Taxi Driver

The wildly creative Martin Scorsese made this New Hollywood classic in 1976. Scorsese grew up in Little Italy in New York, and witnessed much violence on the streets. At the same time, he was surrounded by the spiritual emptiness and violent emotions of local youths. This has become a constant source of inspiration for many of his works. Travis (Robert De Niro) is a veteran who drives a night-shift taxi. Driving through the city, he witnesses all kinds of crimes committed under the dark of night. He fails at a romantic relationship, leading him to plan a revenge assassination on a presidential candidate, but ends up becoming a hero who saves a child prostitute. The camerawork, often shot from Travis's point of view, grips the audience's senses firmly, expressing the hopelessness and anger of the times, making film history with many of the scenes. It was also Jodie Foster's debut film. She was not in many scenes but her performance was brilliant and unforgettable.

Courtesy of Park Circus

Cheung's Statement

Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver was a very important film in the 1970s. Robert De Niro plays Travis, a veteran who works as a night-shift taxi driver in the heartless, filthy metropolis of New York, filled with gangsters, transients and prostitutes. He sees every twisted facet of life and gradually becomes a psychotic, murderous enforcer of justice. It is an earth-shattering film.

At the time, I was studying in New York. I could completely relate to the New York that Scorsese had described. This film affected me profoundly. It is also an excellent example of the realism that New York film directors tend to favour, as opposed to the unrestrained imagination of west coast directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. That vast difference is very interesting.

# Post-screening talk with Mabel Cheung and Shu Kei

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