Taxi Driver

I really don't have much time to write about this. I'm so exhausted and I keep putting it off, because after reading Ebert's essay, which has a very interesting analysis of the film, I feel like there isn't anything interesting I can say! I really loved his essay, he compares Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver (which I watched tonight) with The Searchers, which stars John Wayne. Both films, he argues, are about the same sort of man - scarred by war, looking to rescue a woman from a situation where she might not want to be rescued from. I love this thought, and I feel pretty jealous that I didn't come up with it. If that sounds interesting to you at all, I highly suggest you read his essay, it's pretty amazing, and seems like a departure from some of the other ones that I've read so far. Plot spoilers follow, just as a warning.

Raging Bull

Another movie this week that I am at a loss for words from. It is so famous that it feels like there isn't anything left to say. It's the movie that probably saved Martin Scorsese's life. Although it didn't win the Oscar that year, it clearly is the better movie and has withstood the test of time. Directed in 1980 and shot in striking black and white to show a ton of blood and sweat, I think everyone has heard of this film, if not seen it. I feel like I've seen this movie so many times, but I never get bored of it. It's constantly on in film classes, constantly referenced in film literature, from studious textbooks to gossip rags like the infamous Easy Riders and Raging Bulls. I wish I had some more obscure films this week - everything I've watched is so hard to write anything original about, and it's going to stay that way for a little while. Oh well, I can survive, although I wish I could write something that didn't sound like I was just trolling through Wikipedia.