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TAXI DRIVER review
Hey folks, It's 5 a.m., I'm laying here and I want
to go to sleep. I have a lot to do tomorrow or today
or whatever the correct vernacular may be. But I'm
not asleep. Instead having survived a day in which
the British invaded my home, Count Orlack
accompanied by the Brown Whorenet assaulted my
senses... and the cherry to top it all... Scorsese's TAXI
DRIVER.
Now you may be seeing FIGHT CLUB this
weekend. And it is a fantastic piece of thoughtful
entertainment. It’s a film that punches a lot of
buttons in ya. However, with it’s self-awareness... it
never truly threatened my psyche... Someone
somewhere said the film came dangerously close to
being a Gen X MEIN KAMPF... ahem.... Nah... Not
to me. FIGHT CLUB is much lighter than that. In
fact... if anything it reminds of a cleaner and safer
Charles Bukowski with quite a bit of ‘fun
naughtiness’ thrown in for good measure.
The reason I’m not really afraid of this film causing
social degradation is because... quite frankly, it
doesn’t take itself or it’s messages that serious. The
film winks a lot more than that Harry head in the
corner.
But... TAXI DRIVER on the other hand... it is not a
self aware film. Travis Bickle doesn’t know what he
is becoming. He’s not a particularly bright fellow
with movie star good looks. He’s just some guy that
never really had a good dose of social interaction.
Why did I see TAXI DRIVER today? Well... The
Alamo Drafthouse happened to have it on the menu
as the midnight film this weekend... How could I not
go? I’ve never seen the film on the big screen....
BTW... you must see this film big if you ever get a
chance. It’s stunning.
About 20 minutes through the movie I began to
realize why some may hammer FIGHT CLUB. And
in all honesty I think quite a bit of it lays in Travis
Bickle.
Bickle is perhaps one of the best developed
characters that we really don’t know all that much
about. Let’s face it.... He was discharged from the
Marines honorably... has a bigass scar on his back....
Can’t sleep... has headaches.... Grew up somewhere...
Doesn’t follow anything. Watches porn constantly,
but considers others filth. He’s a pendulum that
swings to the extremes and everything in the middle.
In Betsy’s words... which technically are Kris
Kristofferson’s words... “He’s a walking
contradiction.”
Bickle can be charming and scary all at once. He can
be tender and repugnant. He can be innocent and the
root of corruption and evil. This character... on paper
and as performed is simply brilliant. The film is a
classic. A true high water mark.
Unlike Norton’s character in FIGHT CLUB.... we not
only get inside of Deniro’s character.... but everything
he does... from each and every second he lives... he
makes sense. How frightening is that? Sure Brad Pitt
may be charismatic... but we don’t get a lot of
perspective on that guy.
We never saw what it was exactly that began the life
drain. It was a night and day psycho transformation.
With Bickle we see the true scary nature of this type
of thing. At one moment he’s trying to talk a 12 year
old girl into going back home where she belongs...
the next he’s getting set to assassinate a Presidential
candidate... and to his character... there is a strange
and pervasive sanity to this.
While Brad Pitt and Ed Norton are closer to Alex in
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE mixed with Peter
Cook’s character from BEDAZZLED. And in terms
of those serious film goers... Instead of all the plot
trickery and winking... I think some people wanted
the story in FIGHT CLUB to come straight at them.
Where we saw from the outside the life that Ed
Norton was living in that movie. The tedium... the
inbetween moments.... Everything that we get from
Bickle.
And... frankly... I believe TAXI DRIVER is the
better film for this. Every single aspect of the film...
from color to score to editing to shot set-ups to the
performances are all about advancing Bickle’s
character.
We are not afforded that luxury in FIGHT CLUB...
and FIGHT CLUB never pretends to be an exacting
examination of the disturbed mind. This isn’t
HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER or
TAXI DRIVER... It’s a bit of the techno-remix of
those blues songs. Not meant to cause as much pain
as it could have.
This doesn’t take away from FIGHT CLUB... just
makes it a different movie from the get go. Of
course... I’m sure I’ve just found myself in the middle
of aimless rambling. Sigh... I really must learn to
structure more.
