Taxi Driver

I watched Taxi Driver the other night and I thought it was a very good movie. It is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars a young Robert DeNiro. I had actually never seen Robert DeNiro in his younger years before, so I was kind of shocked when I saw him. He was so skinny! For those who don't know what the movie is about here's a brief synopsis: basically DeNiro plays a taxi driver who falls in love with this girl who really does not like him. He drives around in his cab all night and eventually sees this young prostitute and makes it his mission to save her. It was a bit of bizarre movie and I'm not completely sure I understood it. DeNiro is a crazy stalker in this film and at the end I'm not really sure if it's real or if it's what he's dreaming. I don't want to give too much away, but the character DeNiro plays is just really hard to figure out.

Apparently the guy, John Hinckley, who shot President Reagan was inspired by this film. I guess he identified with DeNiro's character, Travis and was obsessed with Jodie Foster, who played the teenage prostitute. In the film, Travis targets a senator running for President and then focuses on saving Foster's character. That's where I got confused in the film. I'm not sure why he is targeting the senator because he has nothing to do with the whole prostitute situation. But anyways, Hinckley apparently stalked Foster for many many years and was convinced she would be with him if he became more famous. Hinckley then chose to stalk President Jimmy Carter, attempting to follow in Travis' footsteps. After Carter left office, he continued his stalking with Reagan and then ended up shooting him after only a few months in office. They later found out that Hinckley had a mental disability and put him in an institution. It's kind of crazy how a film can inspire someone to do something like shoot someone they don't even know.