Taxi Driver & Feeling Utterly Unmoored

Okay, I just finished watching Taxi Driver and wow. I need to unpack this. Scorsese (duh, I looked it up!) obviously knows what he's doing. De Niro's performance is...unnerving. It's not just that he's playing a disturbed guy, it's how he becomes this guy, Travis Bickle. You can see the isolation eating him alive, and it's not always through big dramatic scenes, it's those little glances and that nervous energy he carries around. What I'm really stuck on is how the city itself plays a character. The grime, the neon, the constant stream of faces... it all feels so oppressive, reflecting Travis's own internal chaos. I kept thinking about that scene where he's just driving around, aimlessly, and the saxophone music swells. It's almost beautiful but so, so sad. Does anyone else feel like the city is actively pushing him further into the abyss? And Cybill Shepherd... while I get that Betsy is supposed to be this unattainable ideal, I honestly found her kinda bland. Was that intentional, to highlight Travis's distorted view of women? Or am I missing something? I'm curious to know how others interpret her character, because honestly, I just kept feeling like she was a plot device more than a fully realized person, which felt like a disservice given the depth given to Travis. Ultimately, I'm just left feeling...uncomfortable. It's not a movie you enjoy, exactly, but it's definitely one that sticks with you. Anyone else have similar reactions, or am I totally misreading this?