TAXI DRIVER review

Hey folks, It's 5 a.m., I'm laying here and I want to go to sleep. I have a lot to do tomorrow or today or whatever the correct vernacular may be. But I'm not asleep. Instead having survived a day in which the British invaded my home, Count Orlack accompanied by the Brown Whorenet assaulted my senses... and the cherry to top it all... Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER.

Now you may be seeing FIGHT CLUB this weekend. And it is a fantastic piece of thoughtful entertainment. It’s a film that punches a lot of buttons in ya. However, with it’s self-awareness... it never truly threatened my psyche... Someone somewhere said the film came dangerously close to being a Gen X MEIN KAMPF... ahem.... Nah... Not to me. FIGHT CLUB is much lighter than that. In fact... if anything it reminds of a cleaner and safer Charles Bukowski with quite a bit of ‘fun naughtiness’ thrown in for good measure.

The reason I’m not really afraid of this film causing social degradation is because... quite frankly, it doesn’t take itself or it’s messages that serious. The film winks a lot more than that Harry head in the corner.

But... TAXI DRIVER on the other hand... it is not a self aware film. Travis Bickle doesn’t know what he is becoming. He’s not a particularly bright fellow with movie star good looks. He’s just some guy that never really had a good dose of social interaction.

Why did I see TAXI DRIVER today? Well... The Alamo Drafthouse happened to have it on the menu as the midnight film this weekend... How could I not go? I’ve never seen the film on the big screen.... BTW... you must see this film big if you ever get a chance. It’s stunning.

About 20 minutes through the movie I began to realize why some may hammer FIGHT CLUB. And in all honesty I think quite a bit of it lays in Travis Bickle.

Bickle is perhaps one of the best developed characters that we really don’t know all that much about. Let’s face it.... He was discharged from the Marines honorably... has a bigass scar on his back.... Can’t sleep... has headaches.... Grew up somewhere... Doesn’t follow anything. Watches porn constantly, but considers others filth. He’s a pendulum that swings to the extremes and everything in the middle. In Betsy’s words... which technically are Kris Kristofferson’s words... “He’s a walking contradiction.”

Bickle can be charming and scary all at once. He can be tender and repugnant. He can be innocent and the root of corruption and evil. This character... on paper and as performed is simply brilliant. The film is a classic. A true high water mark.

Unlike Norton’s character in FIGHT CLUB.... we not only get inside of Deniro’s character.... but everything he does... from each and every second he lives... he makes sense. How frightening is that? Sure Brad Pitt may be charismatic... but we don’t get a lot of perspective on that guy.

We never saw what it was exactly that began the life drain. It was a night and day psycho transformation. With Bickle we see the true scary nature of this type of thing. At one moment he’s trying to talk a 12 year old girl into going back home where she belongs... the next he’s getting set to assassinate a Presidential candidate... and to his character... there is a strange and pervasive sanity to this.

While Brad Pitt and Ed Norton are closer to Alex in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE mixed with Peter Cook’s character from BEDAZZLED. And in terms of those serious film goers... Instead of all the plot trickery and winking... I think some people wanted the story in FIGHT CLUB to come straight at them. Where we saw from the outside the life that Ed Norton was living in that movie. The tedium... the inbetween moments.... Everything that we get from Bickle.

And... frankly... I believe TAXI DRIVER is the better film for this. Every single aspect of the film... from color to score to editing to shot set-ups to the performances are all about advancing Bickle’s character.

We are not afforded that luxury in FIGHT CLUB... and FIGHT CLUB never pretends to be an exacting examination of the disturbed mind. This isn’t HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER or TAXI DRIVER... It’s a bit of the techno-remix of those blues songs. Not meant to cause as much pain as it could have.

This doesn’t take away from FIGHT CLUB... just makes it a different movie from the get go. Of course... I’m sure I’ve just found myself in the middle of aimless rambling. Sigh... I really must learn to structure more.

For me... TAXI DRIVER is a truly dangerous film. There seems to be a quite disturbing message in there about engaging into your darker impulses... that fate might make you out to be a hero and not the villain. And you have to wonder how many so-called heroes had the absolute most rotten intentions in mind at the time.

The film has an abundance of patience... it moves as though it wants to hurt you. It is a brilliant portrait of that lone gunman... The de-evolution of the cabbie!

As I walked out of the theater tonight... on person asked Tim, owner of the Drafthouse, if he’d call them a cab. I laughed as I went down the staircase... imagining that cab ride. The one where you stare at the back of some fella’s head.... sitting on a seat you imagine blood and semen slicking it down. I don’t think I could be that brave. I’m a strong believer in the thought that death loves irony. To die in a cab after watching TAXI DRIVER... well... I won’t chance it.

Well... I’m stepping out of the way now... I’m sure you folks want to discuss this some more. Finally sleep is carving it’s way into my skull. Night....