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Taxi Driver
11.19.2002 by Dan Beirne, every Wednesday.


Nathan Lane comes over every Wednesday to the house to watch a movie, or just chat with Dan. Dan found these little chats so interesting, he decided to tape-record them and tell the world all the neat things Nathan had to say about movies and stuff.


Wednesday, October 9th, cloudy

Taxi Driver (1976) Travis Bickle gets a job for the New York Checker Cab Co. He drives around, thinking about life. He doesn't like a lot of what he sees. After much contemplation, he decides to act on things, in the only way he knows how. Starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, and Harvey Keitel. With appearances by Cybill Shepard, Peter Boyle, and director Martin Scorsese.

(the movie kind of shook me up, so I forgot to press record right away. This is about half-way through the conversation.)

Me: -died composing the music?

Nathan: Well, I'm not sure if he died with the baton in hand, but yeah, he died during production.

Me: Gee, he must have been old then.

Nathan: Damn right, his first movie was Citizen Kane. That's a long time in the business.

Me: Wow, so he started with Citizen Kane and ended on Taxi Driver? That's impressive.

Nathan: Sure is. I wonder why Eisner never used him..

Me: But it seems like he never lost his touch. I mean, even though he must have been really old, he was still writing perfect music for the movie.

Nathan: Yeah, pretty cool.

Me: I mean it's phenomenal he could still relate to someone who was from a completely different generation.

Nathan: Well, I think the theme of loneliness, which is what the music is, I think, based on, is pretty universal. Really, to any man who's lived in a strange unfriendly city by himself. It can be the loneliest place in the world.

Me: Well....any ONE.

Nathan: Shut up.

Me: What?

Nathan: Just shut up with that stuff.

(I'm signalling to Nathan.)

Nathan: What? What does this mean?

Me: Your fly is down.

Nathan: (doing up his fly) Shut up.

Me: Well, I can certainly identify with his loneliness. It can get really lonely here.

Nathan: Hm..

Me: Hm..

Nathan: Even his attempts to meet women. It's like, nothing ever happens to Travis, he's always forced to make it happen himself. And just because he sucks at meeting women, it's like he's doomed to never be happy. It's awful.

Me: Hm..

(what sounded a lot like a knock at the door)

Me: Hello?

Nathan: Come in!

Me: Hello?

Nathan: Open it.

(I get up to check the hallway, but no one is there.)

Me: There's no one here. MOM?!

(pause)

Me: I don't know.

Nathan: That's weird, I'm going to play some music, what do you have?

Me: My sister took all my cds with her.

Nathan: She did? All of them?

Me: Well, she left a Christmas boys' choir cd here.

Nathan: Fine, put that on.

(boys' choir plays softly)

Nathan: What was I saying?

Me: You were talking about how Travis isn't able to meet women.

Nathan: Oh, yeah. I was done. But another thing I wanted to mention was his naivete I also really related to.

Me: Why do you say that with an accent?

Nathan: Like in the porno theatre. He just doesn't know any better, so he takes her there. I once heard Quentin Tarantino call that the funniest scene in the movie, but I don't agree, I think it's really touching and sad.

Me: Hm..

Nathan: But everyone in the movie is naive in a way, really, like--

(a beep comes from the driveway.)

Nathan: Oh, crap, forget it. Bye.

Me: Wait, what were you going to say?

(I guess he didn't hear me. He got in the van, and his aunt waved at me.)

As always, you can e-mail Nathan at hakunamattata69@hotmail.com to talk about movies, or just talk about whatever.

Notes:

Citizen Kane (1941) Charles Foster Kane, a huge newspaper mogul and political figure, has died. Trying to decipher his mysterious last words, a reporter sets out to find the truth of Charlie Kane's life. Starring Orson Welles, Jospeh Cotten, photographed by Gregg Toland, and directed by Orson Welles.



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