I am aware that my first few posts have been quite long winded, but there is an easy explanation for that – the first two were copy and pasted essays I wrote for my film class and the last was me geeking out about Stanley Kubrick. From these entries on I promise more concise and readable essays, starting today with (drumroll)… Taxi Driver!
I was in a taxi last night when Frank Sinatra came on the radio, which prompted a conversation about Frankie, which inevitably led to his films. While talking about films I asked the cabbie if he had ever seen Taxi Driver and, while laughing, he said that he has not since before he got into the profession. I then asked the cabbie if he has ever hit another car while on duty and that changed the subject completely.
Anyway, the film. Taxi Driver is sort of an adaptation of Catcher and the Rye, in the sense that it is the story of an extremely lonely individual walking around the New York City judging people. Unlike Holden Caulfield, who my new adopted people might refer to as a “wanker”, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) decides to take measures to make New York a better place, which in his mind includes shaving his head into a Mohawk and assassinating a presidential candidate who has not even cleared the primaries. Not that I’m hating on Mohawks, I used to have one for myself, but I was not conscious of the fact that having one helped to clean up New York.
So why does Travis do this? It is speculated that, as a former marine, Travis suffers from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or what our grandfathers called “Shell-Shock!” This could help explain his erratic behavior, but at the same time it makes his motives and feelings foreign to the average viewer. Travis’ decline into madness is more of a result to his total loneliness – living day in, day out without any true friends, without any female prospects, without any upward social mobility. He goes to porno theatres to deal with his sexual frustration, and becomes a Taxi Driver because he was not sleeping anyway. This look at Bickle makes him much more relatable to the viewer – what if we lived the same exact shitty day every single day, the only difference being that each day we got a little older and angrier.
Travis Bickle eventually decides to go on a suicide mission to help out a young prostitute he befriended (Jodie Foster) by killing her pimp and some of his associates. He feels that this is finally an aspect of his life he has control over, so he’s going to put everything on the line to feel that his life has meaning. He is sure that this mission will kill him, saying that his entire life has been leading up to this one moment – but although he is shot in the head from pretty close range, Travis miraculously survives and goes back to his job as a Taxi Driver, keeping a remembrance wall at home with all the newspaper clippings, reminding him of that time that he was great.
Haven’t we all been Travis at one point? There has to be something that we all consider worth fighting for, but perhaps we have too much to lose by fighting it. Travis had nothing to lose. “You talking to me? Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Well, I’m the only one here…” The first two questions are the most quoted lines from the film, but it is the third one that really gets us into Travis’ head. He is the only one there, there is nothing else for him, and as he points the gun into the mirror he begins to understand. As I was paying my cabbie last night I told him that he should rewatch Taxi Driver if he had the chance, I have to wonder how the film resonates with people of that profession.
If you feel so inclined, instantly stream Taxi Driver right now with this link : http://www.moviewatch.in/watch-865-Taxi-Driver
From now on I plan on posting links to each film I write about, so give me some feedback!
I was in a taxi last night when Frank Sinatra came on the radio, which prompted a conversation about Frankie, which inevitably led to his films. While talking about films I asked the cabbie if he had ever seen Taxi Driver and, while laughing, he said that he has not since before he got into the profession. I then asked the cabbie if he has ever hit another car while on duty and that changed the subject completely.
Anyway, the film. Taxi Driver is sort of an adaptation of Catcher and the Rye, in the sense that it is the story of an extremely lonely individual walking around the New York City judging people. Unlike Holden Caulfield, who my new adopted people might refer to as a “wanker”, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) decides to take measures to make New York a better place, which in his mind includes shaving his head into a Mohawk and assassinating a presidential candidate who has not even cleared the primaries. Not that I’m hating on Mohawks, I used to have one for myself, but I was not conscious of the fact that having one helped to clean up New York.
So why does Travis do this? It is speculated that, as a former marine, Travis suffers from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or what our grandfathers called “Shell-Shock!” This could help explain his erratic behavior, but at the same time it makes his motives and feelings foreign to the average viewer. Travis’ decline into madness is more of a result to his total loneliness – living day in, day out without any true friends, without any female prospects, without any upward social mobility. He goes to porno theatres to deal with his sexual frustration, and becomes a Taxi Driver because he was not sleeping anyway. This look at Bickle makes him much more relatable to the viewer – what if we lived the same exact shitty day every single day, the only difference being that each day we got a little older and angrier.
Travis Bickle eventually decides to go on a suicide mission to help out a young prostitute he befriended (Jodie Foster) by killing her pimp and some of his associates. He feels that this is finally an aspect of his life he has control over, so he’s going to put everything on the line to feel that his life has meaning. He is sure that this mission will kill him, saying that his entire life has been leading up to this one moment – but although he is shot in the head from pretty close range, Travis miraculously survives and goes back to his job as a Taxi Driver, keeping a remembrance wall at home with all the newspaper clippings, reminding him of that time that he was great.
Haven’t we all been Travis at one point? There has to be something that we all consider worth fighting for, but perhaps we have too much to lose by fighting it. Travis had nothing to lose. “You talking to me? Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Well, I’m the only one here…” The first two questions are the most quoted lines from the film, but it is the third one that really gets us into Travis’ head. He is the only one there, there is nothing else for him, and as he points the gun into the mirror he begins to understand. As I was paying my cabbie last night I told him that he should rewatch Taxi Driver if he had the chance, I have to wonder how the film resonates with people of that profession.
If you feel so inclined, instantly stream Taxi Driver right now with this link : http://www.moviewatch.in/watch-865-Taxi-Driver
From now on I plan on posting links to each film I write about, so give me some feedback!
Great insights, Malcolm. Keep the reviews coming. Personally, Taxi Driver gave me the creeps and I never want to see it again, but your comments help me understand it better. I'll bet it's a movie men like more than women do.
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