A Taxi Packed with Talent

It is easy to imagine why Robert Deniro was chosen by Martin Scorsese to be the lead in Taxi Driver. He had worked with him three years earlier on Mean Streets and he was fresh off of a best supporting actor win for The Godfather Part II. And, come on, it's De Niro for christ's sake, but what about the rest of the cast?

Jodie Foster had also worked with Scorsese on 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and at age thirteen, she was already an industry pro. The camera has always loved Foster and the chemistry between her and De Niro was evident.

Cybill Shepherd was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1972 for her work in The Last Picture Show and gave a solid performance as Betsy, the stuck up, but alluring campaigner.

Harvey Keitel worked with on Mean Streets with De Niro and Scorsese in 1973. Keitel has always been a versatile force in the acting world. His performance in Mean Streets evoked compassion and empathy, whereas his work in Taxi Driver breeds only disgust.

Peter Boyle is charming as The Wizard. He takes a small role and makes it eternally memorable. He is akin to a father figure for Travis, but there is no salvation in store for God's lonely man.

Albert Brooks brings a quirky distraction from the ensuing darkness of the film. Along with great onscreen chemistry with Cybill Shepherd, his comedic talent is evident without taking over a scene.

And as for Martin Scorsese casting himself as the lovesick psychopath that introduces Travis to the idea of a .44 magnum, it's just brilliant. The scene is one of the most captivating in the entire film, and De Niro's performance, without speaking a single word, plays perfectly off of Scorsese's madness.

The film is filled with many other great performances, like Steven Prince as the gun dealing, drug dealing lowlife who sells Travis his weapons or Richard Higgs as the friendly secret service man. Though De Niro is the focus, he is surrounded by talented individuals that lift him higher and higher.

Mise en Scene

We are in a dingy, cramped New York apartment. Our only company is some whack job who is always playing with his .44 magnum and talking to himself in the mirror, but we feel safe in this womb of despair. We could not feel this way without Mise en Scene.

With the vision of director, Martin Scorsese and D.P., Michael Chapman, New York City is a cavalcade of claustrophobia. Travis's tiny apartment, his little yellow cab, the closing walls of a putrid brothel, and even the wide aerial shots feel stifling, but stifling in a good way. We are transported into Travis's world. Can you smell the smells? Can feel the humidity of the summer in New york? I can. The atmosphere is so rich and thick that I feel inside the film every time that I watch it.

Scorsese uses Mise en Scene to convey Travis's isolation. The scene in which Travis is on a pay phone with Betsy starts as a medium shot with De Niro's back to us, but as the conversation becomes desperate the camera dollies right to reveal a long empty hallway. Scorsese has said that this was to convey that the conversation was to painful and pathetic to bear.

There are bird's eye full shots of De Niro lying on an army cot that make me feel as if I am the proverbial fly on the wall. It is his private time and the audience is not welcome there, so we must spy. The most visually striking shots are the bird's eye in the brothel after the massacre. The walls are high and confining as the lens moves over the carnage. It is almost as if the screen is screaming in shock and horror.

The whole film feels closed even if the scenes are open. The vastness of New York feels just like being on acid in an open field. The spaces are wide and uncharted, but you can't help but feel imprisoned by your own aura.

Who is Travis Bickle?

Travis Bickle is many things: a veteran, a cab driver, a sociopath, and a storyteller. He speaks to the audience through most of the film. This narrator is not talking to us, but he is feeding his own madness. Travis's perception is perpetually bent, so this makes him a unreliable narrator.

Fact of the matter is that Travis is the only person who can tell this story. After all, the movie is called Taxi Driver, not 12 Year Old Prostitute, White Pimp, or Campaigner. If we were to hear this story from anybody else, it would be a completely different organism. Conversely, if the film was third person and objective, it would most likely lose all of its tone and theme.

There could be no Taxi Driver without a taxi driver and there could be no Travis Bickle without Robert De Niro.

Paul Schrader: Writer/Director

Paul Schrader was born in 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He and his brother, Leonard, found an outlet in storytelling during a strict upbringing. Schrader is one of the most prolific and successful screenwriters in Hollywood, penning such classics as Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and of course, Taxi Driver

On the character of Travis Bickle:

"When I set out to write the script I thought it was about loneliness. As I wrote it I realized it was about something a little different and more interesting: self-imposed loneliness; a syndrome of behavior that reinforces itself. And the touchstones of that kind of behavior are all kinds of contradictory impulses. Puristanism & pornography at the same time...'I've got to get healthy' while popping pills at the same time...That dreadful diet...It's full of these things that he does to make sure he'll never get to where he's going...so he can reinforce his own doomed condition."

He has also had great success as a director, sitting at the helm of such films as Blue Collar, Light Sleeper, and the Academy Award winning, Affiliction.