Taxi Driver

Parents need to know that Taxi Driver is a classic 1976 Martin Scorsese film about the mental breakdown of a lonely and alienated young man driving a cab through the vice-laden streets of '70s NYC. It's one of the best films of all time -- iconic and unforgettable -- and a must-see for movie lovers, but unquestionably not for kids. Robert De Niro's performance as the antihero of antiheroes Travis Bickle conveys a slow slide into derangement with a gradual build-up of menace culminating in a blood-filled apartment shoot-out. The sleazy sex of Times Square and the violence of a declining city losing a war on crime weave through the movie with as much omnipresence as the sadly beautiful and dreamlike neon lights and long-gone bars, restaurants, and businesses of '70s New York streets where Bickle picks up and drops off his fares. Bickle frequents pornographic movie houses -- some brief scenes from the movies are shown and heard. He befriends a 12-year-old prostitute (played by Jodie Foster) and attempts to rescue her from her depraved surroundings. Bickle shoots and kills a would-be corner store robber, and after getting hustled out the front door by the grateful store owner, the owner begins to beat the dead man repeatedly with a wooden club. Profanity is constant, including "f--k," "c--t," "p---y," and various racial slurs for African-Americans. To reiterate: This is a great film, but most definitely not for kids.