1)Bickle
(narrative): All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't
believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that
someone should become a person like other people.
2)Bickle
(narrative): All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies,
buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will
come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the
Bronx, Brooklyn, I take 'em to Harlem. I don't care. Don't make no difference
to me. It does to some. Some won't even take spooks. Don't make no difference
to me.
3)Travis:
I'll tell you why. I think you're a lonely person. I drive by this place a lot
and I see you here. I see a lot of people around you. And I see all these phones
and all this stuff on your desk. It means nothing. Then when I came inside and
I met you, I saw in your eyes and I saw the way you carried yourself that you're
not a happy person. And I think you need something. And if you want to call it
a friend, you can call it a friend. Betsy: Are you
gonna be my friend? Travis: Yeah. What do ya say?
It's a little hard standing here and asking...Five minutes, that's all, just outside.
Right around here. I'm there to protect ya. (He quickly flexes both arms, causing
her to laugh.) Come on, just take a little break. Betsy:
I have a break at four o'clock and if you're here... Travis:
Four o'clock today? Betsy: Yes. Travis:
I'll be here. Betsy: I'm sure you will.
4)Bickle
(narrative): Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars,
in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man.
June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity
over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain.
Then suddenly, there is a change.
5)Bickle
(narrative): Listen you fuckers, you screwheads. Here's a man
who would not take it anymore. Who would not let...Listen you fuckers,
you screwheads. Here's a man who would not take it anymore. A man who
stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit,
here is someone who stood up. (He draws his gun.) You're dead.
Review:Taxi Driver is one of the most absorbing, bleak, and wrenching films I
have ever seen. Even after many viewings, I still get sucked into Travis’s lonely
and isolated world. Robert De Niro (The Deer Hunter,
Raging Bull, Awakenings)
gives an amazing performance, completely immersing himself in the twisted soul
of Travis Bickle. Jodie Foster (Contact, Silence of the Lambs) plays Iris and she is surprisingly good for her
age. Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Citizen Kane, North
by Northwest) finished his score for Taxi Driver just hours before
he died. It’s an unusual and haunting score that adds much to the mood of the
film. I've read that Scorcese (Raging Bull, The
Last Temptation of Christ) was forced to tone down the colors of the blood
in the final scene to avoid an X rating. Another interesting note is that Taxi
Driver was shown repeatedly during the John Hinkley trial to establish that
the media had warped the assassins mind. 1976 was the year of Network and
Rocky, preventing Taxi Driver from winning
any Academy Awards. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (DeNiro),
Best Supporting Actress (Foster) and Best Score. This truly is a landmark film
in the history of the cinema. -Review by Aaron Caldwell
