Taxi Driver (1976)

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Starring Robert De Niro, Cybil Shepherd, Jodie Foster, Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, Harry Northup, Norman Matlock, Steven Prince, Martin Scorsese, Richard Higgs, Joe Spinell. [R]

Blistering, brilliant portrait of an isolated, socially-awkward NYC cab driver and Vietnam veteran, Travis Bickle (De Niro), and his slow descent into madness as the world continually rejects him. The urban nightmare of alienation from which he can never wake is perfectly (therefore, repellently) captured by both director Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader, effectively complemented by Bernard Herrman’s jazzy score fragmented by dissonant brass and shards of noise (the legendary composer’s final work before his death). Culminates in a brutally violent “avenging angel” incident, but it’s arguably even tougher to watch Bickle’s uneasy and even humiliating interactions with those he tries to connect with; even the camera slides away at one point to focus on something, anything else. The cast is uniformly superb, including Foster’s underage prostitute, Brooks in his first film role, and even Shepherd, who has limited range and versatility as an actress, but is well-suited for the material here; as for De Niro, he gives one of his finest performances (in a career full of great ones), frightening and tragic and mesmerizing, a mind and soul deteriorating right before our eyes. One of the most unforgettable films of the 1970s, if not all-time.

98/100