Martin Scorsese's history-making scald is truly a phenomenon from another day and age. Which is to say, imagine a like-minded film of this decade killing at the box office and getting nommed for Best Picture.
- Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
In a brilliant touch, Scorsese uses Bickle's voice-over narration, his continual talking to himself, as a symptom of emotional isolation and mental deterioration rather than for the usual exposition of or commentary on a story.
- Bob Stephens, San Francisco Examiner
Martin Scorsese's 1976 film (re-released in theaters and on video in 1996 in a restored color print, with a stereophonic version of the Bernard Herrmann score) is a film that does not grow dated, or over-familiar. I have seen it dozens of times. Every time I see it, it works; I am drawn into Travis' underworld of alienation, loneliness, haplessness and anger.
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The thing I'm never sure about is whether Travis is actually psychotic, and Paul Schrader's script, Scorsese's direction, and De Niro's performance don't give us any easy answers.
- MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
Since the mid-1970s, the movie has become presciently emblematic of our emotionally diseased, violence-prone culture.
- Desson Thomson, Washington Post
Is Travis a hero or a monster? The question is never answered to any satisfying degree, and Herrmann's score makes sure of that by always playing up the counterpoint of a scene.
- Shay Casey, FilmFocus
I believe if you watch the movie again and pay special attention to Travis' hair, you will soon notice that in succeeding scenes, his hairstyle switches back and forth many times between regular length to brush cut. The brush cut seems very weird to me; almost as if it was a make-up job: a skullcap with a brush cut hairdo stuck to it. Of course once the mohawk hairstyle is introduced, which is also an obvious make-up job, the style is maintained till the end.
This is not a continuity mistake in the traditional sense but indicates that the movie has been purposefully edited in this fashion in order drastically restructure the narrative. The story of TAXI DRIVER is episodic in nature and could have withstood this sort of rearrangement of scenes more easily had Travis had one continuous look throughout; or at least until the assassination attempt scene. As it is, the changes in hairstyle only help pinpoint the course of this restructuring more easily for the student of the film.
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