1. Schirmer 10/02/2016
Introduction to Film
ON-SCREENNATURALISM: METHOD ACTING AND TAXI DRIVER
As discussed in class during our last session, On the Waterfront is often considered a
watershed film in American cinema for one primary reason: it’s the first major film in which the
Strasberg Method of acting, which stresses naturalism and realism (in effect, a performance in
which the performer becoming the character), becomes synonymous with screen performance.
In other words, method acting finds its poster child in Marlon Brando, and – at the risk of
sounding a bit hyperbolic – the thoughts and ideas behind what makes a good screen
performance shift into a different realm.
This school of thought continues, of course, all the way to the modern day, and many notable
actors and performances are shaped by it. Consider Robert De Niro’s performance in Taxi
Driver, often considered one of the most electric performances of the entire decade of cinema in
which it was released.
After watching Taxi Driver, respond to the following prompts:
1. Compare De Niro’s performance in Taxi Driver to another believable, natural performance
that you admire from a film of your choice. In what ways are they similar? In what ways are they
different?
The performance I choose for this question is Michael Douglas’s portrayal of D-Fens in
the underrated film Falling Down (1993). D-Fens much like De Niro’s performance as Travis
Bickle both characters spiral out of control and end up killing multiple people. Both characters
come to the realization that their respective worlds have changed, and they don’t even
recognize the world the way it is now. They can’t handle this new reality and snap. Both
characters hate their station in life, Bickle being a cabby and D-Fens unemployed. They both
have an overinflated sense of entitlement. They both feel like they have been cheated in this
make believe world they both live in. This stereotypical 1950’s television credo of if you work
hard and do the right thing, “Life” always work out in the end and everyone lives happily ever
after. That is just not the real world unfortunately....Both characters are at the minimum
borderline racist, looking for someone to blame for the way their lives have turned out. Only
way they think they can fix the problems in their lives is to take matters into their own hands.
One way these two characters are different is that D-Fens was portrayed as more of a
bad guy compared to Bickle. Bickle is almost revered as a hero against the bad elements of
society, a vigilante, a folk hero. Maybe one of films first true anti-heroes even. D-Fens is a
wanted criminal from the beginning of the movie as soon he trashes that convenience store, he
even wears the traditional bad guy all black attire. The police are after D-Fens the entire movie
eventually finding him and gunning him down in an OK Corral-esqe final scene. Bickle, you are
lead to believe goes on being a Taxi Driver, despite his cult status as a hero, and lives out his
life as a cabby.

2. 2. Now, compare De Niro’s performance to an unconvincing performance from a movie of your
choice. In what ways do you find De Niro’s acting superior? Why do you believe this
performance from the film of your choice suffers by comparison?
I am going in a little bit of a different direction here and analyze another De Niro
performance from another movie, “The Fan.” In The Fan, De Niro tries to bring Travis Bickle to
Generation X. By the time The Fan came out it was twenty years after Taxi Driver, and Robert
De Niro’s tough guy act had become stale. All the parts where Taxi Driver excels, The Fan falls
flat. I don’t know if it is an age thing or if De Niro himself was getting tired of playing basically
the same role over and over, but the passion he had in Taxi Driver wasn’t there. When De Niro
originally did Taxi Driver, it was something new and fresh, no one had ever seen anything like
that on the screen before. One of things I liked about Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle is that he
represented a good portion of his whole generation. All the soldiers coming back home after the
war with the disillusionment of current society, with The Vietnam War and the people against it,
women’s liberation, civil rights Bickles whole world was different from when he left to fight in the
war and coming back home. He no longer really had a place in this new world. It is also a
testament of what a lot of men feel even in today's world “What is my role as a male? Husband,
father even? De Niro’s Gil Renard just comes off as psycho for psycho’s sake. Gil Renard, who
is clearly insane has somehow made it well into middle age without anyone noticing that he’s
not working with full box of crayons. Makes this movie to me very unbelievable.