Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese 1975 US (Nth time; DVD)
A New York cabbie, tired of the filth of the streets, decides to clean them through his own violent means.
Scorsese captures urban loneliness with convincing vigour; the fixed shots from the cab driving through New York at night have a cumulative repulsiveness about them, and Schrader's episodic script builds up to an unsettling climax of such raw energy and powerful violence that it will most likely linger in the mind for days after, not least due to the intensity with which De Niro portrays a man desperate to find himself some justice and purpose, whatever the consequences.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
John Ford 1962 US (1st time; TV)
A senator from Washington returns to the West to mourn the death of an old friend.
Possibly Ford's finest film, serving in turns brutality and laughs, with a dressing of bitter nostalgia for good measure; photographed in stark black and white, the clash between the Old West and the New has never been as fascinating, with Wayne playing the tough, lawless enigma and Stewart the lawful idealist, both with fantastic conviction.