Taxi Driver

[poliphilo]

I'd forgotten how gorgeous the night-time photography is. All that rain and neon.

And here are De Niro, Foster and Kietel all dewy fresh, with their glorious careers still ahead of them. In a way, it's sad. This was a peak for them all. They've  done good work since, but they've never done anything better.

That goes for Scorsese as well. This is his masterpiece, right?

What exactly happened to De Niro? For a while you couldn't make a classic American movie without having him in the lead. Now he's appearing in Meet the Fokkers. Did he stop caring?

Or is this what happens to all leading men (and women): sooner or later the great roles dry up?

Comments

[upasaka.livejournal.com]

I'll have to rent that film. When it first came out, I hated it because it was so violent, and to my sensibilities at the time, dreary. I've never watched it since, but I'd wager that my reaction would be different now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's very slow- by contemporary standards, maybe even by the standards of its own time. I'm happy with that. It strikes me as evidence of a European sensibility (and Scorsese has told us since how he cut his teeth on Italian and British movies.)

As for the violence: it's just the one sequence. It's suggestive rather than graphic (the lighting is kept low) and we've seen a lot worse since.

In retrospect the seventies look like a brief golden age of American cinema. It seems unlikely that a film as grown up and uncompromising as Taxi Driver could be made within the mainstream today.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

The great roles for women rarely get written any more.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They always were pretty rare.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's that De Niro stopped caring, or if he got tired of being a heavy in very serious movies. I suspect the latter, really. He may just have wanted to lighten up and have a good time.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He was very driven in his younger days. It would be good to think that he's happier now.

[seaslug-of-doom.livejournal.com]

Ah, one of my favorite films, and contributor to my love of New York, urban life, and the madness of the human animal.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Scorsese's in love with New York.

Everyone should have at least one city to love.