“Bringing Out the Dead” Scorsese and Schrader, “Taxi Driver” after 20 years *Note! Contains spoilers.

A man named Paul Schrader

Few screenwriters have had a career as unique as Paul Schrader. Born and raised by strict Calvinist parents, Schrader never saw a movie until he was 17 years old, and was attending theological school to become a pastor. However, during his university days, his talent was discovered by film critic Pauline Kael, and upon her recommendation, he entered UCLA's film department. After The Graduate, he made his debut as a film critic, and later became a screenwriter, writing the screenplay for `` The Yakuza '' (1974) with his brother Leonard Schrader. He later wrote the screenplay for `` Taxi Driver, '' and quickly became one of America's leading screenwriters.

A feature of Paul Schrader's scripts is that each work is imprinted with his writing style, which can only be described as the ``Schrader stamp.'' Prior to this film, he had worked with Scorsese on `` Taxi Driver '', `` Raging Bull '' (1980), and `` The Last Temptation '' (1988), and his creativity as a writer was fully demonstrated in all of these works. ing.

"Bringing Out the Dead" (c) Photofest / Getty Images

What is his authorship? A common theme in almost all of his works is "obsession and liberation." Schrader has always depicted stories in which the protagonists are trapped by guilt, past trauma, obsession, or a biased sense of mission, which is released over time (often through an explosion of violence). Ta. It's strange, but it's interesting that even the film adaptation of Schrader's original work has a similar story. The best example is Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), which, despite being a faithful adaptation of Yukio Mishima's autobiography, feels like a Paul Schrader film. .

When Scorsese read the original story, he reportedly said, ``Paul Schrader is the only person who could write this movie.'' The original story is set in a decadent town, and the main character, who continues to work as a Bringing Out the Dead despite becoming an alcoholic due to stress and feeling guilty for not being able to save a girl, is released after committing an ethically unforgivable act. The story that will be told. It's a story that can only be described as being written by Paul Schrader, and I'm sure Scorsese himself was surprised by this.

Difference between the original and the movie