Compelling. If I had to sum up Scorsese's masterpiece in one word, that would be it. Given more words, I'd say it's a harsh look at the true nature of the dark human soul...a sobering reflection of our cumulative inner evils, our duplicity. I'm content to call the film compelling and leave it at that.
(but)
Because the film doesn't need to be overanalyzed. It doesn't want to be overanalyzed. It wants to be watched. That's all.
It's a window.
(but)
When I was in the twelfth grade, my girlfriend at the time gave me a twenty-dollar HMV gift certificate for Christmas. It was a step up from the cheap basketball-shaped alarm clock she gave me the year prior ("I knew you'd like it. You're such a hardcore sports fan. When it goes off, just chuck it against a wall or something and it stops. Isn't that brilliant?"). A few weeks later I went to His/Her Majesty's Voice with my brother. Since at the time there were no CDs I coveted, I ended up getting Taxi Driver . Taxi Driver, along with One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and To Kill A Mockingbird were 3 films I remember being unable to find in any of my hometown's multiple video stores. If that's not a crime, I don't know what is. Mockingbird and Cuckoo's Nest I was able to borrow from the library, but Taxi Driver was elusive. For a time I was convinced that the film was banned in Canada. Maybe it was. Anyway, as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it.
Compelling. The film certainly isn't fun. It isn't a thrill-ride. It's honest -- "seeing your father naked" honest. And that's not pretty for most. Dumbass that I am, after watching the film I invited my then girlfriend to watch it with me, proclaiming that it was, without a doubt, the best movie I had ever seen. Stupid: that's how young people are, let me remind you.
She wasn't very impressed. In fact, she sort of resembled how Cybill Shepherd's character Betsy reacts after Travis coaxes her into accompanying him to the porno flick. Prude.
My point is, Taxi Driver isn't pretty, at least not in a traditional sense. It's raw, like cocaine straight from Bolivia.
Scorsese directed the film soundly, mutedly (there's a weird, oxymoronic phrase for you), perhaps realizing that the flair and inventiveness he possessed -- and which would later become one of his signature trademarks -- was unnecessary and would only negatively affect Taxi Driver's stark realism.
At the center of this reality is Travis Bickle (played by Charles Grodin), the archetypical embodiment of disaffection, and of dissolution. Bickle is rivalled only by Holden Caufield in those respects, and it's easy to see both character's dangerous allure. Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley easily come to mind.
What's frightening is that there are probably tens of thousands of people just like them. Travis Bickle isn't an everyman, but he is, to coin a term, an occasionalman. I'm reminded of more than a few people (you probably are, too), and one person specifically, who fit the mold.
Is Travis Bickle a hero? An anti-hero? He's neither, I believe. Travis is me, you, us, we. He's the boogie man. He's the thin line between sanity and insanity. He's a live wire.
He's an interesting character study.
He's compelling.
---
Current Laundry List
Seven Samurai
Scarface
Once Upon a Time in America
Gangs of New York
Full Metal Jacket
2046
Casino
Kagemusha The Shadow Warrior
Elephant
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