Pilgrim, Cowboy, Indian: Taxi Driver

"All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people."

Last night in Berlin was the world premiere of the 4K restoration of Martin Scorsese's 1976 classic, Taxi Driver. Not surprisingly, and after many viewings throughout my life, the movie, all red light and red blood and red anger, is still lingering in my mind. And Bickle's above proclamation, "morbid self-attention" is more relevant today. So much of the picture feels frighteningly prescient. Like The King of Comedy, it seems to speak of an entire oncoming generation -- Travis Bickle's and Rupert Pupkin's, primping (inadvertently or on purpose) for their 15 minutes of fame and glory. 15 minutes and more. From Bernard Goetz to Reality TV to TMZ to YouTube to Twitter, we love to celebrate or watch or laugh at our misfits, our train-wrecks, our crackheads and ... ourselves, ready for their (our) close-ups on ... anything. We're not the Me Decade/Generation, we're the Look at Me Generation.

Screenwriter Paul Schrader and supervisor of restoration, Grover Crisp, were there to present -- Crisp going over the technical details; Schrader to briefly tell us what inspired his screenplay, a screenplay he wrote at a mere 24 years old while he was living in his car. Schrader admitted to feeling like Travis Bickle, and even owning a gun. That he, at one point, realized he hadn't talked to a single person in a month, and was so alienated by the city, that he felt he was dying a young death in his auto-coffin. He may as well have been a night shift taxi driver. Schrader said that "he had to do something about it." Much like Bickle attempting to gain advice from the Wizard (and the Wizard's advice is awful), because he felt like he was going to do something ... he just didn't know what, and that he was worried about it (a moment in which we feel terrible for Bickle, reaching out, receiving nothing), Schrader was worried too. He was going to do something.

He took that anxiety and anger and did do something -- he wrote Taxi Driver.

Here's the back-story of the restoration via the Berlinale:

"In order to restore the film in spring 2010, the original 35mm negative was first read by a high resolution 4K scanner. The film was also re-graded and digitally restored in 4K: the media files were restored by Sony Pictures in California under the supervision of Grover Crisp; Scorsese’s cinematographer Michael Chapman supervised Scott Ostrowsky as he created a colour matched version that was approved by Scorsese. The 4K files were subsequently given a digital clean up by MTI film in Los Angeles. This involved removing scratches, stains and tread marks from the archived negative. Some scratches proved especially difficult to remove without altering the underlying imagery, particularly the faces of characters. The restoration of the sound was equally extensive and involved the production of a new multi-track stereo soundtrack from the film’s original recordings. The final version of the restored film was approved by Martin Scorsese in January 2011."

To see the film on the big screen (which I hadn't viewed, writ large, since college), was a revelation. There's been much debate about the restoration of the picture -- that it might take away the grit of Travis Bickle's New York City -- a city that he discusses in terms of filth and scum (which made me wonder, while Bickle was telling his surprise cab fare Senator Palantine the needed changes to the city, if this had been Mayor Giuliani's favorite movie). But watching the movie, I believe the right balance was achieved. Never once did you feel like you weren't in NYC 1975, never once did you think the vibrant reds took away from the dirty streets, the garbage, in fact, they only seemed to highlight them more. I always though that even Betsy's dresses, often red striped or pure white, were an interesting counterpoint to the junkies and lowlifes (who were also, incredibly vibrant, even before restoration) -- she is, of course, an "angel," as Travis proclaims her. But soon, to him, like all the rest of them.

And the film, as gritty as it is, was always beautiful. Just the shot of the cab in the mist ... like something from a dream. Or Matthew ("Sports") slow-dancing with Iris, a sick moment of pimp manipulation set to the romantic Bernard Herrmann score (on their phonograph), that manages to be creepy/gross and lovely all at once. And there with that bright red -- Matthew's red polished fingernail clutching Iris's hair.

So many moments of the movie you notice even more on the big screen, and in such crisp detail. Bickle's clear racism is more apparent and disturbing. And even the humor, which does exist in Taxi Driver, is funnier. And not just in the Albert Brooks moments. There's something about Travis not understanding "The Pilgrim" by Kris Kristofferson ("I'm no pusher ...") that's amusing (this beautiful woman is giving him a supreme compliment and he can't see it). And yet, he buys the record, a lonely, heartbreaking moment. He doesn't even bother to listen to it. (Also interesting that Schrader was raised in the tradition of the Pilgrims -- Calvinist -- this can't be a coincidence).

And yes, the final messy shoot-out is gloriously, horrifyingly gory, and hasn't been scrubbed to death to save our stomachs (or worsen them). It still combines a kind of grindhouse blood (so red ... but in some cases, a repulsive brownish red), among the cheap plaid suits and Iris's hot pants, and remains so recklessly real and beautifully composed all at once.   

And finally, putting aside the restoration -- there's the story. The fall and rise of Travis Bickle. "God's lonely man." Critics and viewers often discuss the golden age of 70s filmmaking -- and Taxi Driver is certainly one of the era's highest achievements. But it goes so far beyond that. It's so incendiary, that I don't think it could be made today. And not only because of the advent of the blockbuster or the uber popularity of 3D or the idea that "real" characters have been wiped out of popular cinema, but because the movie, like some of the greatest art, feels so potently combustible. Oddly, not once did I think of John Hinckley during the movie  -- I thought of the world and I thought of myself.  

