We’ve all encountered someone like Travis Bickle. There’s nothing immediately intimidating or frightening about him. He is unassuming, almost invisible. You don’t sense an erupting violence or intense desire to “really do something” underneath what is seemingly a bland, perhaps uneducated exterior. He tries to connect with others around him but he just can’t seem to finish the deal.
This 2 Disc Collector’s Edition of Taxi Driver, while still not a reason to discard your previous DVD version, is a VAST upgrade over the previous two R1 releases. There are two brand new commentaries, the importation from the previous version of one of the greatest making of doc’s ever for a film and contains a second disc filled with mostly new featurettes, interviews and interactive features that any fan of the film or Scorsese MUST own.
He truly loathes the buying and selling of sex YET his anger and frustration feeds off of it. Not just because it is destructive but because he sees unattainable women that he can’t have while the pimps and street thugs have easy, frequent access to them.
Wizard tries to offer him friendly advice in the form of “get drunk and get laid” but this falls on deaf ears. Travis starts shadowing Palentine and we get the sense of what he’s got in mind. He practices his intimidation tactics in front of the mirror culminating in the infamous, iconic “You talkin to me?” that DeNiro improvised during filming.
When his initial plan for violence is aborted he cannot turn back. He HAS to release his violence and social impotence. This sets up one of the more kaleidoscopically violent yet brilliantly shot action sequences you will ever see. Even at the very end, you are still unsure as to what is REALLY happening.
Many believe that the last few minutes are a fantasy in Travis’s mind. There are subtle inferences that would suggest that yet Schrader’s genius writing provides us with enough social truisms such as the nature of celebrity and heroism in our society that one could also infer that it is grounded in reality.
If the movies are responsible, how about we blame all the published books containing anti-social themes as well?
The themes of loneliness and alienation are universal for a reason; we’ve all felt those emotions at some point or another. It’s precisely that reason that makes even a walking psychotic time bomb like Travis Bickle so easy to relate to. Who hasn’t had to endure the excruciating pain of a rejection, had misguided anger in their soul or felt a disconnect to those around them at one point or another? However, Bickle feeds off those negative emotions and allows them to overwhelm him. Most of us, hopefully know, where are breaking point is and when to call in for emotional reinforcements.
Even though the ballots were cast long before, there has been that rumor that still persists, especially when looking at the fact that Raging Bull was universally considered the best film of the 1980s amongst established film critics and journalists. I don’t mean to say Ordinary People wasn’t a powerful film but there is no comparing those two films.
Not many films can rate this high but Taxi Driver is one of the most important American films ever made. It still provokes an emotional reaction no matter who you are and demands that you think. How many American films today can say they do at least one of those well?Amazon . As of yet, this version of the DVD is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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