Someone will make a movie sometime along those lines, about the psychology of the Abdulmuttalab's of this world. I guess the aspect of Travis Bickle she identifies is his visceral disgust for the sleazy and sordid side of urban life, and his inability to form relationships with anyone, including romantic interests.
Travis Bickle was my hero when I was a teenager.
I agree with you BlackDog - Taxi Driver is so disturbing and powerful because we are mesmerised by De Niro as he depicts Bickle's slide into madness and violence. We even begin to see the world through his eyes and feel his disgust for what he sees. That is what makes Scorcese such an uncompromising and important director in this film.
Ah, but Scorcese did compromise! Schraeder's original script made it much clearer that Bickle was a racist-- Scorcese had the pimp/brothel characters changed to White men to tone that down. Luckily Harvey Keitel did such an awesome job in the role that it ended up not being a negative.
Speaking of Scorcese and Taxi Driver, his cameo in that was awesome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfh92hKLO6cOh, wait, that wasn't it-- here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tiHTm6nBUwMy problem with Scorsese is that because of his cinematic genius he romanticized gangsters. He keeps a fine line though; there is still a slight amount of repulsion when you watch Joe Pesci?s character in Goodfellas.
Very difficult to make a movie focusing on a particular subject without glamorizing that subject, especially if the movie plays on masculine archetypes. Even war movies that clearly have an anti-war message like "Platoon" or "Full Metal Jacket" have the unintended consequence of glamorizing war, and gangster flicks are much the same way.
My favourite characterisation of criminals is found in Sopranos and in the Wire. You are not meant to like them, you go through a period where you think they are charming and funny, almost endearing at times and then they go bonkers and you hate them for their crudeness and their oppressive manners.
I think that's much more intentional in The Sopranos than The Wire. While The Wire's characters are well-developed, complex, and larger than life as is the tendency in works of fiction (e.g. Omar Little the gay superhero), they are also more straightforward and honest than in The Sopranos, in my opinion, and I think there's a bit less conscious manipulation of the viewer by how the characters are written.
I always tell people that if they want a movie that really tells it how it is about gang life to pick up "Monument Ave". That's pretty particular to Boston, but trust me, the movie fuckin nails it. Probably the least glamorous crime movie I ever seen.
Topic: Scorcese n stuff