![]() In a slight twist, however, Travis' plan fails when he runs out of bullets. Any one of Scorsese's visuals could be the premise for a Caravaggio painting, as the Italian artist often incorporated extreme violence into his work, even going so far to depict his own severed head in "David with the Head of Goliath." As a character, Travis takes a similar approach by painting the walls red (a concept repeated in Martin Scorsese's 2019 movie The Irishman), and then sacrificing himself. ![]() First, Travis blasts a pimp's hand and ultimately shoots him in the head. By saving Iris from harm, Travis has eliminated a profane threat and protected a sacred figure. ![]() Aesthetically, this entire sequence - which finally sees the ever-growing tension of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver boil over in a memorably gory fashion - was inspired by Scorsese's admiration of Caravaggio, an Italian Baroque artist known for blending the sacred with the profane. In Taxi Driver, Travis kills Matthew and then waits a few moments before ascending into a hell on earth, a New York City building where men pay to have sex with teenage prostitutes. Now, he's identified that place as a hell on earth. "All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go," Travis writes early on in Taxi Driver. Travis also tells Iris that he "has to do something for the government," and that he "might be going a way for a while." But, he's merely projecting an image that will allow him to make sense of the world he lives in. Shortly before the assassination attempt, he writes a letter to his parents and implies that he's doing "sensitive work" for the government, and that he's dating Betsy. This version of Travis (which is one of Robert De Niro's most memorable movie transformations) suggests that he's delusional and fully detached from reality. Previously, he'd been identified as a suspicious individual after lying to a Secret Service agent during a Palantine rally in this moment, he tries to assassinate the politician but doesn't succeed. Earlier, Wizard explains how a man can become his job (in this case, a taxi driver), and now Travis has fully transformed into someone else - the archetypal Man with No Name. When a militarized Travis shows up at a Palantine rally, wearing a mohawk and aviator shades, he's left his real identity behind. After being rejected, Travis foreshadows his fate in Taxi Driver by telling Betsy that "You're in a hell, and you're gonna die in a hell like the rest of 'em." During a first date, the Robert De Niro-portrayed title character upsets Betsy upon taking her to a porno movie and painfully showing his naiveté. Marine who previously served in Vietnam, or at least that's what he claims, and struggles to connect with acquaintances, such as Wizard (Peter Boyle), and a romantic interest, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a campaign volunteer for presidential candidate Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris). On the surface, Travis (Robert De Niro) represents the prototypical loner who's detached from reality. However, a closer look implies that Travis' life ends in a figurative hell that he references throughout Taxi Driver. When interpreted literally, the 1976 film ends with a lonely taxi driver, Travis Bickle, saving an adolescent prostitute by killing her pimps, and then becoming a New York City hero who seemingly fulfilled his destiny. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver builds to a bloody climax and concludes with a cryptic sequences of events - events that may be in Travis Bickle's head.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |