Rod-Man Honors: Robert De Niro

I've always been aware of Robert De Niro but I can't say I've always been a fan. He was probably introduced to me in Meet the Parents but even then I knew that wasn't his area of expertise. Recently I've been brushing up on my De Niro and his greatness has become obvious to me. I wanted to take this time to honor 3 movies in particular that De Niro was absolutely fantastic in. Those movies are; Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, and Raging Bull. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for all three and won for Raging Bull and honestly, he deserves every bit of praise he gets for these roles.

TAXI DRIVER

In this 1976 Scorsese film, De Niro plays Travis Bickle. He's a former marine and new Taxi Driver in New York City. He's a pretty low key dude, but it's obvious he doesn't quite understand the average rules of living in the society he happens to exist in. Basically, Travis gets fed up with all the scum you might expect a NYC taxi cab driver to come across and decides to make himself somewhat of a vigilante. The infamous "You talkin' to me?" scene is a point where De Niro is at his best in his embodiment of this character. Travis seems like a simple nice guy with a few spots of misplaced anger but it becomes obvious that that's not the case. He really hates the scum of New York with all of his soul and he doesn't mind proving it.

THE DEER HUNTER

I saw this one most recently. In the beginning, I was skeptical. It's 3 hours long and they spend quite a bit of time on what seems like a high (there is a huge wedding/going away party) in the beginning of the movie. It was made just 2 years after Taxi Driver and Turbo recommended it so I never lost hope. Good thing too, because it gets gritty, especially in 'Nam and all the scenes of Russian roulette. This one was directed by Michael Cimino and it won best picture. If there's any excuse for why De Niro didn't win Best Actor for his role in this, it's that the movie was too good. De Niro was strong enough to let it reach it's full potential, but he didn't shine over what it already was. Christopher Walken did win Best Supporting Role for it but he was surprisingly good (I like Walken, I just never saw him in a role like this) so no surprises. Above all of that, De Niro looks like Big Boss from MGS for a bunch of the movie, so that's instant cool points.

RAGING BULL

This is easily my favorite of the 3. This one was filmed in 1980 and is in black & white so sorry if that's not your bag. De Niro's performance as The Raging Bull, Jake LaMotta is legendary. He is not Robert De Niro in this movie. He is 100% the Raging Bull. LaMotta is quite the character, plagued by jealousy and pressure, his rise and fall is the perfect stage to showcase De Niro's talent and Scorsese captures it perfectly. He was finally recognized as Best Actor for this role and I can't think of anyone more deserving of the award. The verdict has yet to be reached as to whether this is the best boxing movie of all time, but I'd be willing to bet it's the best De Niro movie.

That's all for this post, peeps. Expect more from me soon. I'd like to continue this series but it entails finishing stuff and I have a bad habit of getting sidetracked so we'll see how long until the next time. Until that day, this is Rod-Man. Chyeah be with you.