Overuse of Saxophone in Taxi Driver

Overall, I enjoyed taxi driver. Although I am not a fan of Robert De Niro, I like a lot of Martin Scorsese's films. However, there was one element of Taxi Driver that bothered me throughout the film: The overuse of the saxophone. Throughout the film, in a variety of different circumstances and scenes, the same saxophone sequence plays. Often times it plays in scenes where Robert De Niro is thinking to himself or there is something sexual or provocative about the scene, however, the music also plays vigorously in the final scenes of the film as well. I think the reason Scorsese put the vigorous saxophone sequence in the final scenes of the film instead of the regular saxophone sequence was to hint at the ending of the film. The music was supposed to let the viewer know that the film was about to end, and the vigorous saxophone also reflects upon the emotion felt by the viewer in the end of the film. Besides the final scene of the film, the saxophone should have only been used about once or twice in the film to show provocative scenes, but Scorsese overuses the saxophone until the point where it becomes annoying. Overall, the saxophone was a good addition to the film, but too much of anything is not a good thing. Not only did Scorsese overuse the saxophone in general, but if he were to use the saxophone so much, he should have changed the tone or sequence of the saxophone, not kept it the same.