Twenty years later and "Taxi Driver" is still one of the most controversial American movies ever made. Critics are so divided on this one that in some corners it is reviled as sick, exploitative trash and in others it is revered as director Martin Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader's masterpiece.
For me, watching the film for the third time — and for the first time in more than a decade — hasn't altered my perception. I remain somewhere in the middle, impressed by its structure, its trendsetting "look," and, of course, De Niro's riveting central performance.
But there are also plenty of places where the film drags, where its jive editing and ponderous voiceovers seem ridiculously self-important and its hellish metaphors too obvious.
Still, for film buffs and those wondering what all the fuss is about, "Taxi Driver" remains a singular experience, and simply to see the youthful De Niro surrounded by such unlikely company as gorgeous Cybill Shepherd (as the woman of his dreams), bushy-haired Albert Brooks (as her equally infatuated co-worker) and child-actress Jodie Foster (as a 12-year-old prostitute) is fascinating all by itself.
De Niro's Travis Bickle is the ultimate alienated soul — "God's lonely man," he calls himself. He's unable to connect with other people, he's out of step with modern culture (represented by vinyl records — remember those?), and when his descent into madness begins, he becomes more and more withdrawn. (Can you say Unabomber?)
How out of touch is he? When he finally gets Shepherd's character to go out with him, they both dress up and he takes her to a porno theater. And what clinches the moment is not her walking out on him, but Bickle's bewilderment. He's been attending porno flicks for so long that he doesn't even realize there are other kinds of movies to see.
Gradually, Bickle begins plotting a violent attack on a prominent political figure and also forms a misguided plot to rescue a young hooker (Foster) from her pimp (Harvey Keitel), as he gathers weapons and learns to shoot at a firing range, works out to get himself in shape and begins stalking his victims.
And the ironic conclusion, perhaps muted a bit by the later Scorsese-De Niro collaboration "The King of Comedy," follows a horrifying bloodbath.
The film includes a number of then-innovative elements that have crossed over into cultural shorthand — steam rising from the gratings in wet Manhattan streets, colored lights reflecting in car windshields, De Niro's famous "You talkin' to me?" monologue, his observation that "The animals come out at night" on the streets of New York City, etc. Even the title — "Taxi Driver" — has come to mean a certain kind of movie experience.
This 20th anniversary re-issue boasts cleaned-up colors and enhanced stereo sound, with Bernard Herrmann's inspired score (his last before his death), and there are things here that ring as true today as they did in 1976.
But as disturbing — even shocking — as some of "Taxi Driver" is, it feels like an uneven, in some ways even an unfinished effort.
And it will no doubt remain controversial for another 20 years.
"Taxi Driver" is rated R for violence and gore, sex and nudity (in a porno theater scene), and fairly constant profane and vulgar language.