Politics again? Really? Well, since I have no other choice, here goes….
Since the most obvious choice here is Fahrenheit 9/11, I’m gonna stray from that movie and write about Taxi Driver. Since Taxi Driver was probably the most universally hated film in the class, I decided to take it to a new level and try to understand it…and I actually kinda liked it.
The political positions and motives of Palantine and his campaign show up throughout the movie, but they are never really remarked on. But although there is a blatant political campaign going on here, that campaign is not where the real politics lie. The politics lie within the people….within the characters of the movie. The political problems, which are, in this movie, interchangeably social problems, are the selling, buying, owning, and carrying of weapons, prostitution, pimps, and the general corruption of the city.
First of all, the weapons. I mean, we all saw how easy it was for Travis to buy a gun? Where the hell are all the cops who are supposed to be preventing that from happening? Now, I know it was a different time period and all, but seriously? Even then it shouldn’t have been that easy to procure a weapon. By showing the inside dealings of the gun-buying process, the film shows how deep-rooted the political corruption of the city is. If the guy selling the weapons can walk around with these weapons AND drugs, how does he not get caught? That’s completely incredible. And what’s the government doing while he’s out selling guns and drugs? Spending all their money on campaigns. Not even paying the least bit of attention to the dangerous criminals walking the city streets.
The whole theme of prostitution as a political and social institution shows the desecration of the city. Allowing prostitution rings, when they could be prevented, is horrendous. Because what is the government doing? What are all the political professionals doing? Still, they are spending their money on campaigns and not paying attention to the dangers and immoral activities of so many city people. The government’s avoidance of such topics shows their nonchalance, and their ridiculous “laissez-faire” attitude toward such things.
Throughout the film, the political aspect of the city is very distant from the people. When Travis tries to “infiltrate” their system by dating Betsy, the other politicians become very wary and hesitant of his presence. They regard him with a sense of distrust, as though he, as a normal person outside the political sphere, is going to dirty the face of their politics and destroy what they have done.
But really, what have they done? Sit around and type up ideas and make posters displaying Palantine’s name, advertising all the things they supposedly stand up for. Yet, while doing this, they are completely ignoring everything else that’s going on in the community. They are trying to persuade people to vote for a man who cares nothing about the city in which he lives and wants to take care of.
The film accentuates the idea that people have no idea what the government really cares about. You have to dig deep into the hidden message the film is trying to send in order to realize that the reason everything in the movie is set up as such is because the whole movie is mocking the organization…or lack thereof… of politics and the government. Most people will watch the movie and think to themselves, “oh what a pathetic lonely guy”…”oh, it was about prostitutes and then the guy came and killed all the pimps, cool!” Upon first seeing it, I wasn’t sure what to think, but watching it again, with this whole new political outlook really made me double think the way everything was set up.
The colors in the movie for example, show the way the government cares more about themselves and their own personal politics, which is why they are so colorful and supposedly “patriotic” in the film while everyone else is dressed in dark hues of mainly gray. Also, the campaign has its own building, showing the selfishness of the government, while Travis and other members of the city community own a small apartment, if anything at all.
Although the political themes are there, they are underneath the many layers of this film. You hafta search and search until you finally see the mockery of the government and the way Martin Scorsese as a director planned subliminally planned everything out in order to give the film such a magnificent underlying tone of political corruption and indecency.
