Travis Bickle

[Steophan]

@pseudotriton_ruber_ruber

It doesn’t really matter if scenes are fantasies or not. Scorcese’s film career is full of scenes that may or may not be fantasy - the point is that Scorcese doesn’t know himself, it’s part of his incompetence.

Tell you what, you stick to Dwayne Johnson action films, and leave the real films to those of us capable of critical thought.

[PlainJain]

In the special features interview with Paul Schrader, he says the final scenes are real - inspired by the mood/news of the day.

[pseudotriton_ruber_ruber]

Yeah–I want to see a Scorcese-Schrader deathmatch, with them hurling epithets (“It was real, you goomba!” “Yah, yah, ya fuckin’ Lutheran faggot, ya literalist dumbfuck!”). That’s my idea of a GOOOOD movie!

[Spoke]

@Lamia

I’ve only seen this movie once, 2-3 years ago, and the ending didn’t strike me as a fantasy sequence at all. I did later read that some people took it that way, but I think it’s better and more interesting if Travis really did manage to become a “hero” despite being psycho and doing things in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons.

Exactly. In a sick society, even the heroes are sick.

[Acsenray]

@Steophan

Tell you what, you stick to Dwayne Johnson action films, and leave the real films to those of us capable of critical thought.

Seriously?

[The_Man_In_Black]

When I saw it, I thought the end was real. But I also didn’t really care for it. After seeing it, I was really surprised that it is so popular.

It’s not a bad movie. But it isn;t great either.

[Hail_Ants]

@The_Man_In_Black

When I saw it, I thought the end was real. But I also didn’t really care for it. After seeing it, I was really surprised that it is so popular.

It’s not a bad movie. But it isn;t great either.

Taxi Driver is not exactly what I’d call a ‘popular’ movie. I’d also hesitate to use the term ‘cult movie’ either, but it does fit that moniker (i.e. a film that is not widely popular in general but is fiercely popular amongst a smaller group of fans). I’d hesitate to call it a cult movie because, IMO, it’s so much more than that. It was nominated for Best Picture for Christ’s sake. And it’s interesting what it lost to: Rocky, very much an anti-Travis Bickle character! Not that the Stallone film isn’t also a great movie, but opposite in that Taxi Driver is not what you’d call the ‘Feel-Good hit of the decade’!

But regardless of whether you like it Taxi Driver is NOT, by any measure, an incompetent film, nor Scorsese an incompetent director of it.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

AFAIK, it was meant to be taken literally. Travis may not have done Iris any favors, BTW; prostitutes are almost invariably molested as children, usually by fathers or stepfathers, and the tone of her dad’s letter to Travis–“I have taken steps to see…”–strongly imply that this is the case for Iris. Don’t mistake Travis Bickle for Batman.

[don_t_ask]

Here is Jodie Foster’s take on Travis Bickle. An interesting couple of minutes.

[Spoke]

@don_t_ask

Here is Jodie Foster’s take on Travis Bickle. An interesting couple of minutes.

Interesting take. Thanks.

[DonLogan]

The ending of The King of Comedy is an echo of the same theme.

[Hail_Ants]

@don_t_ask

Here is Jodie Foster’s take on Travis Bickle. An interesting couple of minutes.

God, Jodie Foster is like Sigourney Weaver in that she will remain incredibly hot no matter how old she gets!