Greetings, long time no see… well, that is unless you saw my new podcast (that still seems to be posted under one of my other shows on Spotify). I’ve recently regained the drive to work on some writing, both fiction, and non-fiction; but most importantly, I’ve been working towards improving my quality of life stuff.

Part of this whole process has been making sure I indulge in some of my favorite pastimes that I’ve been missing in my life; namely Longform content. After finding myself spending evenings doom-scrolling for what feels like excessive amounts of time, I’ve seen my attention waver. So I began making a concerted effort to begin and finish the content. That may seem strange considering the copious amounts of Short-form content on Youtube Shorts and Instagram Reels solely comprises of content that is started and completed in around a minute. The difference here is that these pieces require more attention by way of being longer. That means deriving more value over time instead of the Quantity v. Quality situation I was experiencing.

I started with Ratchet and Clank the 2016 Remake, which I was nearly finished with, but needed a little more time to square away completely. Next up, was its sequel, Rift Apart, which I was able to start and finish on my new PS5. Then I turned my attention to the television. I decided I wanted a retro show to complete, and SeaQuest fit the bill. It was an instant hit with me and brightened my mood immensely. The catchy tune, the fun plots and the concepts… made me want to be more creative. As you can see, that paid out with the launch of my new show.

I learned that HBO Max would be losing Babylon 5, another show I was near to completing. I had stopped after Season 4 because I’d heard the final season wasn’t what JMS really wanted, and he’d had to make it when the series was saved for one final shot. It was absolutely worth the time to finish, because the plot did indeed develop, and it was much better than anticipated. Thus, I finished the series properly.

In my nearly 30 years on this planet, I’ve had bouts of serious “bookworming”. As a child I was a voracious reader, consuming literature at a rather rapid rate. Then, there was an extended period of separation between myself and the written word. Again, about a decade ago, I read a ton as well. Within the last several years I hit a few bumps but managed to take down nearly 2 dozen novels through audio formats. But physically things had gone stale.

Thanks to a chance encounter with the Video Game Awards, my love for Hideo Kojima games was rekindled, and Death Stranding provided a good outlet. I discovered he had written a book, and knew I needed to pick up a copy. So I plowed my way through “The Creative Gene” in which Kojima’s influences were explored, and his memes (as in memetics, an actual serious subject of study that does include the funny ones, which you can indeed observe on a serious level… get at me.) are shared with the reader. One such chapter really caught my eye… Hideos experiences with the movie “Taxi Driver”.

Just as I revealed last Summer, I am liable to have my Film Nerd card revoked, because in all my time in Film Classes… I never watched it. But thanks to Kojima, I immediately gave it a shot, and WOW! It really hit me in an interesting fashion.

Following a man named Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), “Taxi Driver” is the story of a racist insomniac Vietnam war vet who takes a job as a nighttime Cab Driver. Side Note: I freaking LOVE “Taxi” the sitcom, and a part of me digs the whole vibe of the late 70s Taxi aesthetic. If you know me, I love to drive for hours on end, and I have to admit, there is something magical about driving at night… especially in the late hours when the world is asleep, and only the nighthawks are out. I’d gotten a taste of that during my delivery job in college, working some nights until 2 AM, delivering Chicagoland foods to all sorts of people. Some were studying, some indulging in a late-night snack to go along with their “herbal” medication, and yet still others engaged in multidimensional uses of the term “business”. You never knew who you were going to get.

The opening to “Taxi Driver” captures exactly what it feels like to drive the streets at night, aglow in shades of red and green, and whatever color lighting your municipality deems as “street light color” (Sodium Lamps, or Blue ones in the Nihon, or bright white LEDs). Kept in the frame, but still out of focus, we travel the streets with our “protagonist”. Travis sees this job, simply as something to pass the time. A great deal of time is devoted to just how much he hates how the city is “filthy” and how everything should be washed away. This is expressed in many sentiments that really make it clear that he does not see equality with his fellow man. In other ways, he does have some morals worthy of standing by. Travis recognizes that a young girl has been pressured into sex work, and he does his best to get her out of that situation. On the flip side, however, he has very strange interests, including an attempt to bring a date to an adult theatre, which quite obviously went awry.

The plot is not exactly terribly dense, it can be summed up as follows:

The film has a significant amount of narration provided by DeNiro through the viewpoint of Travis’ writing. Throughout most of the film, he writes in a notebook, but notably, he writes a card to his parents that does not in any way represent the reality in which he lives.

He is not a good man, and he most certainly is a man with troubles. A later interview with Director Martin Scorsese reveals that the oddly “storybook” ending to the film is not a dream sequence, but indeed a real occurrence. The film then ends as it began with the streets out of focus, signaling the recurrence of the events. Bickle survived, yes, but he is destined to repeat the process, very likely ending up dead within 6 weeks.

What the film portrays is a real sense of loneliness that one can feel in the world, something that I feel far too many of us feel. I know I’ve felt it from time to time, so I identified with Travis at certain points of the film… others absolutely not so much.

From the point of view of cinematography, sound design, etc. WOW, this thing is amazing! It is contemplative and brooding, taking time for you to sit with the emotions on screen, watching the city streets go by. In many ways, the film accentuates the beauty of the city, while supposedly showing the seediest sides of the town. It is beautiful, melancholy, and at several points dreamy (particularly the top-down shot near the end of the film).

Taxi Driver is absolutely one of the best films of the 1970s, standing as one of the last few films before the 1980s focused on sequels, spectacle, and sex. While I love the 80s, I feel that cinema went on a backslide that even today is rarely escaped. When a film does manage to escape… it often does poorly at the box office, regardless of its genuine merit as a film.

Go check out Taxi Driver, you won’t regret it, give your mind a chance to digest some complex themes.

Taxi Driver - Trailer