Taxi Driver (released in 1976) - A movie directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Jodie Foster

Taxi Driver is an iconic movie, one of the earlier movies by Martin Scorsese that made him famous (starting with the reputation he had gained by Mean Streets), and stars some of the same people from the movie. The movie was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, although it did not win any (it did win a Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival). The movie is also famous for another more nefarious reason, being linked to a Presidential assassination attempt (when John Hinckley, Jr. confessed that he was obsessed with Jodie Foster's role in the movie as the reason for his attempt to kill President Ronald Reagen in 1981). The movie was set in a now familiar location, the seedy parts and locations of New York, with the main character being tormented by various emotional issues, almost being self-destructive. In fact, the movie was shot during a heat wave in New York, and at the time of a strike by garbage workers. The movie won critical acclaim, but also became controversial due to the violence (and in fact, Scorsese changed the colors of the ending, making the colors desaturated to try and reduce the impact of the violence).



The movie is set in the year 1976, the same movie as the year of release, and set in the period after the Vietnam War, where there were a large number of veterans out from the war, suffering through all kinds of emotional trauma. This is the story of one emotionally distraught person, 26 year old Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), who lives in Mahattan; he is not gainfully employed and covers that with his parents by claiming that he works for a government agencies where a lot of secrecy is required. In reality, he is lonely, out of work, and drives taxis in New York at night to cover his insomnia, and spends the days in porn theaters. To anybody who asks, he claims that he was a Marine during the Vietnam War, with a large VietCong flag and a scar as evidence.
He falls for a volunteer (Betsy (Cybill Shepherd)) for the election campaign of Senator Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris), who is running for President. He gets into the campaign office by offering to volunteer, and manages to get a coffee and movie date with Betsy, but blows up the romance by taking her to see a sex education movie, which offends her. She rejects his attempts after that. At around the same time, Bickle is getting more disgusted with the street crime that he sees around him, and starts to develop his body intensely. He also thinks about assassinating Senator Palatine, but drops the attempt when Secret Service agents notice him. At around this time, Iris (Jodie Foster), a 12 year old sex worker tries to use his cab to escape her pimp, but fails. When Bickle encounters her again, he gets focused on trying to save her from the clutches of her pimp Sport, and back to her parents. He gets him into more violence, including gunfire in which Bickle kills Sport (Harvey Keitel) and another customer of Iris.

Mean Streets (1973) - Directed by Martin Scorsese, and starring Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro and David Proval

In the early 1970's, young director Martin Scorsese was still struggling to make his mark. At that time, just after the release of 'Boxcar Bertha', Scorsese had started displaying his talent, but it was the release of 'Mean Streets' in 1973 that moved the director much ahead in his career as a director. The movie, starring Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro and David Proval, was made with the encouragement of directors such as John Cassavetes, Samuel Fuller, and Jean-Luc Godard, and was released by Warner Brothers. Based on his experience with Boxcar Bertha, Scorsese had learned how to make movies at low cost, and Mean Streets was also a low budget movie, costing only around $500,000. This was one of the first movies that Scorsese made after being told to make movies in the style he wanted rather than make movies for somebody else, and the movie established his signature style (macho men, lots of violence, emotions based on Catholic notions of guilt, and a soundtrack based on rock). The movie is set in a gritty location in New York, again like many of his other movies. Scorsese was originally planning to make the movie called as 'Season of the Witch', but he later changed this to 'Mean Streets', based on a line from author Raymond Chandler's novel 'The Simple Art of Murder'.



The movie was very close to Martin Scorsese, since this was based on events that he used to see everyday in the areas of New York in which he lived. The end result was a movie that earned critical acclaim, with movie critic Pauline Kael being very enthusiastic in support. The movie also earned De Niro an award (not an Oscar though) as Best Supporting Actor for his role as the destructive guy who increasingly heads towards destruction inspite of the efforts his friend Charlie. Charlie in turns plays the role of an Italian-American who is a wannabe mafia member, and who acts as a debt collector for his uncle Giovanni. He also has an ongoing affair with Teresa, who is Johnny Boy's (De Niro) cousin.
The meat of the movie is about the conflict that Charlie faces, with his devout Catholic faith (with its concepts of good vs. bad, redemption, and guilt) versus his ambitions of making it big in the mafia (in direct conflict to his Catholic faith). How does Charlie resolve this dilemma ?

