A good movie will let us have many expressions, and a masterpiece will silence us.
"Taxi Driver" is like that to me. Even if I watched this movie completely for the third time, I still can’t describe the strange feelings in words——
I am pulling myself amidst the desire for expression and the solemnity of the masterpiece. When the colorful neon lights on the streets of New York flash across the window glass of a taxi, or when De Niro arrogantly draws his gun into the mirror, shirtless, I will be so intoxicated. In the short viewing experience, Taxi Driver is the most charming Hollywood movie I have ever seen.
There is a lot of professional analysis literature on "Taxi Driver". The masterpiece of this new Hollywood movie has long surpassed the movie itself and has become a symbol-if the ultimate arbitrary audiovisual language is the symbol of the new era of Hollywood, then De Niro's Moshi Dry head is a symbol of American popular culture in the 1970s.
And Travis is a symbol of people on the fringes of the New York metropolis. His ideal is a knight, but his reality is diaosi. He used to be a Vietnam War veteran who worked for his country, and now he is a dregs of society abandoned by the country. He was a taxi driver when he was working, and he was an old pornographic driver after get off work.
Martin Scorsese did not portray this marginal man in New York society as a blind social scum, but at the end he completed a meaningful sublimation of this character-he used a social scum to complete the salvation of a young prostitute , And rejected the girl he once praised as "the god descends to the earth" with a gesture close to the gods.
He is the lonely man of God. He doesn't sell his body for money like the prostitute played by Judy Foster. He drives a taxi just to make a living; he doesn't work hard for politics like Betsy. He never supports anyone because of his political inclinations. His aimlessness turned out to be the purest person in the movie.
If Travis is the lonely person on the screen, then the entire film creators of the year are the lonely person off the screen.
Obviously, Martin Scorsese in 1975 was a lonely man. Today's old Martin was still Martin Jr., who was just as ignorant and fearless as Travis, turned the lens to his hometown of love and hatred-New York. He was born in a low-level family in New York. He hated the mixed birth environment. With his excellent grades, he appeared extremely lonely in the rotten "Italian Quarter". Even though he hates loneliness, loneliness has shaped himself.
Paul Schrader in 1975 was also a lonely man. At that time, his life was embarrassing and economic problems forced him into desperation-for this reason he kept a gun in front of his desk-the script was not well written, and he committed suicide.
Not to mention Robert De Niro. In 1974, he just won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor with "The Godfather 2". At the time of his fame, he found sadly: the greater the reputation, the more involuntary, the more difficult it is to receive the role he wants to play. . In 1975, he rejected all the opinions and worked with Martin, a young director. He wanted to play this role so much, obviously, he saw himself in this taxi driver.
"Taxi Driver" is the self-pull of a group of lonely patients. The taxi drivers are the embodiment of these lonely people in the movie. Even the rich young man who was fascinated by Judy Foster and imitated Travis to assassinate Reagan became part of this collective loneliness.
It can be said that this is a film made by instinct. This instinct is loneliness. Martin hardly needs to think, Paul Schrader hardly needs to guess, De Niro hardly needs to perform, and the sense of tearing will show through the lens.
This kind of movie masterpiece made by lonely instinct may be the only one in the entire movie history. Today's old Martin has gradually sunk into the Hollywood system, and the anti-Hollywood arrogance has been smoothed out. Today's Paul Schrader's creative power is declining, and relying on the talents of the year, he is eating all kinds of lifetime achievement awards. Today's Robert De Niro is already very old, basically resting.
The lonely patients back then would never use this instinct to express loneliness again. But now those of us who like this movie will pull ourselves like Travis, while silent for such a masterpiece of this one-only movie.
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