Taxi Driver (1976)

This is one of the classic movies that everyone should make time to see. I do not think it is the greatest thing I've ever watched, but it is an iconic film. In Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro plays a mentally unstable Vietnam veteran who drives a cab at night and slowly slips into insanity as he tries to deal with the decadence and sleaze that exists in his city. I was not sure what to expect from this film, but I had only heard good things, especially with respect to Robert De Niro. In Taxi Driver, De Niro is forced to do excellent work by the fact that he is the only person on screen for a significant portion of the movie. He is extremely convincing as the mildly psychotic driver who thinks he's making the world a better place. This film gives us De Niro in one of the most iconic scenes in movie history, the 'are you talkin' to me' sequence, which is pretty cool. The rest of the cast is also pretty impressive, including very young looking versions of Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd and Peter Boyle. They are all really good in their roles, and for me, this type of film was a new element for most of them. That said, I did feel a little empty at the end of the film. The finale is pretty cool, but it is not all that unique and even kind of predictable. On top of that, (spoiler alert) at the end of the film, De Niro turns out not to be dead, which does not only seem unrealistic, but it wraps the film up a little too neatly for my taste. I did not watch this film with my wife, and while I do not think she would have hated it, I think she would have wondered why I was subjecting her to it. I am really happy that I have seen Taxi Driver, if for nothing other than cinematic history sake, but I doubt that I will ever watching it again. I give Taxi Driver 3 stars.