The "You Talking to Me?" Martin Scorsese Fanclub

Well, it's not really a review, right? It's not trying to tell the whole picture, but so say something unique about it by focusing in on a single aspect of it. There's enough critical work surrounding Taxi Driver that the things you mentioned are really just redundant. (I said beware, GS, also the Tea Party thing was relating Bickle's political nature to right wing dissenters, the current of whom are Tea Party. So it's not really equating them...)

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Mubi

I was just scratching my head why the Tea Party was even mentioned. Mostly since Bickle doesn't comes off as right wing. More apolitical. Now his feelings about the city may lean toward the conservative spectrum, or it could just be a reflection of living in New York City at the time. But he is hardly a wing nut. If he was a wing nut he would have had a very clear negative feeling toward Palantine before he descends down the rabbit hole of insanity.

Now with Dirty Harry I can see that argument made since self described Zen Anarchist Milius wrote that. So then it makes sense. The Death Wish movies drip with similar political leanings. But Bickle seems so out of it when it comes to following politics to try and put him in the same realm of Dirty Harry or Paul Kersey is a mistake on their part.

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

I can't think of very many things that are apolitical. The conscious act of being apolitical is a political act

Lets examine that in the context of this article. Bickle is partially characterized by a general lack of political awareness (among other subjects). This behavior I say is him being apolitical. The article suggests that Bickle is a reflection of a right wing backlash from the days of LBJ, Jimmy Carter, etc. Much the same way Dirty Harry was. If Bickle being apolitical is a political act, it would be hard to put him in that category of right wing backlash. Given my experience with right wingers, they make a conscious decision about there politics. One can certainly disagree with them and think they have missed the mark on their political conclusions, but they are people who are dialed into politics and are VERY political. Dirty Harry had very strong feelings on crime coming from a member of law enforecement who tend to be very conservative. Kersey developed very strong feelings on crime after his family is victimized changing his pervious stance of non violence and librealism. Bickle is not. He is detached from politics in the same way he is detached from everything else in life. Kind of a big thing his isolation and detachment from society. Even when he decides to attempt to kill Palantine and with the motive left very ambiguous. There is no crystal clear explicitly stated motive, just the fact that an idea is brewing.

And even if his apolitical stance is a political statement, we can still only speculate on his motive. Dirty Harry had a clear motive. Kersey had a clear motive. Dity Harry and Death Wish had political feelings toward the movie. Taxi Driver... not so much.

Of course this is coming from someone who sees loneliness and isolation as essential to the film so an article about Taxi Driver without this seems to miss the point of the film entirely.

And then there was that one time Rorschach from Watchman rode in a cab with Travis Bickle...

Brilliant . The only problem i have with it is that Travis looks genuinely worried in the "it looked like you had some trouble back there" panel. In the scene with Scorcese he looks nothing more than slightly concerned. Anyway thanks for this.

Well blame the artist for that. But still I just found this, and I had to post it.