Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is probably a movie that I will appreciate much later than in my twenties. It is a huge reaction to today’s society, which cannot be monitored. It is only possible to fight it, but the question is whether the fight will change the society or the person who is trying to fight against it. In this film, Robert De Niro made it clear that it is easier for him to change than for the society. With that he created an absolutely unbelievable scene towards the ending, which made me really sick. Even worse were the consequences, which could not be overlooked. Martin Scorsese shot a very good film, but I couldn’t deal with its story. And that was the biggest stumbling block. Otherwise, it’s an example of absolutely great filmmaking, which will be hard to match. (06/10/2014)

Taxi Driver is the third best film made by Scorsese and De Niro after Raging Bull and Wise Guys. But of all the above, it has by far the best music - Herrmann's ending to his career is divine. How a few notes can capture not only the environment in which the film takes place, but also the mental turmoil of the main character... It's breathtaking. You see the opening credits (which Richard Donner pays homage to in Gibson's Ransom) and you know - this is going to be SOMETHING. And it is. (09/19/2007)

I waited twenty years to see one of Martin Scorsese’s most famous movies on the big screen in a festival atmosphere. It finally happened, moreover with a freshly restored version released by the restorers themselves. And nothing happened – at most, Taxi Driver is a valuable testimony of the period, place and mood of 1970s New York, which gives it historical significance (I’ve recently praised similar qualities in Sidney Lumet’s Serpico). The innovative and creative camerawork and Bernard Herrmann’s dark music are also excellent. However, the screenplay and its treatment of the protagonist are cold and aloof and take too many shortcuts, and the climax looks almost absurd, in a cartoonish fashion, as though it was a dramaturgically botched attempt at editing a more concise and epic work. (07/07/2011)

Quite shabby and very much “about nothing”. I don’t see anything exceptional about Taxi Driver. De Niro acts like in every film – almost all his roles are the same to me – and I still can’t bring myself to like Scorsese. It’s a shame, but I’ve already come to terms with the fact that the best works of these two gentlemen will never say much to me. (08/09/2009)

Scorsese's first major league feature and still one of his most famous. Once again, the master does what he does best, immersing the protagonist chin-deep in the seedy, prostitute- and small-time gangster-infested corners of New York, where no ethical laws apply. As always, the excellent De Niro is amazing in his role and his slow inner transformation is one of the best things of Taxi Driver and enhances its story. Scorsese manipulates the viewer very skilfully, for an hour and a half he just prepares them as they try to identify with the main character, which is very essential towards the final minutes and crucial for the overall impression. The atmosphere is also greatly enhanced by Herrmann's excellent and mysterious music, whose tones are heard at almost every turn. It's just a pity that the narrative wasn't given a smoother and rawer tone, because the bloody finale seems a bit contrasting and absurd in relation to the story as a whole. Taxi Driver is another impressive film from a directing legend, but I'll probably just pass on it again. 80% (02/08/2013)