Taxi Driver
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Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver was critically acclaimed upon its release in 1976. After viewing the film in 1999, recently re-released in a restored color print with a stereophonic version of the Bernard Herrmann score, one realizes that most of this acclaim must have rested on the film's then-shocking graphic violence. Today, its bloody carnage, portrayal of urban New York as hell on earth, and its depiction various denizens of the city as scum, appear commonplace. The hero, or more correctly anti-hero, of the piece is Travis Bickle, an ex-Vietnam marine who is a deeply disturbed loner whose failed attempts to connect with humanity in such a hell act as the final push over the precipice of sanity. If we are looking at the film semiotically, it is not difficult to find many symbols of American culture. the overriding and primary symbol draws directly from Christian mythology. To Travis New York is hell on earth, and people to him inhabit it as one of two types: scum or pure. In this world of phony politicians, whores, pimps, drug users and infidels, Travis views himself as a redeemer of lost souls. The two females he interacts with are viewed by him as needing rescued. He first tries to save Betsy, a campaign worker whom he views as an angel of purity in the midst of the scum that makes up the majority of the city’s population. He views her as needing saved from the co-workers who disrespect her to the paternal politician fo
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orsese’s heavy handed efforts to get us to empathize with Travis, only someone filled with rage, contempt and moral superiority could relate to such a psychotic. Travis has a need to save people that is so desperate he tries to rescue people who do not want saved. He is the proverbial boyscout who forces the old lady to cross the street, just so he can assist her. In this behavior we see American ethnocentrism and Christian moral superiority personified. Travis is going to clean up this scum, even if the scum doesn’t know it needs saved. Many critics view the film differently. They see Travis as a lonely everyman, one who is heroic in his desire to clean up modern urban America. As Roger Ebert, a critic whose physique is as rotund as his insights often are, states “I have seen it dozens of times. It is a film that does not grow dated. Every time I see it, it works; I am drawn into Travis’ underworld of alienation, loneliness, haplessness and anger” (Ebert 1). In actuality, Travis is psychotic, lacks any social interaction skills, is offensive through his anger, and has the formal education of an idiot. Ebert’s relating to this kind of character in an empathetic way does not show his belly is swollen from the milk of hu
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Approximate Word count = 2651
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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