It all started with the TAXI DRIVER
This is my first post as an author on PFC and as I was sitting inside this dark room with my laptop trying to decide on what can be the perfect post to start my blog, I thought since its PASSION FOR CINEMA, why not write about what cinema means to me, about the first thing I remember when I think of cinema, and pat came the answer it was… SCORSESE, no wait…. its TAXI DRIVER. Not only does this title define my kind of cinema, I can follow this title to the very day four years back when I discovered my PASSION for cinema. This is where it all started for me.
[The following is not a review and is basically random thoughts about an experience with cinema]
About four-five years have passed since the time I was in the 9th grade, battling with geometry and geography, well if you have ever been in an Indian school and remember your 9th/10th grade days you’ll know what one of the most important topics of discussion amongst the boys were……GIRLS off course. Well so a friend of mine was talking about this film which he managed to sneak at last night while his parents were working in the next room. It was about some psychopath cab driver and had ( here is the main point of interest) a 14 year old Jodie foster playing a prostitute (and before you start calling me a pervert, let me clarify I was 14 years old myself then).Well so off course we got really excited, few days later a friend of mine got hold of the dvd of that film, it was titled TAXI DRIVER, the DVD cover sort of blew all our expectations off, we were expecting different kind of pictures on the cover but still…. we were excited! But there was no way we could watch this kind of a film at home though, the chances of getting caught was going to be way too much, and so we waited…..months! Until it was time for the vacations and my parents went out for a couple of days leaving me with an empty house and total freedom. So about five of us made plans and came over to watch the film that day, since we had nothing much to do we decided not to fast forward through the film and watch it on its entirety, and so we started.
For the first 15 minutes everything was cool, some of my friends were loosing patience and starting to pay way more attention to the Pepsi cans than the TV screen but the hope for something really good to come held them in, 30 minutes into the film though, even the promises of Jodie and whole lot of other things couldn’t hold them in. three of them left, me and roger though stayed back (roger didn’t leave since he was already snoring). I don’t know what it was that night that stopped me from throwing the DVD out of the window as someone suggested before walking away, but I just couldn’t take my eyes of the screen. Ever since that almost magical opening shot of the taxi moving past the screens, revealing the titles accompanied by the haunting jazz music by BERNARD HERRMANN… it was as if the director was hypnotizing me, daring me to move my eyes off those rugged New York streets, daring me to close my ears to bernard herrmann’s music, challenging me not to recognize myself as Travis Bickle looks into the mirror. I couldn’t move.
Now back then I had next to no idea about the details of Vietnam war, the political state of the world at that time, the social condition of the america. So mostly I couldn’t grasp many of the things hinted in the film, but not once did my ignorance of those issues make me feel as if am not being able to involve myself with the film. with the loneliness of Travis Bickle. Till then just a lover of Hollywood blockbusters I could feel things changing inside me, choices changing, I knew that I was discovering a world till then mostly unknown, the world of jazz, downtown New York, Robert De Niro, alternate cinema and most importantly the world of SCORSESE.
Back at that time I didn’t understand what the ending really meant, didn’t know if the director intended that Travis died or if he was alive, but something told me that he was, he most certainly was ALIVE. Alive in all of us in various ways, at various paths of life. I dare say that there has never been a person who won’t find themselves in travis bickle’s shoes at least for once in their lives.
Years have passed since that night, I have seen countless films since then, read many screenplays, but nothing can compare itself to this experience, if I have to search a true birth of MY passion for cinema I have to call it TAXI DRIVER, I have to call it SCORSESE.
Everyone has that special book, a poem. Maybe a song, or just someone’s calling that can wash away their troubles throughout the day, that can end their loneliness, for me it is this film. Every time I watch it I derive some unknown meaning from it, a meaning that somehow helps me comfort myself. End the loneliness, the chaos and find happiness.
The meaning of life is intimately linked with happiness, as are all great cinemas. As in cinema there is in life a genuine wish, an impulse, a race towards happiness. But there is more to it that that. A person wishes to reflect on that desire, that impulse, and a good cinema is well suited for this purpose. In the end a wondrous cinema becomes an integral part of our lives and the world around us, bringing us closer to the meaning of life. It comes in place of the happiness we may never find in living to offer us a joy that derives from its meaning.
Tell us which film made you realize your PASSION FOR CINEMA?
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Nice post Rick!
For me it was Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Bitter tears of Petra von Kant” and “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” of Giusseppe Tornatore which made me realise my PASSION FOR CINEMA
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the movie is awesome and leaves quite an impact on ur mind
4 years ago when i watched ‘The Godfather’,i changed myself a lot.
so there is at least one more person in the world who swears by Travis Bickel! Taxi Driver is a mystery to myself. I dont consider it to be De Nero’s best work(which is still Raging Bull), I dont consider it to be Scorsese’s best effort(RB again and Goodfellas), yet Taxi Driver is my favourite De Nero/Scorsese film. It has something which absolutely mesmerizes me. Taxi Driver is one of the two films(the other being Pulp Fiction) which I am yet to discover why I like. Thanks for a very nice post Rick!!
And as for the inspiration, there were an array of different films like A clockwork orange, One flew over the cuckoos nest, the bicycle thief, the seventh seal,wild strawberries and pulp fiction which I watched in my college days, picked me up by my ear and dragged me towards the passion for cinema.
“PhoneBooth” and then “Thank you for Smoking”…
I never knew that there existed a Cinema section in Landmark book shop.
