Before Arthur Fleck in Joker came Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Todd Phillips would certainly never have shot his 2019 DC hit without the brilliant psychological drama from master director Martin Scorsese.
If you want to watch the blueprint from 1976 again or have never seen it before, you will have the opportunity to do so on the night from Saturday to Sunday at 01:00 a.m. on ZDF. As unforgettable oppressive study about the abysses of the human soul Taxi Driver is one of the best movies ever.
Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro create cinematic art for eternity with Taxi Driver
Scorsese’s film, based on the screenplay by Paul Schrader, is about the Vietnam War veteran Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), who has no place in everyday life in New York in the 70s. With no prospects, he drives a taxi during the day while he is in his nihilistic violent fantasies drift. When he meets a young prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster), who is being taken advantage of by her pimp (Harvey Keitel), his brutal thoughts gradually become more and more real.
With the character study of Travis Bickle, director Scorsese and screenwriter Schrader have created one of the most poignant character portraits of the torn soul of disoriented post-Vietnam America.
In addition to De Niro’s timelessly fascinating acting performance in the role, Scorsese also captured New York at the time as a character of its own. The metropolis looks like a desolate hellmouth, which seems to devour all humans. If you compare this film to 2019’s Joker, you won’t be able to overlook the parallels between the main characters and the portrayal of the respective city.
At the latest in the finale, Taxi Driver turns into a harrowing delirium of violencewhich finally tilts the slow decline of Travis Bickle’s humanity into ugly cruelty.
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