Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver (1976)

a film by Martin Scorsese

Finally watching Taxi Drive turned out to be a surprising experience after the multiple of images from this movie that are part of popular culture. Printed in t-shirts and quoted to exhaustion the image of Travis Brickle came to me in a different context that the one I found in the movie. Far from witnessing a pop culture icon I was shocked by the darkness of the story of this man descending in to madness. There is no reason I can find to wear a t-shirt with the image of this character on it, but I loved the movie and its crepuscular atmosphere.

Taxi Drive is the story of a man falling into madness, but also the story of the darkness in the human soul and in one of its greatest achievements: the city. In this case it is New York City who plays the role as a dark and perverted metropolis. Gray, filthy and populated by pimps and prostitute the city is the context in which Travis is alienated by the isolation that ultimately drives him into madness. The lack of sleep, the abuse of alcohol, the obsession with a woman, this character is an spiral to dementia.

The movie is brilliant at depicting the city and the character, and as Travis finds himself sinking deeper and deeper the city also seems to present a more hostile and depraved environment. The melancholic music that follow the images of the night in New York is as memorable as the images of this character that is brilliantly brought to the screen with the ambiguous image of victim and executor that Robert De Niro delivers. This movie is a great portrayal of madness, the madness of the character and of the society which isolates him and then exalt him as a hero.

Some of the images in this movie are really iconic, they are dark but they have the visual aesthetic brilliance that make movies live outside the screen and integrate into popular culture. Perhaps, I'll buy that shirt after all.