Taxi Driver 5 Star Movies
		Made: 1976 Cast: Robert De Niro, Cybil Shepard, Harvey Keitel, Jody foster, Albert Brooks Director: Martin Scorsese Screenwriter: Paul Schrader Cinematographer: Michael Chaplan Producer: Phillip Goldfarb, Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips    "I had a horse once on Coney Island. It got hit by a car."
	Taxi Driver is a film made from the point of view of a writer, director, and actor, who all knew what it was like to be an outcast from society. Three different people, mind you: Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro, and with this information they became the ones who would turn this movie about a truly alienated character into one of the most disturbing yet touching films ever made. This is a film about alienation, and the character may be driven crazy by this, but at the same time he is not a villain or unsympathetic. How hard it must of been to actually create a movie that is likeable when the protagonist is anything but.       Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle with such care that we almost see why he goes on a "rampage" at the end. He is humorous and cool in some scenes where he is planning to kill people for goodness sakes. Bickle often imposes his view on others and does not see why they cannot understand him; this often happens to very intelligent people who lack the capacity to see the world from other people's points of view. At the same time though, Bickle sabotages himself and nothing he tries to do goes as planned. For example, take the two girls he tries to impress. He basically works as a taxi driver six days a week and rakes up all this money he has no use for. So he tries to date a normal girl, Betsy (Cybil Shepard), but she cannot abandon her normal place in society to be with a man because she lacks the courage. Travis eventually sees this. The other girl is anything but normal, a twelve year old prostitute played by Jody Foster, who under a controlling pimp is escaping her "normal" life by having ran away from home. Travis refuses to give up on her and takes some drastic measures to ensure her safety, resulting in the bloodbath of an ending.      The film is so much more than some plot twist though. It has a great supporting male cast in addition to the female one in Harvey Keitel and Albert Brooks, both underrated character actors in the beginning of their careers. Keitel has appeared in Scorsese's first feature, Who's that Knocking on My Door, as well as the lead in the film preceding this one, Mean Streets. It is notable that Keitel improvised about half of his dialogue with De Niro during the movie, both actors getting so into the characters that it is almost impossible to tell what is planned and what is not. Brooks is great as Shepard's pal at the President elect's office and brings a much needed sense of levity to the film. He also worked in much of his own material to enhance his role.     Scorsese came into his own as a director with the masterpiece Mean Streets in 1973, but Taxi Driver is his greatest achievement in my opinion. He takes what he has learned from other movies, whether it was the film noir, the European New Wave, or old 30's horror movies and creates something truly original out of rather obvious influences. Scorsese "invents" in the truest sense of the word. To say that he made many other great movies is kind of obvious, I just thank god he lived long enough to do so. Paul Schrader, a notable film critic and director, wrote this screenplay and touched on something so difficult it is hard to describe. If I had to try: he made the universal theme of loneliness accessible through a character that is extremely despicable. Every person can relate to being lonely and somehow Travis Bickle does not seem crazy at all; he's a hero, right?     The end of this movie has been debated as to whether it is real or a dream. Does Travis live or die? Well, personally I have always thought he lived, but I can see how it would make sense either way. That is part of what makes a great work of art, being able to interpret it in many ways. Taxi Driver is a supreme work of art and one of the greatest movies ever made if not the best. It is my personal favorite movie, but I admit I have a taste for movies about loners that are life affirming. Taxi Driver is another rarity in that it is both pessimistic and optimistic. This movie is simply unforgettable, and to see it is to gain a different view on life.