Viewing "Taxi Driver" for the first time recently I'm struck by the feeling that I'm seeing it out of context, and that it suffers by my comparison of it to more recent films rather than films that were its contemporaries.  While "Taxi Driver" is a societal-cultural touchstone I never felt compelled to see it and having seen it now doubt I would rush back to see it again.  That's not to say it's a bad film, but it is difficult viewing.  Director Martin Scorsese certainly captures the nihilism, ambivalence, angst, dislocation, and malaise of the 1970s to a tee.  Having grown up in that era, I remember that all too well, and in that respect "Taxi Driver" is a depressing drive down a memory lane I'd rather avoid.  The characters also lack nuance or much depth: DeNiro's Travis Bickle is a stereotypical "damaged goods" Vietnam veteran (which I found profoundly insulting), Peter Boyle's Wizard is a hard-boiled, heat-packing NYC cabbie, Jodie Foster is an equally stereotyped drugged out/addled prostitute, and Harvey Kietel's pimp/hustler borders on an ugly ethnic stereotype you'd only find in a movie of this vintage.  All border on two-dimensional caricatures and are almost over-the-top.