3 Films That Deal With Loneliness

2. Taxi Driver (1976)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLpMx8_TYOo This Martin Scorcese picture is, quite possibly, the finest example of how obscurity can inflict upon on an individual with devastating consequences. Taxi Driver tells the story of Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), a discharged U.S. Marine, who secures a job in New York driving a taxi all over the city, after stating that he is willing to work anytime and anywhere. Travis finds himself living in a run-down apartment in Manhattan, with no friends and no real sense of purpose. Travis is socially dysfunctional, unable to uphold a normal conversation with the people he meets, far too intense or cryptic to be liked by anyone. At the beginning of the film, he divides his time between chauffeuring strange people around the big apple, frequenting pornographic movie theatres, and keeping a diary about how disgusted he is with what he witnesses in his unforgiving urban metropolis. As more events unfurl, Travis becomes involved with an underage prostitute by the name of Iris (Jodie Foster), who awakens a simmering violence inside of him when he finds out how old she is. In his repulsion and embitterment, further attributed by rejection from Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), his romantic object, Travis begins to prepare himself for an act of brutality that will make national news. Filmed with a magnificent, simplistic flair for cinematography, and performed with complete dedication by DeNiro, Taxi Driver is both unsettling and unforgettable; a genuine low-budget triumph that shows just how far a person can go beyond the limits of common acceptance.