The Crime? With a relatively meagre budget of $1.3-million, Scorsese focuses in to give an extremely detailed character study of Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), an honourably discharged marine who now finds himself living in the den of corruption and immorality that was 1970s New York. The already unstable Travis is quickly driven crazy by the filth surrounding him which by the closing stages of the film leads to him violently taking the law into his own hands in an attempt to wash all this scum off the streets. Why Is It Great? Many of the great crime films on this list concern themselves with the law-defying acts committed by groups of thugs, crime families or insane duos.Travis may be regarded as the definitive criminal loner. Though his taxi-driving does involve his rubbing shoulders with a high volume of people, he seems incapable of making any genuine human connection and the base behaviour he experiences every night on his cab-route only catalyses the killing spree his crumbling psychology eventually forces him into. In Robert DeNiros exceptional acting career his performance as Travis Bickle sits alongside his turn in Raging Bull as being the finest he ever produced. The mental decomposition of Bickle is conveyed to perfect by the legendary actor.
Hailing from South East London, Sam Heard is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Warwick. Sam's favourite things include energy drinks, late nights spent watching the UFC with his girlfriend and annihilating his friends at FIFA.
