There’s a scene in Taxi Driver where Travis Bickle, the lonely, wannabe-messiah, stares at an urchin outside a New York café while the camera follows his cold, yet burning, eyes. Martin Scorsese delivers a hammerblow of a scene which suggests his protagonist’s naiveté. This naiveté marks much of his memorable characters: be it Bickle, Jake la Motta in Raging Bull, Rupert Pupkin in King of Comedy or even Henry Hill in Goodfellas, to an extent. In Departed, Billy Costigan has that. Martin Scorsese has that.
For someone who has been making films essentially about America; an America which lies beneath a veneer of hopeless platitudes, an America which appears to have a life of its own with universal problems, a normal America; Scorsese longed for an award which was as pretentious as America wanted to be. He never distanced himself from the Oscars, which had preferred, at various times, Robert Redford and Kevin Costner over him. He was too American for that.
The Oscars liked his movies (Raging Bull), loved his actors (Robert de Niro), but somehow kept him at bay, outside the big party. The naiveté of Scorsese made him want it, but the door was kept tantalizingly shut. Now, he has broken it open, or more appropriately, they allowed him to. So that, the old man can join the merry bunch, shed the angst, free himself from his spiritual confusion, and lose his loneliness. Batman has chosen Travis Bickle to be his Robin. Will Bickle help him with the cape?
For someone who has been making films essentially about America; an America which lies beneath a veneer of hopeless platitudes, an America which appears to have a life of its own with universal problems, a normal America; Scorsese longed for an award which was as pretentious as America wanted to be. He never distanced himself from the Oscars, which had preferred, at various times, Robert Redford and Kevin Costner over him. He was too American for that.
The Oscars liked his movies (Raging Bull), loved his actors (Robert de Niro), but somehow kept him at bay, outside the big party. The naiveté of Scorsese made him want it, but the door was kept tantalizingly shut. Now, he has broken it open, or more appropriately, they allowed him to. So that, the old man can join the merry bunch, shed the angst, free himself from his spiritual confusion, and lose his loneliness. Batman has chosen Travis Bickle to be his Robin. Will Bickle help him with the cape?
