Taxi Driver is one of those movies I've heard about many times but have never took the time to watch. I'm really happy we had this as a category for a movie review because there were a bunch of movies on the list that I've never seen and would like to finally watch! Travis is the main character and the movie is about his life. He gets a job as a taxi driver and the movie follows him throughout his job and throughout his experiences. Travis starts writing a diary about the same time he gets his job as a taxi driver.  The movie is about Travis's life and how he slowly grows detached from reality. He wants to clean up the dirty city of New York and gets obsessed with this idea of saving the world. He later directs his attention to a 12 year old prostitute named Iris. He wants to save her from being a prostitute and having a better life.  

 

I really liked this movie. It's different and a tad dark, but very interesting. I loved the soundtrack of the movie. The old, smooth jazz music when he is driving through the city at night; it adds this awesome level of magic and mystery to New York. I also loved how through scenes there was a voice over of him reading his diary. For example, when he writes about becoming more fit, and then the shot shows him doing pushups and pull ups. I really enjoyed this and I thought it was smart the way they filmed it. There isn't much I didn't like about the movie.  The only scene I didn't necessarily enjoy was when the guy in the convenience store started beating up the already dead robber. The acting was great. There's a lot about Travis that is offsetting, yet he's so interesting to watch and try and understand. The shots were really great. I loved the shots that filmed the city through the inside of the taxi cab. I also liked the shots with the jazz music in the background and it was just a scene of the actual cab driving around at night around the city. I was wondering the whole time how they shot parts of the scenes in the front of the taxi cab, with Dinero driving, while the car is moving forward. This must have taken a lot of thought and was probably really complicated. The lighting was really good. There was always this smokey, dusty light inside, outside, daytime night time, throughout the whole film. You had to see how NYC was dirty and mysterious or else it wouldn't have created such good scenery. A lot of the shots had the characters either on the right or left third of the entire frame. Knowing what breaking 180 is I see it much more when watching films. 

 

I really liked this movie. I enjoyed the visual and sounds of the film. Old New York City: the lights and the people, it was really enjoyable to watch. I loved the jazz music and the other sound effects. I thought this specifically added a lot to the movie.  I like the scene where he's talking to himself saying "you talkin to me?" in the mirror because it's this famous line that I've now finally been able to watch! I would recommend this movie to my friends. I think that it isn't a movie for a lover of action packed exciting films. The pace of the movie for me moved fast, but I can see others who get bored easily losing focus in this film. If you really appreciate movies and enjoy complex characters, this movie is perfect. I really enjoyed the movie and I'm glad I can check it off my "movies to watch list".