Boxcar Bertha - Directed by Martin Scorsese (1972) - an early movie about a young girl into robbery

The late 60's and early 70's was the time when Martin Scrocese was making his initial movies, the time when he started to develop a reputation. It was a lesson for the young director, imparted by producer Roger Corman, who had helped other directors such as Coppola and James Cameron to also start their careers. Corman used to be able to guide directors to make movies that cost very little movies, and the same was true of this movie, Boxcar Bertha, which was made with a very low amount of 600,000 (a very low amount of money for a movie), and was a good lesson for Martin Scorcese. The movie is apparently based on a book called 'Sister of the Road', a biography of Bertha Thomson, who went onto to do train robbery at a time of the 1930's (written by Dr. Ben L. Reitman). However, the movie and the book were certainly different in terms of the story; with the movie being made to capitalize on the ongoing craze for movies in the 'Bonnie and Clyde' style. The movie, being depicted in the American South of the 1930's, you get a look at the prevalent issues related to the situation regarding racial differences, as well as issues related to gender.



The movie has as the main characters, Bertha Thompson (played by Barbara Hershey) and "Big" Bill Shelly (played by David Carradine). Bertha is a typical character of the depression era, an orphan, who was also a robber, being a typically charming woman, accompanied by 3 other members of her team, a union organizer (Bill), a con man from New York (Barry Primus) and a mechanic fond of the blues (Bernie Casey). Even though the movie is set in the 30's, you get a feel for the early 70's environment in the movie, with characters tending to adventurous, free spirited and criminal, but not more so than the tie-striped bankers and lawyers. The movie was worth watching because of the effort put in by Martin Scorsese, and these efforts are visible in the movie.

The Big Parade (1925) - a spectacular success for a war movie, directed by King Vidor

The Big Parade was one of the biggest successes of the Silent Era, a movie that made the name of its director (King Vidor) and its leading stars (John Gilbert and Renée Adorée) as very successful actors (Renée unfortunately did not live very long to build a big career, she was diagnosed with TB and died within a few years). The movie earned more than $22 million worldwide, a huge success for a film in the silent era. The movie was bitter-sweet for King Vidor since he developed a huge reputation as a director, but he surrendered his 20% of net profits for the movie after being convinced that 20% of net from this movie would not amount to much.
The movie was later selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. The movie set the trend for a number of war movies of the future, by not glorifying war, instead showing the leading character as having lost a leg in the conflict.



The movie can be separated into 2 clean sections, with the first section being the story of a rich kid wanting to join the army (given the glamor that the army provides, if you see the uniform, parades and other glamor), and you would expect him to struggle to fit in. However, he settles in pretty easily, makes 2 very close buddies, and also gains a French girl-friend Melisande (Renee Adoree) in the French village where his unit is posted. For a war movie, the first half can seem a bit slow at times, given that they also spend time in developing the love story.
And then the unit is given orders to move out, and be ready to join the actual battle. The First World War was a war unlike any the world had seen before, with snipers, automatic guns, mustard gas, trench warfare, etc. And these buddies end up in the same trench, where they are pinned by a German machine gunner and have to take him out, and one of them has to do it. And yet, when they see the actual enemy soldier, he is just a kid.

The Crowd (1928) - a silent movie directed by King Vidor

There have been innumerable movies in the silent era, but since that time period has been so long in the past, we tend to forget about them. Making movies in the silent era seems so difficult now; you did not have much in the way of the technology that keeps on advancing in leaps and bounds now; further, without getting the characters to speak, the emotions shown by the actors has to be only read through their facial actions.
The Crowd (released in 1928), was a acclaimed movie, and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. The movie was made as an advocate of demonstrating the dangers of urbanization and the modern life in today's cities. The movie was directed by King Vidor, who would normally not pick up stars, and for this movie, the leading pair had the same distinction, with James Murray being an extra in the studio, and the leading lady, Eleanor Boardman, being Vidor's wife.



King Vidor had a style of his own, and he imparted the same to this movie, combining a mixture of poignant family scenes, along with some striking visual styles. Since he was successful, he was able to get the studio to agree to his thoughts and style.
The movie is essentially the story of Johnny, from birth and captures his life, as well as all the experiences and twists and turns. Johnny's father wants him to rise high inspite of his modest beginnings, but as Johnny grows up, he is just a part of 'The Crowd'. He does not make the best decisions, and ends up in messes, even though he has the loyal support of his girlfriend.
The movie is a must watch.