movie film review | chris tookey
 
     
     
 

Taxi Driver


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  Taxi Driver Review
Tookey's Rating
9 /10
 
Average Rating
9.08 /10
 
Starring
Robert de Niro , Jodie Foster , Cybill Shepherd
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Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Paul Schrader

 
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Released: 1976
   
Genre: DRAMA
CRIME
THRILLER
   
Origin: US
   
Length: 114
 
 


 
A New York taxi driver (Robert de Niro, pictured right with Jodie Foster) goes bonkers.
Reviewed by Chris Tookey



Critics were very divided on release, but more and more this looks like a classic. It's a frightening picture of urban alienation- and although we don't get to know much about Travis Bickle's past, we certainly understand where he's coming from.

De Niro gives an astonishing performance which makes us share many of his feelings, yet keeps us distanced at the same time. The view of New York as Hell is exaggerated and melodramatic, of course, but it's obviously one man's vision; most of the time, we're seeing it though Bickle's paranoid eyes.

The one thing that doesn't ring true in any sense is the interest shown in him by Betsy (Cybill Shepherd).

Bernard Herrmann's score, his creepiest since Psycho (and his last) was rightly Oscar-nominated.


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