I watched taxi driver last night
Thonkery06/05/2020
It uh... didn’t hold up as well as I thought of it the first time
I can understand the influence on newer movies, but the movie has no real point
It’s just like watching this mentally ill incel/reddit type become a gun nut and plot something insane
I don’t find that particularly fascinating, or particularly disturbing
I guess the realism of “radicalization” due to isolation and loneliness is there
I didn’t think that Martin Scorsese did enough to make Travis look totally unwell, health wise. He comes across like an autistic person with no social cues rather than full on mentally ill
Like when he busts in the office to talk to beautiful woman and he’s like, saying things he’s heard in movies to her like real pickup lines, then takes her to a porno movie and doesn’t understand the problem
Also Jodie Foster was kind of crap at being a child prostitute. Idk if it’s because she was young but her acting was just not good imo
Stiff dialogue. Trying too hard to look like a young kid but simultaneously wanting to act adult, using words she doesn’t know
Maybe that’s how she was designed

LIQ06/06/2020
it's been nearly five years since I've seen Taxi Driver so I can't offer up my opinions as eloquently as I'd like without a rewatch
i remember finding the protag's slow descent and disillusionment with American life after coming back from war to be rather endearing and fascinating, it's what kept my attention throughout the entire film - his mental state, physicality and isolation and loneliness felt like a product of what America and capitalism can do to people, consistently beating them down
this was basically what that new Joker film was all about
Taxi Driver is perhaps the greatest representation of the New Hollywood style, along with other films like The Long Goodbye

Thonkery06/06/2020
yeah, I don't buy it
anyway- I hear what you're saying- it's supposed to represent how some mentally disturbed veteran is failed by society and delves into madness
but I don't think it at all made it clear that travis was disturbed by something from the military.
he may have always been like that. it renders the vietnam war aspect of it completely moot, imo. he could have just been an insane guy who gets worse from isolation and radicalization of his own mind/reinforcement of his beliefs that things are scummy
I am a big scorsese hater now, I think
every movie of his i've liked, i've disliked on rewatch

LIQ06/06/2020
I'd need to see the film again to properly argue with you on this (maybe a rewatch may yield a different reaction from me than my original thoughts towards it)
but yee if you're not a fan of Taxi then you may not be a fan of his other work
tbh i haven't seen enough of his work to really have a clear picture of whether or not I like him
i like Goodfellas well enough but Mean Streets felt very indecisive and aimless which made me incredibly bored while watching it