• WARNING- SPOILERS AHEAD *

DeNiro WAS brilliant as Travis Bickle. I was absolutely mesmerized by the movie up through the presidential rally for Pallentine when he shows up in the mohawk. But everything after that was pretty anti-climactic. They kind of show him building toward an explosion but there’s no rhyme or reason when it comes. Why would he want to shoot Pallentine? He acted like he liked him earlier in the movie. Why not shoot Cybill Shepherd’s character who he felt had wronged him by not wanting to go see a porno with him (and who he had screamed at in her workplace earlier in the movie)? It just felt like the movie didn’t know how to end. Speaking of the ending, I think it WANTED to be a cautionary tale about Americans willingness to disregard reckless vigilantism if the “bad guys” go down. However, that point would have been better made if they showed him planning for the NEXT “big rain to wash the scum away” and you never get the sense that’s going to happen.

Alternately, they could have made Bickle seem more unhinged had the end of the movie convo with Cybill Shepherd’s character been revealed to be one-sided…i.e. no one in the backseat, it’s all Bickle imagining that he got a “do-over” with her. I really have NO clue why she’d suddenly agree to speak with him at all, let alone ride in his cab, after the earlier outburst at Pallentine HQ. DeNiro’s great but I think this one’s overrated as a movie.