Sometimes I wish I could time travel. There are certain time periods in the history of the world I wish I could just sit in on. I may have learned everything about the era of Louis XIV, from what he ate to what he wore to what his lavish homes looked like, but imagine actually being able to sit on one of his gold encrusted chairs and be present in that actual time. It would be utterly enchanting. Though I cant actually time travel, watching certain movies brings me pretty close to my dream of defying time.
The reason why Taxi Driver spoke to me so directly was because it was an ideal example of how the perfect combination of the right time, the right script, and the right actors, can completely transport an audience to a different realm. In the New York Times review of the movie, published February 8, 1976, Vincent Canby wrote, “The steam billowing up around the manhole cover in the street is a dead giveaway. Manhattan is a thin cement lid over the entrance to hell, and the lid is full of cracks. Hookers, hustlers, pimps, pushers, frauds, and freaks—they’re all at large. They form a busy, faceless, unrepentant society that knows a secret litany. On a hot summer night the cement lid becomes a nonstop harangue written in neon: walk, stop, go, come, drink, eat, try, enjoy. Enjoy? That’s the biggest laugh. Only the faceless ones—the human garbage—could enjoy it.”
Scorsese revealed New York for what it was in the 70s. There was no Hollywood gloss over in Taxi Driver; it was a nuanced and stripped view of the city for what it was. For someone like me who was not born until 1991, it was an intimate view of a version of New York I never will have a chance to experience. I knew I was literally in a different time when I saw the area of the city infested with porn and hookers, a place that claimed to be Times Square. The wardrobe was symbolic of Scorsese’s message, an example of social hierarchies and standards that he wanted to highlight. It was the wardrobe of the upper class versus the lower class and the hookers and pimps and taxi drivers. To me, watching this movie in 2010, it was also a model of the styles of the times.
Yet this critique of New York society in the 70s cannot only be attributed to the director. What’s interesting about movies as an art form is that they are so multidimensional. A movie is different artists working in unison to create something greater than themselves. Yet each artist will also contribute something unique, in this case his own interpretation of the script and New York City. Unlike a Van Gogh painting, where the audience can stand in front of the picture, and see what one single man created. Movies are easily accessible reels of history and social critique that defy time and place. They are a view into the minds of many talented artists trying to get their ideas out into the public. They might be fixated on one time, but I can watch Taxi Driver today and learn from it and enjoy it. Every year that passes, gives the movie another level of depth. The people and the wardrobe may be stuck in the 70s, but Taxi Driver really defies time.
At the end of the New York Times review, it lists the main artists that took part in the collaborate effort of the movie.
“Directed by Martin Scorsese; written by Paul Schrader; director of photography, Michael Chapman; edited by Marcia Lucas, Tom Rolf, and Melvin Shapiro; music by Bernard Herrmann; art designer, Charles Rosen; produced by Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 112 minutes.
With: Robert De Niro (Travis Bickle), Cybill Shepherd (Betsy), Jodie Foster (Iris), Harvey Keitel (Sport), Peter Boyle (Wizard), Leonard Harris (Charles Palantine), Albert Brooks (Tom), and Martin Scorsese (Passenger).”
It so interesting to take a step back from a tunneled view of what a movie is, the director, the movie star, and realize that is so much more than that. Every person listed had an idea and a personal view of how to portray the characters and convey a certain society in this movie. The final effort is an amalgamation of these personal views. For movies, it cannot be said that they are an example of the artist as a social critique. Movies are many artists coming together as many social critics. That’s what really makes movies magical.
Work Cited
Canby, Vincent. “Taxi Driver.” The New York Times 8 Feb. 1976: 1o Oct. 2010:
(http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173DA22CAB484CC2B6799A8C6896.)
