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Taxi Driver: Limited
Edition by Dominick Rubble 10.04.01 |
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"Taxi Driver" is not a pleasant movie
to watch, nor should it be. If you
watch it for the sake of a cathartic,
feel-good experience, then I truly
question just how strong the beams of your
mental state are. The main
setting of Martin Scorcese's 1976 classic
is a New York nestled in shadows, a
city where the nighttime signals an all-out
carnival for drug dealers,
prostitutes, murderers. We see it through
the eyes of Travis Bickle (Robert
DeNiro), ex-Marine, present taxi driver,
who insists on working the zombie
hours for no pay. He's a man suffering
from insomnia, as well as other
mental problems. Our boy Travis isn't
normal, that's goes without saying,
and maybe the guy's even crazy. His hatred
and disgust for the scum
populating the city is far from
therapeutic, and is conducive to his further
descent into psychosis. All the same, he
is an aliented man with no real
connections to the world outside his shabby
apartment home. He does
socialize in small doses, particularly with
Wizard (Peter Doyle), another
fellow cabbie, but the world he's most
comfortable in exists in his own mind.
In the course of the movie, there are
two people, two females, who stir
Travis' life of "comfort." One is Betsy, a
woman campaigning for a crooked
politician, who Travis takes a liking to.
He shows attention and
consideration towards her, buying her the
record of a song she likes, and she
is somewhat drawn to his rugged,
sad-looking countenance and attitude. He
destroys his chances with her, though, by
taking her to a porno flick. Not a
real classy move, but you can tell by
Travis' attitude that this isn't an act
of insensitivity, but rather one of utter
cluelessness (is that a word? Oh,
well). All things considered, pornography
is almost like Disney to Travis.
More so, it's a slab of the world he is
adjusted into. Travis immediately
feels regret for his actions, though he's
still somewhat confused to what he
did wrong.
The other female who affects Travis in
the film is a twelve year old
prostitute named Iris, played by future
two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster.
In the very first scene where Travis and
Iris meet, when Iris, after an
argument with her pimp Sport, climbs into
the cab and tells Travis to drive,
watch his face. Watch how disturbed he is,
and how even more disturbed he is
as he sees her later on throughout the
film. DeNiro is GOD. Iris is pulled
out of the cab by Sport, who drops a twenty
to Travis for his troubles. Yet
Travis does not welcome this easy cash; he
treats it with a sort of
repugnance, as if it is carrying some
putrid scent that he's trying to spare
his nostrils from sniffing.
Iris herself is a complex character,
who, at a young age, seems
self-assured and quite cognizant of her
situation in life. Maybe she sees a
better life out there for her, and yes,
maybe she would take it, but she
seems comfortable with the way things are,
a life where sucking guys off is
preferrable to playing with Barbie dolls.
This is all incomprehensible to
Travis, and one of my favorite scenes in
the film deals with Iris and Travis
alone in a room, and him refusing her
sexual advances. It's a brutally
honest scene, giving us a real sense of our
crazed hero's morals.
Harvey Keitel's slimy portrayal of
Sport, Iris' pimp, is one of the most
disturbing performances I have ever seen.
He talks in a soft-toned rasp, has
greasy long hair, and a suggestive manner
that altogether is unnerving. In
the movie, we do not see him brutalize or
rape or really abuse Iris
physically, but we know that he is a
dangerous and evil man and perfectly
capable of doing such deeds. The shark
swims calmly around the water, but
once you step into his territory, then you
better watch the hell out.
The heart of the movie, I guess, deals
with DeNiro appointing himself as
Iris' "savior", trying to give her another
chance at childhood and innocence.
He purchases guns, rehearses his plans,
and eventually, acts upon his own
morals. Is Travis doing the right thing?
That's not really the question of
the movie because Travis isn't acting upon
the opinions of others. He is
fighting his own fight, a fight within
himself and a fight against those who
are incongruous to his own personal idea of
human decency.
The film is disturbing but it's
undeniably powerful and even
thought-provoking, and ranks as my favorite
of Scorcese's works along with
"Mean Streets." Paul Schrader's gloomy
script surfaces to the screen
perfectly under the direction of Martin
Scorcese, leading to Schrader's Oscar
win for Best Original Screenplay in 1976.
The atmosphere is menacing, and a
paradox, too: ugliness looking so beautiful
captured on-screen. The movie:
****3/4 out of *****.
DVD FEATURES:
Theatrical Trailers
Documentary on the Making of Taxi Driver
Photo Montage/Portrait Gallery, Storyboard
Sequence, Advertising Material
Interactive Screenplay
Liner Notes
The special features are top-notch, especially Shrader's original
screenplay, which I enjoyed the most. The
documentary itself is interesting,
if you would like further knowledge of the
film. The rest of the other stuff
is pretty okay, too. This DVD has been out
for damn near three years now and
is priced at most stores below twenty
bucks. So if you're a Scorcese fan and
have a DVD player and DON'T have this film,
then what in the hell are you
waiting for??? By the way, the sound
quality is decent as is the picture
quality.
Features rating: ****3/4
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