(VIDEO) "Taxi Driver" (9/10)

[Brock Landers]

"Taxi Driver" A Brock Landers Overview of a friggin' fantastic Martin Scorcese Film (9/10)

"Are you talking to me?…You talkin' to ME?"…nobody was… nobody ever did… that was the problem. The words did not attach Travis Bickle to society, no matter how insignificantly. The words were part of his fantasy world…they woke him from his comatose and idle existence…made him the catalyst of heroic action…scenarios that could not be contained within the boundary of his own mind. Standing there in front of the mirror he liked the look of disbelief that came across his face before transforming in the blink of an eye toward repulsion… the cold, in control kind of hatred… then all he had to do was get his gun out, ya know, the BIG one… the .44 Magnum with the 8-inch barrel…(one of three he carries). With Travis it was an delusional fixation with minor, small matters of disrespect that he used to drive himself toward copious acts of violence to no worthy end except his own self-expression…Bickle is the quintessential troubled loner…for a while now, I have seen Bickle as a Vietnam vet (Marine Aviation Jacket[2]…both have a unit patch, jump wings and his name stenciled backward, military style, on the back, not to mention bad scar and military sunglasses.), but after a recent viewing I can't help but think that perhaps he is something more disturbing, a secluded, fucked-in-the-head nutjob who took to the military look as a pitiful pretense of joining something, of having, somewhere in his past, a connection…then again when he interviews for the taxi job, he says he was in the Marines, yet even when the guy interviewing him mentions a similar military background, Vietnam is not mentioned at all…hard to believe. Another problem is that Travis buys four handguns and they seem absolutely alien and completely fascinating to him…I mean, if he were a vet, he probably wouldn't so awestruck by the guns. Personally, I like the non-Vietnam Bickle better. It removes the blood libel that all Vietnam vets are psycho misfits (think Rambo) prone to violence…I would like to think that Scorcese has transcended that issue with this masterpiece of a film, besides without Vietnam, Travis becomes much more interesting and troubling. It's like he's from another planet and all of his problems are of a sexual nature…I look at the film as a great black salute to sexual frustration and dysfunction…here's why…

Sexual Frustration Theory #1: Travis just wants to have fun, but he has no idea how to go about it. Thus the city, with its venues of trashy professional sex, both attracts and repels him. He yearns to cleanse it (cleanse himself), but at the same time he cannot stop going to porno flicks…he cannot stop fantasizing. Thus he is attracted to the blondest of women, not for their beauty but as symbols of purity. This leads Scorcese into obscure situations, such as the fucked-up one where Travis, a complete social retard, walks in off the street to a campaign headquarters and starts hitting on Cybill Shepherd's Betsy…and she is intrigued enough to go out with the geek. OK…then he takes her to a porn movie, predictably grossing her out and blowing the relationship for all time. The whole scenario rings completely false, unless Travis is so messed-up he is literally insane or some grown-up child, untarnished by adult knowledge…because he is a child, he is moved next by the innocence of Iris, a child prostitute, played by Jodie Foster. She becomes his symbol of corrupted beauty in a corrupt world. The screenwriter Schrader works out the psychological equation quite neatly…Travis feels frustration from his rejection by Betsy. He invests in the well-being of Iris. Feeling powerless in both relationships, he retreats into madness, his changes in hairstyle reflecting his mental state. Acquiring an arsenal of guns, he loses himself in fantasies of power and elects to strike out at the dirty worldby murdering the man for whom Betsy worked. Put off by the secret service, he goes in a rage to Iris's squalid block of Hell's Kitchen, starts blasting and ends up killing her pimp (Harvey Keitel) and two mafiosi. His madness is taken for heroism, suddenly loved by society, he is restored to wholeness and takes up his old life again…this time he is comfortable within himself…damn, I think I have carpet tunnel syndrome…anyway…"Taxi Driver" is an exercise in technique over reality, so it all works…what else is there to say, it's Deniro & Scorcese for god's sake…damn righteous…

Overall...great film, great acting, great direction, great cinematography, great score, did I already say great acting? What? You talkin to me?

