[CRITICAL] TAXI DRIVER (1976)

Nonew large piece with TAXI DRIVER: Scorsese delivers already a masterpiece, at the end of the 5 films (!)

Because if retrospectively Alice is not here anymore is my favorite movie of Scorsese, because of the emotion that emanates from it, with TAXI DRIVER, it is something more.

Of which comes from the previous films and evolves, there is this power in the direction of the actors, this level of precision in the writing of the characters satellites, this stage of everyday life, this ability to draw the emotion out of nowhere.

And then there’s this ambition, voluntary or not – most palpable in all cases, to give an account of the state of a country through the portrait of a few. Everything is of course linked, and the organization of something as complex, it is this that is the mark of a great director, and here, a film that will mark his era, and will leave an indelible mark on the collective consciousness.

TAXI DRIVER, this is a painting of a New York of another era… A city expressing in spite of the loss of control of the United States on their own founding values. Initially oriented towards the quest for progress and the desire of property, these values, of our days, mean especially determinism and ditches socio-cultural exploitation of the other and left behind (see also, series The Knick from Steven Soderbergh). TAXI DRIVER observes a New York almost nightmarish, so, or grinding poverty and violence that defined the heart of the city, while working side by side with their own extreme social, a class expressing outwardly his intolerance.

However, if there are no more thanks to a nice policy of sweeping under the rug of its turpitude, social (signed Juliani, 1994 – 2001), this vision existed, and will exist again and always; it is inherent to american culture. We can still observe in cities facade of a progressive, such as San Francisco… Or at the cinema in films as diverse as Blade Runneror Se7en, via the vision misanthropic and jaded a character looking more or less to modify his environment is rotten, to its scale.

More technically, Scorsese poses a style that is certain with TAXI DRIVER. In the continuity of Mean Streets (and even ofAlice, to a lesser extent because outside of NYC), it is totally immerse the viewer in this city.

What has influenced me, it is this insistence to film the city in all sorts of angles, by all kinds of means. By dolly in the front or side, fixed cameras, hand-held camera, taxi-scopes… What emerges, what are the details fourmillants that the camera captures. The shadows behind the windows, the attacks are random and the facades of the shops, the ghettos, the misery, the soul of the city becomes palpable and frightening, personified. This character, in the same way as the other, has just expanded by the interaction of the personality complex in Travis.

TAXI DRIVER, it is also the gaze of the America on itself, via a portrait of the intimate which is identified in the allegory, a vision of the whole.

For example, there is a fusion between the personal and the political which is reflected in this relationship between Travis (Robert de Niro) and Betsy (Cybill Shepherd). A young woman, beautiful and educated, representing a thought and a political movement, in which Travis will adhere, so that it perceives and understands, that the beauty of its facade. One changes his personality to achieve his purposes, the other is seduced by the unknown, the more pride and interest than sentimentally. The one and the other will then be put in front of their contradictions, through the inevitable culture shock. Betsy, when Travis would take her to see a “movie” (porn and normal), faces his aversion to the “real”, far away from any notion of art or of reflection.

Travis when faced with the politician and patron of Betsy Palantine, explain their point of view misanthrope contrary, the slogan is obvious, though, “We Are The People”. Palantine, like Betsy, will also be placed in front of the impossibility of a change, and from the look opportunistic of his own election campaign. Reports to the final, based on appearance more than on genuine empathy. We can see criticism as a good cynic, the socio-cultural determinism and its hypocrisy latent.

There are also, even more buried in this report to the policy and in the relationship Travis/Betsy, the metaphor of a youth who has been thrust into the Vietnam conflict without the explain really, sold as a commitment to nationalist and necessary, when it is mostly about personal interests, political and economic. Travis parodiera this war lost in advance, by his own desire for control by the intervention and the violence.

If one sees the shadow of the Vietnam war in the progressive loss of markers of emotional and psychological Travis, this discourse is repeated often in the film, as a function of conflicts and eras. For example, as in the American Sniper of Clint Eastwood, if one accepts to consider it from this point of view.

