Taxi Driver

i wish scorsese, regardless of how good his higher scale stories are, made more of these character driven stories. it feels truly humble and psychologically nuanced, a rarity in other scorsese. this made me miss a time and place i never witnessed, a lightbulb-enamoring new york city that was filled with hatred by travis’ eyes. a walking contradiction he turned out to be. the work that was done along with the score just washed the city over you and made it feel safe to drown in it. scorsese has always been one of the best narrative writers but seeing it done on such a practical level was amazing. the camerawork, especially nearing the end, but also the car mounted shots, honestly felt so advanced for the time. this movie was made before star wars was thought of by the public and it holds up today, that’s insane to me. the ending shots of the shootout scene were particularly unique for scorsese to me, looking from the ceiling down on the scene, slowly backing away. i would’ve given this a 10 a year ago but after just a couple absurdist films, a quality straight story feels discredited in comparison. great nonetheless, a greatly paced film with great acting, laid the groundwork for so much.