[DaN]

"...well I must be talkin to you cause theres no body else around!"

This movie, I think, as all that you said brock and more. It really moved me. I was astounded at how such a complex story could be brought to the screen. It kind of reminded me of the book known as "The Catcher in the Rye." Now this IS maybe the best book ever created. This movie showed the same type of self outcast. It was just magic to see such a person exist. The whole plot of trying to find meaning in the world was unchanny. NO one can top Scorsese's movie. no one can top DeNiro's performance. NO ONE

10/10. If only the score could go higher...

[Brock Landers]

Right on bra...this shite don't stink...

Iris: Jodie Foster
Travis: Robert De Niro

Iris: God, you are so square.
Travis: Hey, I'm not square, you're the one square. Your full of shit, man. What are you talking about? You walk out with those fuckin' creeps and low-lifes and degenerates out on the streets and you sell your little pussies for nothing, man? For some low-life pimp who stands in the hall? And I'm square? You're the one square, man. I don't go screwing fuck with bunch of killers and junkies like you do. You call that hip? What world are you from?

I also really dig Scorcese as the jealous husband in the taxi...he acted the role because the guy he hired didn't show up...

[Jon Lap]

I've seen the film a couple of times... and remain uncertain as to what Scorsese is saying with that final shot. It alludes to Travis still having one foot in the past (looking in rearview and such). Any further insight?

Oh, great review!

Lata

Jon-boy or Johnny Boudelle, as my uncle calls me. Boudelle is italian for "chaos, or commotion."

[This message has been edited by Jon Lap (edited 12-12-2000).]

[*veers*]

Brock, a couple of points.
Bickle was for sure in Vietnam. This is where his inspiration for the mohawk comes from. In Vietnam special forces guys going on what they considered a suicide mission would shave their head into a mohican to let everybody know to stay away from them.

Paul Schrader says that Travis takes Betsy to the porn theatre in order to drive her away from him, as he believes that she is too good for him.

[halfanarcher]

Brock,

Taxi Driver should be required viewing, I'm glad that you saw it. Your insights to Bickle's character traits are insightful and bang on the money. This is *the* frustrated loner movie, Michael Douglas couldn't hack it in Falling Down. It's often imitated but never duplicated and scary to think that this could really happen, but it does.

Also, Paul Schrader plays the gun seller.

[R. P. McMurphy]

Good point about the mowhawk, *veers*.

First off, comparing a Joel Schumacher movie (Falling Down) to a Scorsese film (Taxi Driver) is just plain wrong and injust.

Yes...Taxi Driver. What insight can I add to this film that has not already been said? if you are any type of movie goer, there is NO EXCUSE for not seeing this masterpiece.

[Brock Landers]

Thanks for the comments and feedback bras...I am always interested in insightful critique and thoughts on the subject matter of film...

Jon Lap...I wouldn't necessarily call this insight, but I think Scorcese was alluding to an unchangeable quality in reference to the nature of the beast...society. What I am trying to say is that society has a way of depicting people in a different light than how they really are. One minute Travis is an unknown social reject, the next minute he's a hero...Travis is and always will be who he has always been. Whether he in fact suffers from some type of post-traumatic syndrome from Vietnam or he is just a man with severe mental problems remains to be seen, but what Scorcese depicts in this film is a character study of the fringe player in America. Sometimes, I like to stop the film after the brothel massacre, right about the point where Travis points the gun at his head, and imagine what kind of film this would have been had Scorcese not thrown in the ironic twist (which in my mind only creates the film's cheapest irony)...just a thought...

[Jon Lap]

Brock - good points... outright! But anything else to comment on that last particular sequence of shots (as he pulls away from C. Shepherd)? It's a jump-cut of some sort seen throughthe rearview mirror, as he looks back (via the mirror).

