I recently watched ‘Taxi Driver’ again for the first time in years. I was fascinated by the portrait of darkness and light, not just in the character of Travis Bickle, but in the New York City of the time. Though of course this tension exists now, it really existed in the New York of the ’70s and ’80s, when so much of the city had fallen into intense decay. Unfortunately I have the flu and am much too sick to write a coherent essay, so instead I’m posting a couple of videos.
The first, above, is a panaroma of photographs from the New York of that period, said to Bernard Hermann’s amazing score. A reminder of just how dark, and barren much of this city used to be, even when I first got here in the late ’80s. Those neon signs were still around then too, almost all disappeared now.
The second is a montage of a collection of photographs from the era.
The third (I couldn’t resist), a short clip of how Travis Bickle would see Times Square now:
Now back to bed . . .
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