It's probably not surprising that I'm a big Martin Scorsese fan. After all the man is the kind of artist who has created films with a scope and influence that is probably incalculable. Even those of us who acknowledge the weight of his influence are probably still selling him a little short. His work is so embedded in American pop culture that it might as well be considered a part of the natural order. Which I realize makes heaping all this praise on him a little redundant--- but then again I see nothing wrong with stopping and admiring the treeline now and then.
A month or two ago, in the wake of viewing SHUTTER ISLAND I decided to revisit some of his early work and started at the most obvious place, 1976's TAXI DRIVER .
It'd been years, probably over a decade, since I'd seen the movie. A long time when you consider that I'm only 32 years old. Meaning I'd not seen this movie since my teens, so viewing it was quite like watching it for the first time. Which was, to say the least, a captivating experience. So interesting in fact that I found myself taking screen shots of it as I went, capturing little moments that I felt had significance or more than aesthetic value.
With that in mind, I've decided to post few of those shots. Presented without a lot of commentary, as I can't claim to be an expert on the movie. These are just lazy thoughts on things. Images I think brush on larger or more complex ideas. The kinds of moments I think you could tack up on a cork board were you to create some sort of brain scan of the film. Of course there are tons more, the task of compiling every great shot from that movie would take a life time.
So, yes... feel free to disagree. "This is an American free country. We've got a pursuit of happiness thing---"
(Click the images for a larger view)
1. -Inner psychology in an outer world? A boiling pot?:
2.-POV- Seems like from the view of Travis's window everything is stereotype.
He has very Romantic notions of very unromantic things.:
3. More romance? I found it interesting that Scorsese plays the jilted lover, and that Bickle stares off screen and out of the window until he realizes just what the guy is talking about. A turning point?:
4.-I find this one kind of poetic.:
5.-A small man with a gun and a cartoon bad guy:
6.-Beyond how cool this reveal is-- I'm amazed at how something as striking and otherwise over the top as the mohawk subtly covers and sums up all the ground between Bickle's rage, new found self confidence and his death wish:
That's that. It was hard but I tried to spare you too much faux intellectual talk. I hope it spurs some of you to rewatch it. It sure taught me a thing or two.
More soon--
PS- In trying to find a clip or two I ran across this, SCORSESE: SHOT BY SHOT. It's a five part interview, the last few minutes of part one begin to cover some of the shot selections of Taxi Driver.
I watched the film a dozen times in my 20s, about 5 times in my 30s, and said goodbye to it when I turned 40. It taught me many lessons as well, but I feel like the textbook spine is broken and all the pages are covered in handwritten notes. So many images haunt me unlike any other film. At one point I had to go buy that record "Late For The Sky" by Jackson Browne because that's the song that's playing on Soul Train when Bickle kicks over the TV set. I've read much about the film over the years, about how it murdered noir, or set noir free, etc- But the beautiful thing about the picture is I think it was made 100% from the gut, from smart people but people burning up from sickness that they must get out somehow. And it can be cerebral & cathartic or just enjoyed as a crime picture.
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