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Meanwhile, Martin Scorcese spent virtually his entire career making movies about being depressed, violent, and Italian and somehow that's just good cinema.

david927 4y ago
He's generally overrated but Taxi Driver is not good cinema, it's great cinema.
- ahartmetz 4y ago
  It starts well. But the last third is really weak IMO, it's some juvenile revenge fantasy and then the protagonist is called a hero and gets the girl. I'm not sure that there is any irony there. I was disappointed. Scorsese became better after that.
  - spacechild1 4y ago
    > I'm not sure that there is any irony there. There surely is! This scene is so over the top, it is clearly not meant to be taken literally. Some people even interpret it as a hallucination by Travis while he is dying.
jhbadger 4y ago
He really didn't. People who don't really know his work think he just makes mobster movies. But he is actually a quite a varied filmmaker. How does being "depressed, violent, and Italian" fit into The Last Temptation of Christ (which controversially reinterpreted Jesus' story), or Hugo, about the great French filmmaker Georges Méliès? Or Kundun about the Dalai Lama? Or Silence about Japanese Christians?
- etblg 4y ago
  Even most of his mobster movies aren't really about being depressed or Italian. Casino's main character is Jewish. Gangs of New York is about Irish Catholics and American Protestants. The Departed is about Irishes. The Wolf of Wall Street may be about depression (haven't seen it), but is not about violence nor about Italians. The Irishman certainly has a lot of depression, and certainly violence and Italians, but even then.....it's called the "Irishman". Goodfellas is probably the one prime example that is certainly about violence and Italians, and I'm not sure that's that depressed.
tanseydavid 4y ago
Subject matter is not what determines whether a film is good cinema or not.

david927 4y ago

He's generally overrated but Taxi Driver is not good cinema, it's great cinema.

ahartmetz 4y ago
It starts well. But the last third is really weak IMO, it's some juvenile revenge fantasy and then the protagonist is called a hero and gets the girl. I'm not sure that there is any irony there. I was disappointed. Scorsese became better after that.
- spacechild1 4y ago
  > I'm not sure that there is any irony there. There surely is! This scene is so over the top, it is clearly not meant to be taken literally. Some people even interpret it as a hallucination by Travis while he is dying.

jhbadger 4y ago

He really didn't. People who don't really know his work think he just makes mobster movies. But he is actually a quite a varied filmmaker. How does being "depressed, violent, and Italian" fit into The Last Temptation of Christ (which controversially reinterpreted Jesus' story), or Hugo, about the great French filmmaker Georges Méliès? Or Kundun about the Dalai Lama? Or Silence about Japanese Christians?

etblg 4y ago
Even most of his mobster movies aren't really about being depressed or Italian. Casino's main character is Jewish. Gangs of New York is about Irish Catholics and American Protestants. The Departed is about Irishes. The Wolf of Wall Street may be about depression (haven't seen it), but is not about violence nor about Italians. The Irishman certainly has a lot of depression, and certainly violence and Italians, but even then.....it's called the "Irishman". Goodfellas is probably the one prime example that is certainly about violence and Italians, and I'm not sure that's that depressed.

tanseydavid 4y ago

Subject matter is not what determines whether a film is good cinema or not.