I felt this isn’t as good as it’s reputation today – but then that’s been influenced by many factors: the iconic image of Robert de Niro walking down the streets, the “you talking to me” bit, de Niro in a Mohawk, the fact it inspired a real life presidential assassination, the dynamic violence at the end. Watching it all the way through I got a bit bored and sleepy in places – this may have been intentional since Martin Scorsese has said he wanted to recreate a dream-like state with the film.
This had its origin with Paul Schrader, who came up with a terrific character, moments and finale, but it’s an odd sort of script. It goes in one direction – de Niro pursuing Cybill Shepherd, being rejected by her, and wanting to kill the Senator… then half way through changes gears and he meets Jodie Foster and wants to save her. The male characters are vivid, the female characters less so, although Foster's performance is superb and I just bought Shepherd agreeing to go to a porn movie with de Niro.
I was struck how little violence is in it - a brief shooting (of the mugger) and the shoot out at the end. But throughout is an atmosphere of seediness, filth and dirt: dingy apartments, unclean cabs, porn theatres, broken streets. Not exactly a fun night out.
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