1. Taxi Driver (1976)
Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, one of the most influential films ever made, recounts the story of Travis Bickle, a taxi driver and Vietnam vet. While driving around town, Travis spots a young woman named Betsy, played by Cybill Shepherd. Betsy is campaigning for Senator Palantine as he makes his bid at the presidency. Bickle stops into campaign headquarters pretending to want to help with the campaign, but his real intention is to get to know Betsy. Betsy agrees to meet Travis for coffee, where she describes him as a "walking contradiction," like that song. It's all rather cute. She takes him up on his offer to go out on a date, and things fall apart when Travis takes her to a theater showing a sex flick, in a moment reminiscent of Ben and Elaine's date from the Graduate. Betsy leaves Travis and rejects his future attempts to reconcile with her, ultimately leading to him being kicked out of campaign headquarters. Enraged, Travis concocts a scheme to get Betsy's attention: Kill Senator Palantine. The lovesick Bickle gets a gun, does push-ups, talks to himself in the mirror and dons a mohawk before attempting to fulfill his plan. When he's spotted by Secret Service before the assassination can go off, Bickle instead goes down a different avenue to release some steam, by killing Harvey Keitel's pimp Sport. Though Travis' plot doesn't quite rekindle his relationship with Betsy, it did lead to one thing: a similar assassination attempt by John Hinckley in an attempt to impress Jodie Foster. I'm no film scholar, but I don't think Hinckley quite got the point of this movie.
Honorable Mentions: Sunset Boulevard, The Town. Did I overlook something? Leave a comment or check out my bio below to find out how to reach me.