I just watched Taxi Driver on Netflix. Holy Hell. I don't know how you take such a simple but budding concept and turn it into one of the most banal, vapid, and meandering sacks of ass to be acclaimed. It makes less than two hours feel like four. This film doesn't even have a shadow of the supposed artistry of other slowburners like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Blade Runner.
Actually, I take that third sentence back. It's very obvious how Martin Scorcese made this such an abomination. The story is absolutely barebones. Travis is barely a character. A clichéd, depressed loner whose defining characteristic is watching pornography. The movie can't decide if it wants to be a political thriller, a depiction of a midlife crisis, a love story, or a vigilante drama. Before ultimately ending on the latter-most, it spends a significant portion being none of those and simply filling runtime with smalltalk from characters no one rightfully gives a shit about. Why would anyone care about those fellow cab drivers in the diner? They shouldn't and aren't given a reason to.
The pedophile subplot is underdeveloped and occurs through sheer coincidence. Of course, in a city of millions, Travis always happens to run into the same people among the bustling sidewalks, including Iris and Betsy. After Travis abruptly attempts to assassinate Palantine and proceeds to concede without reason, he then kills a swathe of gang members as though it's a redemption for the character. He's shot numerously, including in the neck, but somehow survives—scot free with no scars. He's praised as a hero, continues life normally, and even gets to share a melodramatic goodbye with Betsy. Iris happens to reunite with her family, apparently unfazed by witnessing three murders. The ending is absolutely tacked on, maybe even composed of previously shot footage. The ending naturally should have ended with Travis dying, but no, can't risk that, it needs a "happy ending", right?
Throughout, exposition is given via narration by both Travis and Iris's father and it adds absolutely nothing to the story. The music is extremely redundant, getting old by a quarter of the runtime, repeating the same motif for what feels like a hundred times. The story has no throughline, it's as though it was written without an outline or revision—done by simply "taking the story where it naturally goes" without any critical thought. The cinematography is bland and mundane, utterly disinteresting and incomparable to films from the same era such as A Clockwork Orange.
Can anyone explain how this extraordinarily mediocre movie in anyway deserves the praise it receives and has received?
