Ten Days, Ten Movies, Ten Images: Day 7

Think back to the time before this became one of the most parodied scenes in movie history. This was one of the most shocking things I had ever seen on screen, the delusions of a deranged mind playing out in real time - all improvised by Robert De Niro. 

Look at his face (the actor, not just the character): there is a beauty about him, and a menace, and a bit of something goofy, and all of these layers of personality and more were brought to this performance. 

The look and the sound of the film, necessitated by a lack of money, became some of its strongest assets: gritty reality on the mean streets and in the cruel back rooms. 

My next film:

"Taxi Driver" (1976)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay by Paul Schrader
Image: Robert De Niro (“Travis Bickle”)
 

I am a pacifist who deplores senseless violence, yet I am also a fan of murder mysteries and police procedurals. There is something about gazing into the abyss, through these artistic interpretations of aspects of human depravity, that helps explicate, in the smallest way, actions that can never be fully understood. 

Sexual exploitation, corrupt politicians and the most demented "savior" a city could ever conjur.

Travis is obsessed with saving Iris (Jodie Foster), a child victim of prostitution in the sex trade.

 Travis Bickle (De Niro) with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), a campaign staffer who is the object of his obsessive fantasies.


And the twist that is the public reaction to Travis' ultimate acts? I gasped out loud. 

An aside: I used to see Robert De Niro in the streets of Westwood Village all the time, back when he lived in Bel Air. One day, I was with my friends, four sisters who were known as the Gilner Girls, at the Falafel King Restaurant in Westwood Village, when De Niro and his friend, the actor Barry Primus, came in, and stood next to us to place their orders. "New York, New York" had just come out, but I recognized Barry from some TV work, too, in shows like "The Streets of San Francisco", so we chatted to him about his career for several minutes, ending with the new film. Barry was so open - friendly and talkative. It was a great conversation.

We'd ignored him deliberately, figuring people fawned over this quiet man all of the time, but I then turned to De Niro (by then a two time Oscar winner) and said, "And you're pretty good, too!" 

I will never forget his hearty laugh.


For more on "Taxi Driver",  a great interview on the making of the film can be found HERE (click link).