Scorsese is always considered the greatest living filmmaker. Whether or not you agree, even his critics consider him one of the greatest that's ever lived. Even when doing some fairly standard genre biopic material with the Aviator or remakes like The Departed and Cape Fear, he still manages to put a personal touch on the material and create the sort of film, like Taxi Driver, that simply pulls you directly into its world.
There aren't many directors so capable at effortlessly building a world around you. You'll feel as if you're really sitting in that grimy taxi cab, right next to Travis Bickle. It almost has a documentary like feel with the gritty look of the film and the spontaneous nature of the script. It is as close as you can get to the "found footage" feel without gimmicks like hand held cameras.
You could consider the film the second part of a trilogy with Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas, and John Ford's The Searchers, which both of the other films are loose remakes of. All three of these films tell a very similar story, and it goes to show that a movie not so much about what it's about, but how it is about it.
The Searchers is an adventure film rotating around the themes of racism and lonesomeness. Paris, Texas takes a similar story and tells it in a sweet way, focusing on issues of lonesomeness and family, and Scorsese focuses on lonesomeness and the use of violence as a means of personal validation. In all three, the heroes serve as escorts, attempting to rescue people and put them where they need to be, reuniting them with their families, but in all three, the heroes must leave once more in the end, forever alone.
Each of these films is its own statement on the nature of loneliness, and it's because of this that the heroes are all so easy to sympathize with. What Travis Bickle does in the film is certainly not something most of us would ever take part in, but you find yourself wanting him to come out okay, nevertheless, simply because we all know that lonesomeness, that need for validation.
At one point or other, everyone has been in Travis Bickle's shoes. Most of us work it out with less extreme measures, but we've all known what it's like to be surrounded by so many people and still feel so isolated. We know exactly where Travis has been and while that doesn't forgive his crimes, we do understand him.
Few people are willing to talk about the darkest aspect of the film, because it involves looking at your own darker instincts: We root for Travis Bickle in the end. We shouldn't, but we do, because we wish he could be the hero, we wish the film was a western so that his simplistic moral compass would be correct. The tragedy is that it's not a western.
While the film serves as part of a trilogy to The Searchers and Paris, Texas, it's also something of a companion piece to First Blood, another film about a lonely Vietnam veteran who uses violence as a means of personal validation. - 40723
There aren't many directors so capable at effortlessly building a world around you. You'll feel as if you're really sitting in that grimy taxi cab, right next to Travis Bickle. It almost has a documentary like feel with the gritty look of the film and the spontaneous nature of the script. It is as close as you can get to the "found footage" feel without gimmicks like hand held cameras.
You could consider the film the second part of a trilogy with Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas, and John Ford's The Searchers, which both of the other films are loose remakes of. All three of these films tell a very similar story, and it goes to show that a movie not so much about what it's about, but how it is about it.
The Searchers is an adventure film rotating around the themes of racism and lonesomeness. Paris, Texas takes a similar story and tells it in a sweet way, focusing on issues of lonesomeness and family, and Scorsese focuses on lonesomeness and the use of violence as a means of personal validation. In all three, the heroes serve as escorts, attempting to rescue people and put them where they need to be, reuniting them with their families, but in all three, the heroes must leave once more in the end, forever alone.
Each of these films is its own statement on the nature of loneliness, and it's because of this that the heroes are all so easy to sympathize with. What Travis Bickle does in the film is certainly not something most of us would ever take part in, but you find yourself wanting him to come out okay, nevertheless, simply because we all know that lonesomeness, that need for validation.
At one point or other, everyone has been in Travis Bickle's shoes. Most of us work it out with less extreme measures, but we've all known what it's like to be surrounded by so many people and still feel so isolated. We know exactly where Travis has been and while that doesn't forgive his crimes, we do understand him.
Few people are willing to talk about the darkest aspect of the film, because it involves looking at your own darker instincts: We root for Travis Bickle in the end. We shouldn't, but we do, because we wish he could be the hero, we wish the film was a western so that his simplistic moral compass would be correct. The tragedy is that it's not a western.
While the film serves as part of a trilogy to The Searchers and Paris, Texas, it's also something of a companion piece to First Blood, another film about a lonely Vietnam veteran who uses violence as a means of personal validation. - 40723
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It is through their videos and their appearances that hip hop clothing got its name. Movies On Line He appears as the, shall we say, sinisterpriest that Marv (Mickey Rourke) decides he is justified inblowing away. To this end, the strength of the cast creates a synergy reflected in the overall quality of this memorable film.
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