worked 12 hours a day and I still couldn't fall asleep.
As night falls, human beings rest, but some people cannot enjoy this sweet sleep with their eyes closed. I can't close my eyes because of physical exhaustion, and I see scenes in the car window at work, nowhere to be placed. education level? Not high, that is, you know, not much. Why is it hard to think about things outside the window, and driving to make money is not enough? silence. He doesn’t know what welfare policy or hot topics in the primary election, just as when he first encountered Beth’s official question, just as when a candidate asked him about his demands in the car, he was always cramped and nervous and didn’t know how to open his mouth. . "But, but I believe that you are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And you, Mr. Senator, you will win out to be a good president."
Taxi driver can be a busy day running other people on earth Avenue The ghost of the city sent to the next stop. This job has no technical barriers, but it is hard work. The income is meager, boring, and he has to be able to endure the harassment of loneliness. The content is that passengers pay money and drive to any place unconditionally according to the given instructions. They cannot decide their own direction. They have the most sense of direction and lack a clear direction. Is the direction right or wrong? It's nothing to do with me, you just need to meet other people's requirements, don't talk too much, even if the front is driving to heaven or hell. The number on the billing table is the only surprise. Of course, you can earn more if you don't use the meter. The whole city is sleeping, but I am driving in the dark. When there are no passengers or everyone is passengers, where is the direction? The taxi driver is a humble waiter who obeys the orders of the guests, just as Tevez was a Vietnam war soldier who obeyed the commander's orders before leaving the army. He always faced the supreme God, or superior. He never made his own choice, he chose to obey.
The temptation to sleep
can be the confession of a taxi driver or the confusion of every modern person. But the focus of the film is that the taxi driver’s perspective focuses and magnifies this confusion. He is aware that he is painfully awake and is a person who can’t sleep at night, for example? For example, the driver who still couldn't fall asleep after working for 12 hours.
As normal people, we can. Sleep can make people forget many things that should not be remembered. Unless you work for your decent white-collar workers in the office during the day and join the cycle by consumption at night, you keep paying for all kinds of novelty-designed industrial products, sitting in front of terminal screens of different sizes to enjoy the latest Pop culture in theaters until you fill your timeline with your attention. The circulation of money is getting faster and hotter. For this reason, you reshape yourself according to the requirements of the job to meet the instructions of the boss and the boss's boss, and implement the model formula that lacks humanity and only emphasizes capital efficiency. You cannot decide your own direction. It's a bit boring and blunt, but after all, any increase in the numbers on the payroll is worth looking forward to, and you establish your own preferences according to the fashion creed. You travel between cities for work, and you see many people but you can't see yourself. Your speed is getting faster and faster on the boat of wealth, but you can't stop. You need value and meaning, an outlet.
Bystander in the car
The taxi driver witnessed the filth of the city, but he also had good expectations at the beginning. His mouth could have been love. The spotless Beth is different. He believes that she is as pure as an angel and free from vulgarity. Her campaign team represents the hope of politics and can sweep away all the dirty political machines in the world; regardless of the policy program, punish evil. Shan, Beth, who has not been thoroughly familiar with and understood, is the candidate's platform in his eyes. It is as blank as a white paper, but it just gives him hope, a beautiful utopia. However, once the exit is closed, he can only find another way out. He asks the "witch", but the wizard said that he is not a philosopher like Russell. Don't tie yourself to work too tightly to get into the play too deeply. , Don’t think about what you see and hear, relax, open one eye and close the other, and you will get better when you get drunk. See it? It's not that he didn't seek help, but other people's ways to deal with his troubles are as vague as the words of a wizard. They use alcohol to paralyze their Dionysus spirit, let it be, but Tevez is different. , He has his eyes open (the metaphor of not being able to fall asleep), and he observes every corner of the city and the people passing in and out every day. His mirror contains too much prosperous and hustle and bustle of the city, and He was unable to deal with it and could only let it rot and erode his body and soul. At the same time, he sees that social reality cannot numb him. It is Apollo, the god of light. Sooner or later, the disillusionment of love and politics will happen. He still wants justice and order, but he needs weapons again. Like holding a gun on the battlefield in Vietnam, he found that he came from the battlefield to a civilized society and still needed a killing machine (this was something he didn't expect at the beginning, he once refused Following his colleague’s suggestion to buy a gun), he once again picked up his broom and cleared his new battlefield.
