You always hear that Martin Scorsese is the best living filmmaker, and while that's really up to the individual viewer, you have to concede that he at least ranks in the top tier of movie directors of all time, alongside Kubrick, Hitchcock and Coppola. Whether he's doing his own original material as in Mean Streets or remakes like The Departed, he always puts a personal touch on the film. Taxi Driver is one of his best.
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.
The film stands as the second entry in something of a trilogy of films alongside The Searchers and Paris, Texas. All three films use essentially the same outline for their stories, and both Scorsese's film and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas are considered loose remakes of The Searchers. The trilogy stands as a testament to how many different ways there are to tell a story, proving that old axiom that a movie isn't about what it's about, it's about how it's about it.
The Searchers was essentially an adventure film, a western revolving around unusually deep and personal themes of prejudice and lonesomeness. Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas is about lonesomeness as well as issues of family and the American Dream. Scorsese's film is the darkest of the three, revolving around the use of violence as a means to an end of loneliness. In all three, the heroes try their best to help people find their way back home, but they always stand on the outside looking in.
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.
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.
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. - 40725
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.
The film stands as the second entry in something of a trilogy of films alongside The Searchers and Paris, Texas. All three films use essentially the same outline for their stories, and both Scorsese's film and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas are considered loose remakes of The Searchers. The trilogy stands as a testament to how many different ways there are to tell a story, proving that old axiom that a movie isn't about what it's about, it's about how it's about it.
The Searchers was essentially an adventure film, a western revolving around unusually deep and personal themes of prejudice and lonesomeness. Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas is about lonesomeness as well as issues of family and the American Dream. Scorsese's film is the darkest of the three, revolving around the use of violence as a means to an end of loneliness. In all three, the heroes try their best to help people find their way back home, but they always stand on the outside looking in.
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.
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.
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. - 40725
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