Martin Scorsese may well be the greatest living filmmaker. If not, he at least ranks in the top tier of greatest directors of all time. Even when working with the fairly standard biopic genre material of The Aviator, or doing remakes like Cape Fear, he always creates a film that is simply fascinating to behold. When it comes to Taxi Driver, you could watch it on mute and still be intrigued, or with the sound up and your eyes closed, and the movie would remain enchanting.
Not many directors are really as capable as Scorsese when it comes to being able to drag you into a fictional world, to build a whole atmosphere around you. You feel like you're sitting shotgun in Travis Bickle's cab right beside him. It almost feels like a documentary for its sheer realism. It is as close as you can get to "found footage" without some gimmick like having one of the characters hold the camera.
The film is part of an unofficial trilogy of sorts with The Searchers and Paris, Texas. Both Scorsese's film and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas are loose remakes of John Ford's The Searchers, and both of the main characters of the latter films, both named Travis, are loosely cast as John Wayne types. The whole trilogy works as an example of just how many different ways there are to tell a single story.
Where The Searchers is primarily an adventure film revolving around themes of prejudice and loneliness, where Wim Wenders chose to make a real, but sweet-hearted film about the reuniting of a family, Scorsese opts to highlight the darker aspects of the story, the sheer lonesomeness of the hero, the outsider. In all three stories, the lead takes it upon himself to do something he sees as heroic. In all three, the real morality of what he does is questionable, and in all three, the hero retreats from those he's saved at the end, always trying to find validation in heroics, but never able to join in.
Each film is a statement on loneliness, and this is why these characters are so easy to sympathize with. All three characters commit, or have committed, deeds that normal human beings would not take pride in, but you find yourself wanting them all to come out okay, even Travis Bickle, who is half hero and half sociopath, because we all know what it feels like to be so alone.
Everyone has been at a point in their lives where they feel trapped in their own little bubble. Loneliness doesn't just mean being alone, being single or living out in the middle of nowhere. Loneliness can happen even when you're surrounded by people all day. We know where Travis has been.
What many people don't talk about in regards to this film really is that there's a part of you that roots for Travis, even as he commits serious acts of violence at the end. We wish that we could cast the film as a simple cowboys and Indians tale of right and wrong. The tragedy is that it's just not that simple.
The film serves as a great companion piece to The Searchers and Paris, Texas, but it also goes hand in hand with Stallone's First Blood, which was similarly about an outsider, a Vietnam veteran, who turns to violence as a way to find personal validation.
Not many directors are really as capable as Scorsese when it comes to being able to drag you into a fictional world, to build a whole atmosphere around you. You feel like you're sitting shotgun in Travis Bickle's cab right beside him. It almost feels like a documentary for its sheer realism. It is as close as you can get to "found footage" without some gimmick like having one of the characters hold the camera.
The film is part of an unofficial trilogy of sorts with The Searchers and Paris, Texas. Both Scorsese's film and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas are loose remakes of John Ford's The Searchers, and both of the main characters of the latter films, both named Travis, are loosely cast as John Wayne types. The whole trilogy works as an example of just how many different ways there are to tell a single story.
Where The Searchers is primarily an adventure film revolving around themes of prejudice and loneliness, where Wim Wenders chose to make a real, but sweet-hearted film about the reuniting of a family, Scorsese opts to highlight the darker aspects of the story, the sheer lonesomeness of the hero, the outsider. In all three stories, the lead takes it upon himself to do something he sees as heroic. In all three, the real morality of what he does is questionable, and in all three, the hero retreats from those he's saved at the end, always trying to find validation in heroics, but never able to join in.
Each film is a statement on loneliness, and this is why these characters are so easy to sympathize with. All three characters commit, or have committed, deeds that normal human beings would not take pride in, but you find yourself wanting them all to come out okay, even Travis Bickle, who is half hero and half sociopath, because we all know what it feels like to be so alone.
Everyone has been at a point in their lives where they feel trapped in their own little bubble. Loneliness doesn't just mean being alone, being single or living out in the middle of nowhere. Loneliness can happen even when you're surrounded by people all day. We know where Travis has been.
What many people don't talk about in regards to this film really is that there's a part of you that roots for Travis, even as he commits serious acts of violence at the end. We wish that we could cast the film as a simple cowboys and Indians tale of right and wrong. The tragedy is that it's just not that simple.
The film serves as a great companion piece to The Searchers and Paris, Texas, but it also goes hand in hand with Stallone's First Blood, which was similarly about an outsider, a Vietnam veteran, who turns to violence as a way to find personal validation.
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As a serial killer Dexter is often emotionless and says that he only feels empty. Downloadable Movies Is your song that you are pitching worth hearing' Gary retired from performing before "Can You Dig It" due to health reasons but is doing fine again now.
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