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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Taxi Driver (Summer of Scorsese)



Robert DeNiro’s performance as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver is the kind of work you don’t see anymore. Or ever, for that matter. Here is a case of total immersion into a role that even though Travis Bickle may resemble Robert DeNiro, in no way is DeNiro even seen in this film’s 113 minute running time. This performance, along with Martin Scorsese’s brilliant direction, makes Taxi Driver one of the most memorable films one will ever see. It is not a wholly joyous experience, in fact it is incredibly disturbing, but it is an important film that everybody who can stomach it should see. This is the film that firmly planted Martin Scorsese among the best American filmmakers.

Taxi Driver captures its time and place to a tee, that being New York City in the 1970’s. Bickle is a cabbie who drives through the streets, always watching. Even in conversations, Bickle does not participate, but he only observes. He sits, quietly judging all around him. Bickle is the only pure thing in the city, the way he sees it. Everyone else is scum, and in his own words, “Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets.” He is as lonely as any person I have seen, fictional or otherwise. He knows this, even though he won’t admit it. He so desperately needs a woman but he cannot have one. Yet around him everybody else seems to get them at will. Pimps, porn stars, and prostitutes rule the streets. Sex is everywhere, but he can have none of it. Steam comes from the sewers as he drives through Times Square. New York City is not so much a city as it is a frying pan, and there must be some kind of fire beneath it.

The most famous scene in the movie involves Travis looking at himself in the mirror, gun in holster. He stares, then utters the infamous words: “You talkin’ to me? I’m the only one here.” He is not only the only one in the room, but he is the only person in his life. He tries his hardest to form friendships with others, but he is always misguided. There are two women he meets over the course of the film; the first is Betsy, played by Cybill Shepherd. She works in the presidential campaign office for Senator Palantine. Travis comes in pretending to be interested, but he knows nothing about policy. He just wants to go out with her. She finds Travis interesting, and she accepts. After agreeing to a second date, Travis takes her to an adult movie. He knows no other movies, and he doesn’t expect the negative reaction he receives. Betsy never sees him again. She then no longer becomes an idol for Travis. He says: “I realize now how much she's just like the others, cold and distant, and many people are like that, women for sure, they're like a union.” Women are the problem, not him. He sees nothing wrong with taking a woman to a porn film.

The second woman is not a woman so much as a girl. Her name is Iris, and she is a 12-year-old prostitute played by Jodie Foster in a disturbingly convincing performance. She works for the pimp named Sport, played by Harvey Keitel. Sport is the embodiment of everything Travis detests in the world. He fancies himself the liberator of Iris. He wants her to be free and go home, and have the life he never did. Iris is reluctant, there is no life for her elsewhere. She likes it just fine as a prostitute. Foster is great here, and these are the kind of roles child actors need to take these days to move into more adult roles. Making The Last Song several times will not make Miley Cyrus a good actress. In 1976 Jodie Foster is here playing a young prostitute, and to this day she remains incredibly reliable.

Scorsese allows no one else’s thoughts to enter the film except Travis. We see all through his eyes. Travis is a racist man, whenever there are black characters onscreen we see them as Travis does. Several pimps in a restaurant, the camera gazes upon them as animals. They are all watching Travis, or so Travis thinks. His fellow taxi drivers all try to reach him, but he puts a wall up around himself. They must repeat their questions. He gazes into a glass of water, losing himself in his twisted mind. The first time Betsy appears she is in slow motion, as Travis undoubtedly sees her.

Travis not only wants to liberate Iris from Sport, but after Betsy turns him down he sees her as a slave to Palantine. Travis seeks to set her free, and he plans to assassinate Palantine.

SPOILERS AHEAD, BUT THEY DON’T RUIN THE EXPERIENCE NECESSARILY

Travis is unable to kill Palantine, so now there is only one option: free Iris. As Travis runs in shooting everything that moves, the viewer experiences one of the most intense and disturbingly violent scenes on film. It is quick, but it ingrains itself in the mind of all that watch it. We have followed Travis through his trials in one of the great character studies of all time, and that adds to the impact. This is not violence for violence’s sake, but it is instead the only course of action Travis saw fit. He has descended into hell to clean it out, and after the shooting we see blood all over the walls, with bodies strewn about. If this is not hell, I do not know what is. It is up to the viewer whether Travis has fulfilled his mission, or instead if he is part of the scum he hates so vehemently.

The ending is much debated amongst film scholars. Travis has apparently become a hero to the community, and he survives to continue his work. He meets Betsy again in the back of his cab. He seems almost calm. One may ask themselves how the film we have just watched could end on such a positive note. It puzzles some viewers almost so much that they believe it is a dream for Bickle, and that he actually died in the shooting. Maybe this is true, and maybe he is seen as a hero. Only a man so twisted could do such an act. What the ending does provide is closure inside Travis’s mind, whether it is literal or not. However, this is hardly the “happily ever after” ending many think it is. The final shot is of Travis looking in his rear view mirror. Did he see something? Who knows? What we do know is that this man’s mind is anything but stable, and he is more than capable of starting all over again.

Summer of Scorsese
Original Post
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver

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