50 Reasons Why Taxi Driver Might Just Be The Greatest Film Of All Time
40.) The Dream Team Has there ever been a more perfect combination of talented cast and crew members? Let's look at this football team analogy to show the film's tactical brilliance. PAUL SCHRADER - CHAIRMAN - Has the initial ideas and vision of how the film should work. MARTIN SCORSESE - MANAGER - Responsible for making everything click together and look visually arresting. MICHAEL CHAPMAN - GOALKEEPER - Can't let any of the ideas get past him as he tries to realise Marty's vision. HARVEY KEITEL / JODIE FOSTER / CYBILL SHEPHERD - DEFENCE - The supporting players must convincingly impact the progression of the main character. BERNARD HERRMANN MIDFIELD Hermann gives the film that extra cinematic edge that helps to make the picture even more emotionally engaging. ROBERT DE NIRO CENTRAL STRIKER - The actor is relied upon to carry the weight of the film's drama and conflict. Everyone else has paid their part but it is up to their main man to put the icing on the cake.
41.) Theories About Ending
I have always had a deep hatred for endings which take the power away from the audience. In my opinion the most rewarding filmic conclusions occur when the drama is left in the open and we are left to question how life may continue or where the audience are left with a vital piece of information that the characters on screen are oblivious to i.e. the reveal of Rosebud in Citizen Kane. The great thing about the Taxi Driver ending is that it is so open to interpretation. You can either read it literally and be disturbed as I pertained to above or you can take sides with the theory that the ending to Taxi Driver is illogical and that Travis would definitely have been placed straight behind bars. Some believe that the ending is a fantasy sequence and that Travis dies on the sofa imagining himself as a hero. Others have used the scenes with Travis talking to himself in his apartment and gradually going mad as proof that a lot of what happens is just stuff that Travis is fantasising about in his head and that really he is just a day-dreamer who likes to imagine himself doing the things that we see in the film. 42.) Quote
How's everything in the pimp business?
43.) The Final Shootout
One of the most grisly, pieces of relentless bloodshed ever crafted. Rather than glorify the act of violence it shows it what for it is - disgusting, grim and painful. On the surface Travis is killing a gang of pimps but in the subtext we understand that he is rebelling against a gang of Americans, the nation that sent him to a war that helped to screw up his mental wellbeing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RvYHnGopyA44.) Influence
Taxi Driver was heavily influenced by John Ford's western The Searchers and the film's depiction of an enigmatic and troubled loner with a dark past who tries to redeem himself by going on a deadly mission to save a young girl. Scorsese's film itself was very influential on later films which depicted characters who feel cut-off from the rest of society including Born on the Fourth of July, One Hour Photo, Into the Wild and even more obscure offerings such as Edward Scissorhands.