For me... TAXI DRIVER is a truly dangerous film.
There seems to be a quite disturbing message in there
about engaging into your darker impulses... that fate
might make you out to be a hero and not the villain.
And you have to wonder how many so-called heroes
had the absolute most rotten intentions in mind at the
time.
The film has an abundance of patience... it moves as
though it wants to hurt you. It is a brilliant portrait of
that lone gunman... The de-evolution of the cabbie!
As I walked out of the theater tonight... on person
asked Tim, owner of the Drafthouse, if he’d call them
a cab. I laughed as I went down the staircase...
imagining that cab ride. The one where you stare at
the back of some fella’s head.... sitting on a seat you
imagine blood and semen slicking it down. I don’t
think I could be that brave. I’m a strong believer in
the thought that death loves irony. To die in a cab
after watching TAXI DRIVER... well... I won’t
chance it.
Well... I’m stepping out of the way now... I’m sure
you folks want to discuss this some more. Finally
sleep is carving it’s way into my skull. Night....
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I love how the film builds tension moment by moment. I knew something terrible was going to happen. I didn't know when and I didn't know how but I knew Travis had to explode at some point. I could feel his alienation. Scorcese and Schrader put me directly into Travis Bickle's head and it wasn't a pretty view from that vantage point. For me, more than any other film (save Raging Bull) this film illustrates why DeNiro is so revered. All of the actors in this film are fantastic. Even Cybil Shepards work rises to another level. And in the end, after the cathartic ejaculation, I saw that the tension was already starting to build again in Travis. It hasn't been "cured". Only delayed. Any film made today dealing, in any way, with this subject matter will be compared to this film. Rightly so. These are mighty big cinematic shoes to fill.
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Taxi river is just an okay film that shows us the abismal contradictions within the main character. And contrary to what you say, it never quite shows us the reasons of the dangerous behaviors of Travis, and it doesn
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I can appreciate your "Taxi Driver" review, despite disagreeing slightly. Travis was a necessary character, giving the common person a roadmap to an intangible aspect of man's psyche (blah, blah, blah...) Travis allowed us to see the road to nuts-ville a bit more clearly. What I think "Taxi" fails to achieve is the perpetual bombardment of modern civilization that creats Norton so well in "Fight Club". We are the sum of our efforts and angst, and all that. We relate to "Fight" because we experience the descent. We just observe "Taxi". (Hope this isn't too preachy.)
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Simply one of the greatest accomplishements of cinema. Shot in a month, this is a film to not only be viewed for its art, but the art of making it. Why is there no room for this kind of film today? You have a producer who was a self-proclaimed coke fiend who was also producing Close Encounters simultaneously... The genious os Scorcese, his camera, editing and pure instincts supported by the talents of DeNiro definitive study of God's lonely man, Shraeder's cutting script, and Foster, Shepperd, Brooks, and Boyle and finally Kytel!
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Bingo.Ditto. Your rant on Taxi Driver is right on. I caught a re-release of the film 3 years ago in S.F. In particular, the music of Bernard Herman was amazingly effective (cd of "Taxi" is still avaible). I'm still waiting for Dinero to do something other than these lame Casino and Ronin parts. He phoned in that crap.
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Taxi Driver is one of the greatest movies ever to deal with alienation. I saw this on the big screen in Boston at the Brattle Theater and it was trully amazing. When De Niro just has the holster on in front of the mirror, it's effect is much more powerful than could ever be imagined on a TV. This could easily be called Scorsese's, De Niro's, and Schrader's masterpiece if they had not produced Raging Bull.
An extra note to those who like the score, Charles Mingus has a song entitled I X Love and it sounds as though Herrmann lifted the Saxophone riff off of it. -
I first saw TAXI DRIVER back in the late 1970's and it had a serious impact.Many years later, it still does.Watching that film is the equivelant of a semester's worth of film school-and the embodiment of what made the New Hollywood so fucking great.
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This is the best film of the 70's.
Raging Bull, best film of the 80's(in my opinion all time)
Goodfellas, best film of the 90's
Scorsese, best director ever.
Enough said. -
30 years on, TAXI DRIVER is still mesmerizing!!
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