnam ’70s America that’s still powerfully relevant today. Robert DeNiro is Travis Bickle, “God’s lonely man,” in this Paul Schrader script. An insomniac loner, Travis gets a job as a cab driver where he sees supporting evidence that the city is “full of filth and scum.” Two women capture his attention. Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) is a young woman working at a presidential campaign office that Travis tries to date. Iris (Jodie Foster) is an underage prostitute that Travis tries to save. As Travis moves toward a nihilistic confrontation, we are steeped in his world and his motivations. Jodie Foster earned her first Academy Award nomination for her role.