An ordinary man, drives a taxi, suffers from loneliness, passes time with various fantasies to stave off his solitude. He’s shy talking to women, but for one beautiful woman there’s nothing he won’t do. The city where he drives his taxi is filled with chaos. The taxi driver dreams that one day he’ll clean all the unwanted filth from the city—unwanted people, unwanted rules and customs. This too is part of his fantasy. Though he does end up fulfilling this particular fantasy.
One day he meets a woman. Quite beautiful to look at, utterly typical in nature. He doesn’t know how to mix with women, makes some mistakes, and she leaves. There’s a certain grammar to socializing with women—you have to follow those rules to get along with them. Women can’t handle straightforwardness. To win a woman’s heart, you have to present the world to her exactly as she wants to see it, no matter what the world is actually like!
In any case, the taxi driver suffers from considerable frustration. Always. He remains confused about himself and the world around him. Frustration and confusion are the two primary characteristics of modern man. And if he suffers from loneliness on top of that, then there’s nothing more to say! This taxi driver is a despairing, lost soul. He drives taxi because he can’t sleep at night, he drives taxi because his waking hours feel unbearable. This solitary man—whoever’s hand he tries to hold to survive, they all leave him behind.
The taxi driver in the story finds solace talking to himself while standing before a mirror. Arranging himself according to his mind’s imagination, he stands himself before himself and asks, “You talking to me, right?” Don’t we who are alone, and helpless besides, also dress ourselves up according to our mind’s fancy, stand ourselves before ourselves, turn ourselves into superheroes and talk to ourselves? We are all such unconventional heroes, at least to ourselves. Even the ugliest person sees himself as handsome when standing before a mirror! Carrying such various unresolved psychological conflicts on its shoulders, the film walks forward.
What remains relevant for all time—that’s what makes a classic. Getting into the cab of this Taxi Driver, you too might think: I met someone just like this yesterday! This is where Scorsese succeeds.