I really liked it a lot. If the whole movie was a photograph, it would have been cross-processed or shot with a lomo. The camera focused on nice things, too. rain on windshields. an analogue cab meter (I want these back). That reverse golden hour of dawn (which made me miss falling asleep at 6.30am). Alka-Seltzer fizzing into a glass of water. Travis's handwriting.
I liked when he read his journal entires out loud. I liked his apartment. I liked his little details, like "I had black coffee and apple pie with a slice of melted yellow cheese. She had coffee and a fruit cup, but she could have ordered anything." I want to try that pie-with-cheese thing, I think I would like it. I DO eat toast with cheese and preserves, and I imagine it would be similar. I liked how Iris changed sunglasses in the middle of her breakfast with him.
Travis reminded me of Billy from Buffalo '66 in a lot of ways, and it made me adore him. A little awkward, quick to lie to impress his parents, sincere. I wonder what this archetype is. Not one of the thirteen that I studied. not The Hollow Man either. I guess it's not a global, universal one. maybe unique to our culture. Not sure, but I want to keep thinking about it.
Are you in this picture?! (Found it on MySpace.)
ReplyDeletehttp://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h64/theolon/rapekit.jpg
It should be rapekit.jpg at the end, not rapek.
ReplyDeleteha, that's actually not me! i had to stare at it for a few minutes, though. i don't own those jeans, that shirt or that bag. also, my hair isn't as curly as this girl's.
ReplyDeleteps - who are you?
This is my boyfriend's favourite movie of all time. He identifies so much with it - particularly because of that feeling of disconnect and that line re: filth everywhere.
ReplyDelete'God's lonely man'. It's an astonishing film. I too watched it for the first time recently (although I'd already seen the bloody climax - watching it was practically a rite of passage at my boarding school). I found it a very difficult and unsettling film, although as you say poetic and wonderfully shot.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you make of the ending? Is it credible that Bickle was praised in the media as a folk hero? Or is the last scene a dying fantasy?
And what did you think of the soundtrack? It's one of my favourites.
I find some of it painfully unwatchable. When Betsy rejects him on the phone, the camera drifts vaguely away down the hallway as if it's literally too much for us to see. In a film that doesn't shy away from graphic displays, this is a powerful gesture.
And the shot of Travis when he first changes his appearance - at the rally - is deeply disturbing. The way De Niro changes his whole body language. His smile shifts from charming to lunatic.
I have just reread The Catcher In The Rye, and there are lots of similarities - similar morals. That too much poeticism is dangerous in an unfeeling society. That connection can't be learned or taught. That some people are just destined to be 'God's lonely man'.
Hello! I found my way to your blog today through flickr. Strangely enough I'm a brand strategist too & off to Japan in a few days... The internet works in mysterious ways doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteIn responce to the person above posting a comment about Taxi Driver incomparison to Catcher in the Rye, I noticed that the two character share very similar ironies. Travis dislikes criminals or scum, but as the movie progresses he becomes more like the scum he hates. He becomes obsessed with violence. I mean that scene where he talks himself in the mirror he seems like he is aching for an acccuse to fire that gun.
ReplyDeleteHolden (you know the main character in the Catcher in the Rye) calls himself a "pacificist" but he enjoys when his roomate hits him. Throughout the movie he always imagines himself bleeding to death. Pretty Ironic, for a paciificist.