in the fan robert de niro play gil renard . or be it travis bickle . or rupert pupkin . or max cady . you see the problem with this type of role be that de niro have play very very similar character in taxi driver and the king of comedy and cape fear and unfortunately the character be good develop and have good script . i find it slightly difficult to believe that renard would have start out a a frustrated obsessive sport fan into be an out and out psychothe character arc isn not the only problem with this script it also lack a character focus ( a problem i have with the untouchable where de niro should have be superb but end up slightly flat ) and for several stretch of the movie i keep think that bobby rayburn be the main character then the story switch back to renard . it also seem to have disappoint a lot of sport fan who seem to think this should have concentrate a bit more on baseball . i be not sure if this be mean to appeal to baseball fan originally but again there be element which hint it might have if the producer have make up their mind have to who and what the story should focus upon i will admit i be entertain by the fan ( especially by the soundtrack ) but it be a very flawed film and it should be remember that by the mid 1990s character be stalk by nutter a in single white female and unlawful entry etc have run out of steam a long time ago .