Taxi Driver makes you ponder the world we live in, beyond New York City and now, and then, as a perfect character study, it makes you ponder yourself. Your soul searching, fucked-up, boot clad Cowboy and your soul searching, fucked-up, mohawked Indian. Because, truth be told, it's tough to not relate to Travis Bickle -- shy and disturbed, angry and self-hating, valiant and violent, and, in brief moments, with that weirdly winning grin, charming -- just trying to get organezized.
 
"Taxi Driver" (1976). Directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Paul Schrader. Starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks and Peter Boyle.

 

Comments

[Mr. Peel]

Damn, you're good. I feel like watching the whole film again right now but instead I think I'll wait for the chance to see this restoration and truly feel it the way I should, the way you describe. My last theatrical viewing was over a decade ago at the Cinerama Dome. It's been too long.

[Neil]

Hope i get to see this restored version . This still packs a powerful punch a film that really captures New York as Dante's inferno ,is Travis in some kind of purgatory ? And instead of loading the film with his trademark selection of excellent source music ,we have . Bernard Herrman's score which is like a celebration to some doomed romance that can only lead to something very bad happening. I agree Kim this couldn't be made today,certainly not by a major studio.

[Paolo]

I read a really old blog post about the myth of the 70's specifically refuting the supposed myth that we don't make movies like 'Taxi Driver' anymore. His points of argument are that both Marty and de Niro were up-and-coming hot shots, the latter winning an Oscar, and there are a handful of young auteurs collaborating with young, Oscar winning and nominated actors today.

But reading your post just makes me believe it all again. It's the 70's'isms, the guy playing drums on the street, the kids busting the fire hydrant so that Travis's cab gets wet, his punk hairdo.

Would 'Taxi Driver' have been half as good if the cab was driving by the plastic newspaper stands, advertising overload, driven by some crybaby hipster? I'll let you all answer that question.

[ben schwartz]

But Kim, did you like it or not? You didn't give it any stars at all.

Re the restoration -- what were the arguments against doing it? How could cleaning up a print of the film clean-up the NYC Scorsese shot? Were they going to CGI-out hookers?

I'm not from NYC, but a lifelong New Yorker told me has a nostalgic view of TAXI DRIVER. He says NYC got much worse during the Reagan years. The numbers of homeless increased, crack became an epidemic, then sex itself turned deadly via AIDS. It created a dangerous and scary Times Square of desperate drug use and insanity that TAXI DRIVER predates. 1976 ... the good old days, who knew?

[Nelson George]

Great post. They screened it twice on AMC tonight. It is the scuzzy New York of up bringing and it moves me still. Don't want it to come back but I do miss its vitality and the lessons of unending hustle it taught me (and generations of my peers.)

[Yusef Sayed]

Kim,

I couldn't agree with you more about the humour in the film and you are the first writer I have come across to mention this (maybe I need to read more). You mentioned the awful advice the Wizard gives Travis - I always find that scene funny because of Wizard's awareness of his shortcomings on the advice front.

Another line that works brilliantly is the one where Betsy leaves the adult cinema in a cab, in a hurry. Travis: "Jesus Christ, I've got a taxi!"

[xego]

ah yes jet-setting off to Berlin to catch a screening of "Taxi Driver"...I don't know if I want to love you, hate you, or simply be you—the thought of looking good in Nancy Sinatra boots is intriguing.

I think I am going to have to watch this film now. Looking forward to the blu-ray. I told myself I wasn't going to replace all my DVD's with the Blues but find myself unable to stop myself. I am glad they are apparently going to be doing a first rate job on this on and including the original commentary track from Criterion. I still have my Criterion Laser disc even though I threw away my two broken players and about a 100 other discs...at some point one must come to grips with the fact that sometimes there is no point.

[Paul Duane]

Watched Jack Garfein's Something Wild last night, largely because of your review. Among many other things, the film is an extraordinary nexus point - Schufftan, Saul Bass, the Actors' Studio - and in the pre-climactic moment where MaryAnn walks around Times Square, and the lens frames that iconic 'Fascination' sign that plays such a large part in Taxi Driver, it also prefigures Scorsese's New York, his view of the place as simultaneously sacred and hideously profane. Thanks for introducing me to this extraordinary film.

[Alex Galletti]

70's is really the time for greatest films ever made. I've seen this from a film showing in school and it did made my heart ponder. But above all, I admire his taste for gun. If I would also have a gun like that, I will always put coating on it. But our difference is I'm not that disturbed to be like his character.

[Funk 49]

Does the film mean anymore digitally mastered to a generation that already has all the answers? Should have left the film tattered and weathered and scratched...Left it the hell alone. Just keep care of her best you can and let her look her age. I don't believe in these restoration jobs. I feel we rob the dignity and the beautiful deep character lines of the day. The '70s were all over the place. There was no clarity and the movies embraced the freedom in our confusion. I saw Taxi Driver during my confused teenage years. I'm no less confused three decades later. Confused like the New York streets De Niro road at night..I miss the soft sound of a projector coming from behind my seats when I went to the movie houses back then. There was something comforting in the sound..Maybe like the comfort a few old scratches on a piece of film.

[Paul D Brazill]

Smashing post...Taxi Driver was the first grown up film I saw, on a double bill with Midnight Express...

[Colin Biggs]

A terribly relevant film today despite all the technological advances. You wonder if the Travis Bickles of the world (Jared Lee Loughner) will ever receive the help they need before they destruct.