Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List
Spoiler-free premise
Insomniac Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle drives a New York night taxi, recording his isolation as fantasies of purification harden into action.
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Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle works overnight as a Manhattan cabdriver and writes about the city, his sleeplessness, and his disgust. Failed attempts at connection with campaign worker Betsy and his concern for teenage Iris feed an increasingly violent idea of purpose.
Why it belongs
Taxi Driver traps viewers inside Travis Bickle's lonely, contaminated gaze without granting his alienation ethical authority.
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De Niro's guarded performance keeps need, vanity, grievance, and danger uneasily intertwined. Steam, rain, neon, slow motion, subjective street views, and Bernard Herrmann's divided score make the city feel filtered through Travis's unstable consciousness.