Martin Scorsese was known as the "sociological director". At that time, this young man who was born in Little Italy and had academic knowledge and liked serious thinking used images to reproduce the chaotic reality of New York in the 1960s and 1970s. At the beginning of the film, we saw the weird modern city under the shaking night, and then we saw the red and paranoid eyes of Robert De Niro, who was still a young man. The first shot was a taxi driver. I took the audience to see, just as he and Palantine, the presidential candidate in the film, complained, this place is full of dirty things. He came to the taxi driver application office: I have insomnia. A soldier who had returned from the Vietnam War did not know how to face everything in front of him. This is the background of the story, which fits the American society at that time, the murders, the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the economic recession, and the political crisis. The so-called economic foundation determines the superstructure, and movies belonging to the category of ideology are deeply influenced by it. From the European film pioneer movement after the First World War to the Italian neo-realism after the Second World War, it reflects the mentality of people after the war without exception.
Martin Sicoses was deeply influenced by the French New Wave during his studies at the New York University Film School. It can also be said that the young directors of New Hollywood grew up under the influence of the New Wave. Then Europe broke out the second neo-realistic film movement, and the stimulation of these movements provided a model and rich soil for the new Hollywood. New Wave and Neorealism have stories, but this story is anti-Griffith narrative tradition, and it is also anti-dramatic. Looking at the golden age of Hollywood movies at the beginning, it was both narrative and dramatic. And the new Hollywood film represented by "Taxi Driver", in terms of the subject content, first of all, it responds to the confusion and thinking of people in the society about their own existence and the relationship with others. Travis does not know where he is socially positioned. He even bought four pistols from the black market, imagining that he would become a SWAT team. Of course, in the end, he could not become a decent SWAT. Even if he could be a hero in a small supermarket at a gas station, he was actually just taking the opportunity to pass this. A form of violence to vent the emotions in the heart. He fell in love with the otherworldly Beth, but Beth could not accept his life style of watching pornographic movies all night. He wanted to save the prostitute Iris, but she wouldn't listen to advice. This corresponds to the second feature of neo-realistic movies. The character has no clear purpose, which means that the character has no action and does not have a goal throughout. As for the character, although he is set as a mentally ill person, he does. Converges the thoughts and actions of people at that time, especially young people. The third is that there is no causal connection between the development of the story, and contingency becomes the decisive factor. The first time he met Iris and later met again on the street, it was a coincidence. He fell in love with Beth at first sight and talked with the presidential candidate. "Taxi Driver" can be said to deviate from the principle of narrative, with large sections of psychological monologues and subjective shots, turning the focus on people's hearts. This is also inherited the mantle of the new wave.
The film has a strong expressionist color. New York is shrouded in a strange atmosphere. The scenes are mostly in the dark night, clouds of fog under the flashing lights in the dark, rain on the streets and car glass, scum swaying on the dirty road, and the audience's ears ringing in harmony and strong rhythm of music. These sound symbols cleverly reveal the indifference, confusion, and abomination of this city. The apartment in which Travis lived is dark and damaged, suggesting the protagonist’s mental state. The film uses a lot of red, red titles, red neon lights, signal lights, and tail lights all imply violence, and until the end of the violence scene, Travis’s face, body, and the black walls of the brothel are stained. Full of scarlet blood, giving a strong visual impact.
As for the ending, Travis, who experienced the pain of losing his love, felt lost and confused. While continuing his boring and boring life, he decided to use actions to prove his meaning. In the process of preparing to assassinate Palantine, he met the prostitute Iris again and decided to help her escape from the den. After failing to assassinate Palantine, Travis went to the brothel where Yiz was located, and killed the old bustard, landlord, and prostitute one by one, and suffered serious injuries. Under the propaganda of the media, Travis, who was about to die, became a hero who saved the prostitutes, and his deeds became news in New York. This is enough black humor. There was also a reaction in front. The candidate Pastine rode in Lavis’s car. He asked about his “most concerned” taxi about his political views, and Lavis vented that he didn’t care about this society. Dissatisfaction of the lower classes of society: The president is to clean up the filthy streets. Poor Lavis didn’t know that the candidate he wanted to support was a hypocrite, a rubbish of the upper class who spoke humanitarianism. All he cared about was votes, yes Anxious for the right to be obtained, as for the lives and deaths of the real people, they were numb, enough irony of the political situation in the United States at that time. One day after healed, Travis found Beth walked into his taxi, but this time he rejected Beth's favor and disappeared into the feasting streets of New York as usual. The significance of the anti-traditional sub-system is undoubtedly evident at the end of the film. Instead of letting Beth and Travis kiss the street like a traditional Hollywood movie, they leave. Travis seems to be back to the original point, but in fact has experienced everything.
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