And then there’s this report to the Woman (that I définissais in the cinema of Scorsese, de binary, the Man considering it exclusively as a mother or Whore). This report is evolving in TAXI DRIVER; Travis, like Scorsese’sAlice is not Here anymore, there is a certain empathy towards his wives. It includes, as well, to become insane, that one – the mom – will forever remain inaccessible, and the other – too accessible – could perhaps become respectable, and to replace the first, with patience and a good boost. But empathy does not mean that it does not seek to impose its own vision… A trait recurrent in men of the cinema of Scorsese – but not in his films, that in realizing this vision closed and binary the denounce. I am particularly referring to Alice is not Here anymore, where Scorsese captures the perception of a woman subject to these precepts.

The moral pessimist is that everyone is responsible to its scale of this mess… And that it is possible and even necessary to his own well-being, to disguise his responsibilities. If the film is cold in the back, it is because it shows a character aware of the condition of his country and of his inaction, which will lead him progressively to reflect an adequate response, albeit disproportionate.

The concepts of hope represented by the two women, are that powder with eyes. The a abutting against a certain social determinism, the other showing a diagram “paternisant and paternisant”, that can only lead to the same results.

Outside of the apocalyptic end, many scenes and situations are minor in comparison, illustrate this cynicism . Such as when Travis is passive then he could help Iris escape her fate of being a prostitute, or the (great) with Scorsese, an example of domestic violence become illustrating this desire of the property – key value of America. Or that or Travis intervenes during a robbery, or will threaten the life of a political leader – referring, there, to the assassination of Kennedy (1963), president progressive in favour of a social equality, inconceivable to Travis, living, him, on the ground, and feeding on his misanthropy.

“A masterpiece of cold, psychological, political, cynical, realistic, timeless, and iconic…”

There is also this particular pace, whose schema is given to us from the first minutes, and which will hold up to the famous third to last scene: the music alternates between these pieces of jazz intoxicating centered around a copper, saxo, generally, illustrating the movement lost interest in Travis. And then, all of the brass instruments are playing simultaneously, giving a much more aggressive and disturbing, therefore, that Travis’s attention is focused on something; It suggests a few notes, a movement psychological behind the impassivity of his gaze. Travis will then repress his different impulses and/or a normal behavior and adapted to the situation, in order to pass the test social. These moments, the social will be an opportunity for us to pass by a wide palette of emotions to the magnetic Travis, ranging from concern, to sympathy, and then developed in a great deal of shades, in anguish/disgust… It also develops, in parallel, and in the solitude, his own madness after the failure of each of its “events” referred to above. A violence that Travis chew the cud and internalizes daily, for a better release in the intimacy, in the meantime… The famous “You talkin’ to me” is his response to the real logorrhée verbal that it will be the part of the jealous husband (Martin Scorsese), but he will remain impassive.

Bouillonant, but impassive. Its only valves: these moments of solitude, and a few access mythomanie and the writing of his thoughts misanthropes (expressed in voice).

TAXI DRIVER and his iconic character Travis Bickle we see the genius chameleon of De Niro through his interpretation, in total agreement with the other actors/characters, the situations changing slowly its psychology (writing/directing), or the subtle musical score (Bernard Herrman).

The logic of the film is to organize these many reflections and give each moment of the film, several levels of reading in order to arrive at the mental situation final Travis (co-manage-ment of psychosis), and this apocalyptic conclusion.

There is still so much things to say about the movie of Scorsese ! On the accuracy of the overall writing of Paul Schrader, or to examine in depth every interpretation, etc,

But in short, TAXI DRIVER is a film, mixing psychology, political cynicism, intimate realism… A timeless masterpiece and iconic provoke a deep reflection in its complexity and its many levels of interpretation.

Follow @Georgeslechameau

 

TAXI DRIVER has been reviewed in the context of a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Martin Scorsese for the Light Festival 2015, in Lyon. It will be screened at the Comœdia, Wednesday 14octobre at 10.30 at Décines, Thursday, October 15, at 20.30, at the Lumière Institute, Friday, 16 October, at 22h (2nd film), the Institut Lumière, Saturday, 17 October at 21: 45, at the Pathé Bellecour on Saturday 17 October at 14h and at the UGC Ciné Cité International, Sunday 18 October at 14: 30.