Most moviegoers associate Robert De Niro with adjectives like "intense," "violent," "streetwise," and "brooding." It is an image that De Niro has carefully nurtured throughout his career. Using gesture, voice, and, most importantly, his mesmerizing eyes, he conveys the disturbing emotions with which he imbues all his characters, from his earliest films like Mean Streets through classic portraits of violent, disaffected men like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver and Jake La Motta in Raging Bull–even in comic roles like the maniacal father in Meet the Parents. De Niro’s journey from alienated teen through conflicted stardom and finally to committed activist replicates the trajectory of many of his characters, who also travel from the depths of despair to some form of redemption, no matter how unconventional. For in De Niro’s world, art and reality are often indistinguishable.