[Brock Landers]

I didn't write this last breakdown of the last scene, but I completely agree with the questions left as Travis drives off...Brock

"In the ironic, closing sequence, Travis is recovered, released from his obsessive
torment, and back on the job as a cabbie, peacefully talking to his cabbie friends
(Wizard, Dough Boy, and Charlie T) while waiting for a fare in front of the St. Regis
Hotel, a more civilized part of the city. Travis is wearing his standard cabbie clothes -
a light-brown jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots. A passenger has entered Travis' cab,
the front cab in the waiting line in front of the hotel. It is Betsy.

She is the first to speak after a long silence - she is uneasy, wary, cool, and distant,
but knows of his noble deed and is a bit awed by his celebrity and notoriety. Travis
reveals a quiet smile on his face and watches her in the rear-view mirror. When she
arrives at her destination after a basically inconsequential ride, she gets out and Travis
declines her fare.

Betsy: Hello Travis.
Travis: Hello. (Long pause as they exchange looks in the rear-view
mirror) I hear Palantine got the nomination.
Betsy: Yeah. It won't be long now. Seventeen days.
Travis: I hope he wins.
Betsy: I read about you in the papers. How are you?
Travis: Oh, it was nothin' really. I got over that. Papers always blow
these things up. Just a little stiffness. That's all. (The cab arrives at her
destination and she steps out, speaking to him through the open, driver
side window.)
Betsy: Travis? How much was it?
Travis: So long...

He drives off into the dark night. The camera tracks backward from Betsy on the
sidewalk as the cab pulls away. Travis adjusts the rear-view mirror to look back.
[How cleansed and saved is Travis really? How long will it be before he turns back to
more ritualistic violence and bloody retaliation, confusing murder with sacrifice?]

The credits play over further surrealistic images of New York City at night, from a
cabbie's perspective. The last frame of the picture dedicates the film to Bernard
Herrmann, the composer of the musical score - he passed away only one day after he
finished the film's score."

[This message has been edited by Brock Landers (edited 12-13-2000).]

[*veers*]

A couple more points about Taxi Driver.

The last scene I thought for a while was merely a fantasy in Travis’ head, but I have since heard Scorsese talk about it and he states that the scene is there to show you that nothing has changed for Travis, he is still this Time Bomb walking around ready to go off at any time.

As for Schrader playing the gunsales man, that is just wrong. It is a guy named Steve Prince, who Marty went on to make a documentary film about called 'American Boy'.

[Jon Lap]

Nice talking to you Brock... thanks.

- One luv

[JoBlo]

<moderator bump>

[goddess_isis]

I just watched this movie for the first time...I really liked it. It took me a long time to get into the mood to watch it though. I had heard so many good things about the movie, that I was prepared to be let down. It did anything but that.

Travis was a time bomb waiting to explode, a vigilanty, waiting for a cause. His adoration of Betsy...I don't think he took her to a porn to drive her off. Socially he was such a recluse as to the ways of women, this is what he thought was appopriate. If he wanted to drive her off he wouldn't have sent her all those flowers to try and make up for his error. The burning of all the dead flowers before he went on his shooting spree was his final break away from her, clensing his mind of her so to speak...maybe it was so he wouldn't have any guilty thoughts for trying to kill the person Betsy admired more than him. What really was the purpose for him trying to kill the senator?

I noticed how it showed the cab fare ticking away in quite a few shots...to me this was like the count down to Travis's mental demiss. For every second he was out there on the streets, every fare that he picked up, and every pimp, whore, or gangsta he saw...it slowly ate away at whatever sense of reality he had left. Like already stated, he hated lookig at the filth, he wished it would rain and wash it away, then again he couldn't stay away from it. It was like he welcomed it, he needed to be there to see the fitlth and scum, so that he would remain true to the one cause he had in life "all my life needed was a sense of someplace to go"...he needed to be able to do his job, without all the other things around him affecting his mind. After he cleansed the social demons that he thought to be the most vile, proclaimed a hero, his life was then his own, he had deemed himself worthy in his own eyes.

Either way you look at it, this is a great movie, and I am glad I took the time to watch it. /ubb/smile.gif

[Brock Landers]

Very interesting thoughts goddess isis... I'm glad you finally checked this flick out.

