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response 141 of 144:
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Jul 19 01:38 UTC 2004 |
I notice that you're obtaining positive results
in studying movies. Dont stop doing it.
Let's clear this up. I suppose that there's nothing
much one can do about the debate here except to accept
it philosophically.
Well, I thought that we were speaking about messages
in Taxi Driver & now you mention an underlying message.
Wish it were that simple. Listen, I haven't counted the
exact number of messages, but I would say that at least "many".
I don't get someone to agree with me but it's no wonder
that you will have it that you is right. Okay, I'm prepared
to improvise if necessary.
You know Scorsese films has psychotic characters living
in closed worlds where their lunatic behavior seems
the norm then Taxi Driver underscores Travis' outsider status
by giving us a realistic world that he is isolated from,
is the story of a man living the proverbial life of
quite desperation. Travis, like Norman Bates hides his
insanity behind a facade of banality & nurses it with
his loneliness.
Jodie Foster, playing the child prostitute to whom
Travis hopes to play savior, still has the youthful
freshness and wise innocence that made her a shape of
hope in the world. Travis wants to save her & Iris is
saved from the clutches of evil & Travis has become a hero.
Well, Scorsese at least suggests anyway that in the
end Travis Bickle is still insane, & armed & dangerous.
But Scorsese provides us with at least two great
scenes. It was when as a passenger graphically
boasting of his plans to murder his wife seems to
be Scorsese's way of showing that there are people
who are even crazier than Travis. Why? To suggest that
Travis is justified in his paranoia?
Also the final climatic bloodbath provided only a
cheap shock at the time. Such over the top mayhem
doesn't underscore the brutality of the violence, it
trivializes the rest of the fim.
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