This film is a tour de force.  Scorsese is not my favorite director, but he did everything right with thtis one.  The growing apathy, frustration, and isolation of the main character (played, of course, brilliantly, by De Niro) is wonderfully displayed by well filmed scenes and priceless voice-overs that make NYC llok like a real gutter.  De Niro's character enters a campaign headquarters to woo Cybill Sheperd, and it is one of the best film scenes in history  ...The film is brutal, but honest in its own way, and tells a brilliant yet disturbing sotry as well as I can imagine...