I think that Travis tried to kill Betsy's boss, the senator, to prove that he was more powerful than the man she looked up to. This has to do with his mounting confusion towards the end and the fact that he feels like he is a failure as a man, being rejected by her, until later he gets his "balls" back by arming himself to the teeth with a large, phallic .44 Magnum. The entire scenario with Harvey Keitel and Jodie Foster in the bloody Hell's Kitchen scene is about Travis displaying his fantasies of having "power" over these corrupted people, he see himself as better than them, even though in reality Travis is just the same as the rest of them...


[This message has been edited by Brock Landers (edited 05-21-2001).]

[goddess_isis]

Thanks Brock for clearing that up. I thought that might be it.

[RicochetShaw]

CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP


i just wrote a long review for this, and accidentally deleted it. So i'll just sum this up in a small paragraph...


***possible spoilers****
Taxi Driver is a haunting character study of a new York cab driver named Travis Bickle, played flawlessly by Robert Deniro, arguably the greatest performance ever. Travis is an anti-hero. He's a dark, lonely, mis-guided and mentally ill cab driver who wants to "wipe off all the scum of the earth." He meets a young prostitute and decides he must rescue her. And being in his sick mental state he reasons violence is the only way. It escalades into a bloody shoot-out and Travis thinks of it as his moment of glory. Even after his rehabilitation he still has personal demons (he sees something in the rear-view mirror), and it is evident that Travis will eventually lash out in violence in attempt to rid the world of another pimp, drug-addict, etc. He remains the anti-hero throughout.

[bob]

Damn, this is an old thread.

Anyhow, I love this film. I think it remains to be Robert DeNiro's best performance, and is second only to After Hours in Martin Scorcese's career.

[El Bracamonti]

i like the movie, but everytime i watch it, i can't help but feel that it's overrated. but still a good movie.

[RicochetShaw]

Originally posted by El Bracamonti
i like the movie, but everytime i watch it, i can't help but feel that it's overrated. but still a good movie.


Really? (http://joblo.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=649386&highlight=coolest#post649386) :confused:

[Hannibal21]

Originally posted by El Bracamonti
i like the movie, but everytime i watch it, i can't help but feel that it's overrated. but still a good movie.

Exactly what I was thinking :confused:

TAXI DRIVER
Starring: Robert De Niro (Travis Bickle), Jodie Foster (Iris), Harvey Keitel (Sport), Cybill Shepherd (Betsy)

I ADORE this movie. De Niro gave his best performance in this film and the movie itself is truly intense, powerful, and at times disturbing. Travis Bickle is the best anti-hero ever created. 10/10

[Hucksta G]

Number 6 on my top 100.

I suck at writing reviews so all i'm going to say is De Niro is fantastic in his role as Travis Bickle as he is in all his roles, Scrosese's Directing kicks ass as it does in all his movies and the script is very original.

10/10

[Michael_myers]

Taxi Driver
1977
Directed by Martin Scorcese
Starring Robert DeNiro
****/*****

Plot crunch:
A psychotic vietnam vet must free a 15 year old prostitute from her pimp and his drug ring.

Critique:
A very disturbing, but moving story of a man with problems, but a man with a soul. I really wouldn't say Travis Bickles is a villain, more of a hero than anything. he freed a child from underage sex against her will, but he handled it the wrong way, I admire Travis Bickle and the life DeNiro breathed into him. The acting, as mentioned is pretty much good to go with DeNiro as show stopping Travis. He gives Bickle a rush of character like you wouldn't believe. He's nuts! The rest of the cast though except a rather young Jodie Foster is somewhat forgettable and doesn't contribute much to the film. The script is shiny and flawless, although some of the acting didn't carry the characters as far as they could have gone. The famous "are you talkin' to me" are first uttered here by DeNiro observing himself in a mirror. In my opinion, one of the best performances in a film, and DeNiro's prime hour. Along with Vito Corleone, Jake LaMotta and Michael in the Deer Hunter, this is a character to die for. DeNiro is the king of the gangsters.