Taxi Driver (1976)

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, and Harvey Keitel

Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a former marine and Vietnam veteran who has moved to Manhattan and started working as a night time cab driver.  He’s an insomniac, so he works long shifts each night since he would be awake anyway.  During the day, he likes to frequent porn theaters.  As he gradually gets to know the city, he sees the decadence of New York in the mid-70s for what it truly is.  He sees crooked politicians, smalltime criminals, and desperate prostitutes.  Travis has a few screws loose and can’t take all of this.  He decides to make a violent stand against this decadence and corruption.  In the process, he rescues a child prostitute.  Meanwhile, he pursues a romantic interest named Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) who is a campaign volunteer for a New York senator.

Taxi Driver is one of those classic films that every person breathing needs to see.  You can still see its influence even today.  Every time somebody says that famous phrase “You talkin’ to me?”, you have to think of the powerful, iconic performance by the legendary Robert De Niro in this film and some truly magnificent filmmaking by Martin Scorsese.  Taxi Driver is a gritty, visceral film that focuses on the mental deterioration of a war veteran.  In Bickle’s mind, New York is hell on earth, and he takes up arms to do his part.  Scorsese brilliantly depicts this on screen.  There is nothing else in cinema quite like this.  Taxi Driver undoubtedly belongs on any movie lover’s bucket list.