Untimely behavior
Thus Tevez got out of his taxi, bought a gun and exercised his body to maintain resistance, doing things that were not only about himself. He started to act. For example, when Tevez met the pimp Matthew for the first time, he said he wanted to "take action." greatness", Tevez moved to the side of the fictitious candidate who did not even appear on the scene, and made his changes and new attempts. The significance of assassinating the candidate lies not only in Beth’s attention, but also in the influence of the senator and his campaign politics. Several stark ironies of hypocrisy have revealed the ambition of the screenwriter, and Tevez did not know what politics is from beginning to end, and it is the ignorance of ordinary people like taxi drivers that politicians play and take advantage of. Therefore, from Tevez’s previous love of the house and Udi’s support of Senator Paladin (and even wanted to put posters on the car) to the disappointment caused by his hypocrisy (politicians can’t be examples of others, and they’re not taking up social responsibilities, they just claim to be acting on behalf of the people) It's that politics and love are both the positive values that represent goodness and pave the way for the first half of the film, but they are equally disappointing and cannot be the antidote to Tevez. He can't rely on other people's charity to obtain the power of "goodness". The high hope Beth and the senator pierced his final fantasy. Then to rescue Ayers, he personally cleaned up the mess and rebuilt the good order in his heart (A return to greatness) Try and start.
It’s a pity that birth is not in time. "Return to greatness" is an anachronistic slogan, far less than the underlined word "We" (We are the people) that attracts people and supports (popular politics). Majority Democracy under the ballot). The consumerist society declares that it rejects all nobility, on the contrary it lowers its standards to get close to the widest range of consumers in the market (commodity services or political votes). Tevez longs for justice and love, but his society cannot provide it (politicians are unable to solve social problems, and Beth, who is not in his class, can not give him love or even lasting friendship), and the action of saving young prostitutes makes him think of A righteous and meaningful thing, but does the prostitute need its help, or do the prostitutes think they need to be "saved"? Sorry, comrade, your set is out of date. When Tevez mentioned how the pimp Matthew introduced her with foul language in order to attract clients, Iris only thought he was joking, "They are trying to protect me from myself." Although only a 12-year-old girl , But what we see is that Wuji's childish words are so harsh. In modern business society, the structure of family and kinship is disintegrating, and the increasing power comes from the market and society. But does a 12-year-old girl who does not stay in school and date her boyfriend but does a skin business represent freedom or autonomy? This is a question that does not need to be debated so that everyone with a conscience can give a clear and consistent answer, but if we adjust the number to 18 years old, replace it with an adult? Whether people can be their own masters, you can’t find a more controversial topic. Obviously, this is beyond the ability and energy of almost everyone, including Tevez, but whether you are willing to admit to facing or even solving it, special Weiss and the film show the problem nakedly at our present.
Warning for marginalized people
It must be mentioned that as a marginal figure, Tevez rarely socializes. Tevez has a taxi driver’s coffee shop as a meeting place, but he is taciturn. He writes himself in his diary and sends postcards to his parents. It’s not that he has tried to establish contact with people, such as the movie theater and the front desk. Refuse. The one-time passengers in the Tevez car are only based on the short-term service side. Transaction is business. An extreme example and microcosm of the real society gives us an excellent perspective. Most of our social interactions occur in the workplace or business. On the court, we really don’t have to have a deep friendship, and even we will be wary of abnormal good intentions, because it goes against the norm. For example, when you want to selflessly help a stranger, it goes against the strangers in the business society. Principles of doing things, this is why the touching themes in literary film and television works are emotional. We are moved by the true emotions in the fictional works of art, but when we return to reality, we still have to return to the most basic self-preservation mode and be cold to strangers.
Without social interaction, a person is less assimilated by society, and has less chance of being "saved" and "repaired". This also reveals from one aspect that the development of extreme behaviors of taxi drivers provides a breeding ground. On the other hand, he His mind is less influenced by the indifference of the commercial society and the notions of petty citizens, and what he possesses is nothing more than the fact that he has nothing to do with the social reality (the miasma on the streets of New York) or "it has nothing to do with him" (she is a disaster). , The child prostitute Iris) cares and can't let go.
Perhaps the behavior of taxi drivers can only make people think of him as a mental patient or "lunatic". However, the more anti-social, anti-system, and seemingly incompatible with society, their behavior is often deeply rooted in society. Among them, their problem is a social problem. Their dying illness is the incoordination and symptom of the social organism. They are signal signs and sensitive indicators. Even though we are more likely to see the incoordination of others or a small number of people , As always, ignoring the elephant in the room. They are like truth-telling children, they may speak a behavioral language that only they can understand or cannot understand. They have kindly tried to call us in sleep time and time again with gentle whispers, but if we prefer newspaper headlines What about the sensational headline? At the end of the film, the taxi driver might have understood. He explained to Beth the exaggerated report of the media. He continued to drive the car, but he didn't care much about the guests, so he would get a good night's sleep.
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