Scorsese, Martin, 1942- .Scorsese on Scorsese / edited by David Thompson and Ian Christie. 057114103X : series London ; Boston : Faber and Faber, 1989.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1998.3.S39 A3 1989

 

Scorsese on Scorsese pg. 53-66
    In this chapter from a book on Scorsese films, Martin Scorsese offers his own commentary on the film Taxi Driver. Scorsese discusses the early stages of production and how Brian De Palma introduced him to Paul Schrader. Scorsese included original drawings done by himself for the climactic ending.  He talks about how much of Taxi Driver arose from his feeling that movies are like dreams, or like taking dope and that he tried to induce the feeling of being almost awake. Scorsese calls Travis an “avenging angel” floating through the streets of New York City, which was meant to represent all cities. Scorsese calls attention to improvisation in Taxi Driver’s many scenes, such as in the scene between De Niro and Cybill Shepherd in the coffee-shop. The director cites Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man and Jack Hazan’s A Bigger Splash as inspiration for his camerawork in Taxi Driver. He also confirms the fact that Arthur Bremer and Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground influenced Paul Schrader’s script.
    Reading Scorsese’s perspective on his own film provides very interesting insight into Taxi Driver and more information about the mysterious Travis. It was crucial to Travis Bickle’s character that he was a war veteran, making his experiences after the war more intense, threatening, and filled with paranoia. Bickle chose to drive his taxi anywhere in the city as a way to feed his hate. Scorsese highlights the religious symbology in Taxi Driver comparing him to a saint who wants to clean up life and his mind. The violence at the end of the film is somewhat justified in the sense that Scorsese wanted Travis to kill all those people to stop them once and for all. Travis attempts suicide at the end of the movie as a way to mimic the Samurai’s “death with honour” principle.