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

How can Travis be saved after 20 years?

In this way, the main character Frank is set up as a mirror image of Travis, but what is its purpose? This is just my speculation, but I think there may be an underlying theme of ``If you're going to portray Travis 20 years later, how will you portray his salvation?'' In fact, in an interview about the film, Schrader said, ``I still feel a strong attachment to emotional types (like Travis), but now I look at it from a middle-aged perspective.'' Yes*2.

In `` Taxi Driver, '' Travis releases his helpless pent-up resentment towards society by finally exploding it in the form of violence. So, what about Frank, who is on the edge of his limits due to mental fatigue?

At the end of the story, Frank removes the life-sustaining device and euthanizes Mary's father, who he helped save but is still alive with no hope of recovery, to relieve him of his suffering. This act by Frank, who was suffering from a sense of helplessness towards the people he could not save, was more than just an attempt to end Mary's father's suffering, it also served as a reminder that death does indeed exist and is unavoidable. I can say that I admitted it to myself.

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

In the development that follows, Schrader has made major changes from the original work. In the original story, the death of Mary's father creates a huge rift between Frank and Mary, and the story ends just like that. In contrast, in the movie, Mary accepts her father's death and then forgives Frank, saying, ``It's not your fault, so don't blame yourself and suffer.'' (She appears to be an illusion of Rose). Freed from everything, Frank finally sleeps peacefully next to Mary.

The story of a soul being saved by meeting someone who accepts them is a common ending in Schrader's works after a certain point. It has been passed down to recent works such as `` American Gigolo '' (1980) and ``Light Sleeper'' (1992), as well as recent works such as `` Where the Soul Goes '' (17) and `` Card Counter '' (21). ing. Frank was liberated by having such a "good neighbor." He was saved by the relationships between people. This is the exact opposite conclusion from Travis, who, as a result of remaining alone, was liberated by going on an uncontrolled rampage by himself. ``Bringing Out the Dead'' is exactly like `` Taxi Driver, '' which depicts salvation from a mature perspective.

Since this film, no other work by director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader has been produced to date. However, it seems that the relationship between the two is not severed; for example, Scorsese was named as a producer when making ` `Card Counter '', so it seems that the relationship between the two is not bad at all. . Even now that Scorsese is 80 years old and Schrader is 77 years old (as of July 2023), both of them continue to actively produce films together. I would love to see a movie where they team up again.

*1:`Bringing out' Scorsese (1999) Roger Ebert

*2: 『Martin Scorsese: The baptism of film” (2020 Kawade Shobo Shinsha) Written by Toru Sano

Text: Motoki Shimada

Taiyo Planning "move-" team member. Genre movie lover. Lately, I've been actively working as a ``VHS archaeologist,'' excavating movies that haven't been made into software in Japan since VHS.

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