Taxi Driver (18)

Starring: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster

Much is made of the "you talkin' to me?" scene, the Mohican hair-do and the bloodbath finale, but it's the blank, nonplussed expression that De Niro's Travis Bickle – "God's lonely man" – gives his fellow taxi drivers when they're shooting the breeze that chills the blood, demonstrating his utter alienation from – and confusion with – the human race.

De Niro's finest performance, in Scorsese's 1976 masterpiece.