After watching Fight Club in my home comp for the 15th time, I literally did not know what to do. I was dumb struck. Every time I watched the movie, I realized that it was so well taken. I understood small nuances. That was the first time I loved a movie. I typed “Fight Club” in Google. A huge list of links followed. Each one had some or the other information about the movie. One such link was Screenwriter’s store. That was when I came to know that the movie was written by Jim Uhls and directed by David Fincher. After some time, I came to know that Fight Club was a book and was written by some Chuck Pa…something. I stumbled across the Screenplay of Fight Club. That was my first stint with the screenplay. “Oh… this is how the movie was written”, I thought. All of a sudden, I wanted to read more. I came across a lot of screenplay websites and they had a hell lot of movie scripts. This is huge information. There was a link which said “How to write a screenplay”. I clicked on that. It redirected me to a book website. Oh…we have books for cinema? That is how I went to our own Chennai Spencer’s Landmark.
The section is present in one corner of Landmark. I was amazed by the books present. Right from screenplay writing to handling handy cam to making 100000$ movies, the section had all types of books. Only then I understood that movie making is no joke. You’ve got to be real intelligent and hardworking to make a good movie. That is when I started admiring Directors. That is when I shifted from identifying the movie by the actors to identifying it by Directors. That is when I started loving cinema!
It has to be Satya. That was the trigger point for me. I had seen that movie after reading KM’s review where he gave it **** rating. In those days, KM’s opinion mattered a lot to me. Of course now I dont give a rabbit’s derriere to his opinion. Gawd, I was taken aback by the power of cinema. I was experiencing a feeling that was unknown to me… especially the way things were unfolding on 70mm and to add to it I was a complete virgin as far as gangsta flicks were concerned. Damn it, that was my moment of truth, the time when I awakened the filmi within… Long live RGV. I salute & bow down to the maverick & his madness. Aag or no aag. Period.
Grew up in small town watching indian cinema and didn’t have access to international cinema (except those late night A rated movies on Doordarshan)
Passion for watching was always there (jab se hosh sambhala hai)… Neighbours used to get rented VCR and play 4 movies through out the night and used to be there: regular and uninvited.
Lovely piece Rick! Insightful and personal. I really, really enjoyed it!
To be frank ,I never liked the first half of Taxi Driver. Just a few scenes here and there were good.
Coming to my passion, it was started by a man called Amitabh Bachchan. I think it started with Sholay. Used to stay in a small town near Pune and I remember that after watching Sholay, it was compulsory for my father to take me to Pune, for every movie released of AB ( my father used to sleep in the theatre or go have a walk out ) It continued till my 10th standard. Then in the vacation time after the exams the real passion started. In our town we had a VCR-Theatre where they used to show every Mithun, Shatrughan, Govinda, kind of movies at Re.1. My mother used to supplement my “passion” by giving regular money. It made me watch every hindi movie under the sun. Then in college (hostel) skipped food and walked instead of bus/rickshaw and saved money for the “passion”. Seen movies in the dirtiest of the theatres, putting my hand into the small ticket window in the rush and still feeling the sense of satisfaction of entering a cinema hall. Ahhhh those morning shows !! Nostalgia !! Ek kitaab likhni padegi aisa lagta hai !!
Hey Rick- nice and candid post. Liked it. No film really made me discover my passion for cinema, but I guess the film that remains the biggest influence on me till date is Pulp Fiction- it changed the way i see movies in many ways. Love Taxi driver too, though am still not too educated on the sociological aspect of it.
Bride of Frankenstien
Wolfman
E.T.
Star Wars (old one)
Indiana Jones
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Nightmare Before Christmas
Bahot din hue
chota chetan
Many movies that made me realise my passion for cinema but the first one amongst these was
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN……GOSH!!!!
I was blown with the brutality displayed by spielberg in the first few reels of this movie…..
Apart from them there are many such gems that give u tht moment of truth or make u think…..
Like the PRESTIGE, COMPANY, FIGHT CLUB, SATYA, BLACK FRIDAY ETC……
I guess the movie that made me realize my passion for cinema has to be “The Departed”. When Billy Costigan tells Dr Madden ” Two pills! Why dont you give a bottle of scotch and a fucking shotgun…..”
Another Movie would be “Following”. When the starts narrating with ” The following is my explantion… well more of an account of…… what happened”
Another influential movie of my life is Pi. This movie is unknown classic. I vouch for that. There were so many scenes that move you, when Cohen hallucinates the brain lying on the subway stairs and jabs it slowly or the ant scenes or the headache scenes or the scientific theories or the game of GO or when Cohen uses the drill into his head to stop the pain or ” 9:13, Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. The doctors didn’t know if my eyes would ever heal. I was terrified, alone in that darkness. Slowly daylight crept in through the bandages, and I could see, but something else had changed inside of me. That day I had my first headache. ”
I did not eve start on Taxi Driver though. it stands till date my most Favourite and touching film. I am Travis Bickle
For me it will hv2 be black friday,Pather panchali & a french film called “The Bohemean Life” !!! I had seen almost all da scorsese movies before n scorsese is undoubtedly one of my all time favourites..!! Bt aftr watchin dese films sumthin changd in me !!! I dnt exactly knw wat but i startd understanding the language of a brilliant script &its execution !!! Even 2day wenevr i get a writer’s block i watch black friday..& ya especially da “badshah on da run” phase of da film… i jus go blank… its jus nt possible 2 concentrate on nythng else bt da screen… Thank u Anurag,Ray & Kaurismaki for watevr u’ve given me !!! Ur my true mentors !!!
aila…ek aur!!!!?
& anurag if ur readin pls reply.. Jus imagine hw u would’ve felt if aftr watchin taxi driver scorsese would’ve wrote u a mail.. dats exactly hw i wil feel if u write bak !!! newaz.. Hope is a good thing !!!
Frankly what changed the perception of cinema for me was PFC itself and ofcourse AK’s blogs…if u ask for a movie then Black Friday for sure…