Taxi Driver (1976)

Taxi Driver is hailed by many as the best '70s movie, best Martin Scorsese, best Robert De Niro. I am unable to do sweeping remarks like these but I would agree that Taxi Driver is a movie worth seeing. I am reluctant about Scorsese in general but I liked what he did this time. I have no idea where exactly a director's job stops and other people (cinematographer, screenplay writer, editor, even composer) have their say. However, I would assume that I can count on an overall decision that the director would make, the combination of elements as well as some sort of essence in the form and content of the work that he is supposed to agree to. I do believe that Scorsese's intuitions were right this time. I loved the cinematography that reflected the sleepless nights of the main character, the pace that slowly built the tension. Travis is the criminal next door, disturbed and unstable, lacking social skills – he invites a first date girl to a porn cinema. He ends up being praised as a hero when he kills a bunch of people and 'saves' Jodie Foster when he actually gestured towards killing a senator before and got away without being caught. The fiction 'inspired' a Jodie Foster's later fan who attempted to kill President Reagan to impress her. She must have been overwhelmed. In Taxi Driver, Iris is a twelve years old prostitute who 'sells her little pussy for nothing' as Travis lectures and believes strongly in the horoscope. Jodie Foster, fourteen at the time, is charming in the part. She snickers and giggles at the stern Travis while explaining she does not really want to be saved and she gave that impression only because she was stoned.

Mean Streats(1973)

Thanks to consta 'Mean streets' is the first in a longer list of movies staring Robert DeNiro. The lead part in this movie belongs to Harvey Keitel who plays Charlie Cappa, a special type of a mafia guy. Charlie is a sensitive guy caught in the cognitive dissonance of his church-going and mafia-business caretaker ambitions. The movie opens before the credits with Charlie's voice over announcing the theme and the development of the movie: ' You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets, you do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.' John 'Johnny Boy' Civello (De Niro) is crazy. The character is impenetrable to us and to his world. He talks funny, he acts funny, he brakes the rules in a random way, he's totally imp revisable. I would say there might be something in common with Godfather but not too much. Mean Streets seems to me much less focused on the story order, events seem to happen without reason in a way that renders atmosphere. The de-centered narrative gives an impression of 'that corner' in the 70s and it is loosely brought together by the main character. And 'that corner' of the 70s happens mostly out of the daylight: night, bars, cinema, restaurants. The music enhances the random 'like-life' effects. Martin Scorsese directed, wrote the story and the screen play and appears (according to imdb) to have a personal interest to explore this type of theme. It is a movie worth watching again.