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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

I'm embarassed to admit it, but I went to the first showing of Taxi Driver because of the ad campaign. The picture above was used in the newspaper ads, and the radio spots featured the movie's eternal question, "You talkin' to me?" There was something different about both that made me eager to see the film. (Apparently, I hadn't yet started reading Orwell, or become fond of his description of advertising: "The rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.")

The ads must have appealed to plenty of others, because the theater that Friday night was packed, and that was unusual for a movie with no known stars. I remember the crowd stopped laughing early, and slipped deeper into complete stillness with every shock (the store-keeper beating the dead robber, Scorcese's monologue in Travis's cab). Finally, during the big gundown, some people ran out of the theater, followed by their disgruntled dates. ("I shoulda gone to the Dirtwater Fox," one guy griped, referring to a George Segal & Goldie Hawn movie playing next door.)

Simply put, Taxi Driver mesmerized me. I went back to see it countless times, taking everybody I knew and then going by myself after they'd all seen it. Because of that, and all the video viewings since, it's one of those movies where I can recite practically every word in it. Yet I can watch-- and listen-- to it endlessly. (That's partly to do with the astonishing music written by Bernard Herrmann-- like the best of the classical composers he deserves to be grouped with, his last work was probably his greatest of all.)

I indulge in this bit of nostalgia only because there isn't a thing about the movie itself I can add to everything that's been written about it for the past 30 years. Today, it doesn't look quite like the direct view into hell (as Werner Herzog might put it) that it seemed back when it was new, but time hasn't diminished it much. It still remains one of my first choices when I want to have a grim time at the movies.

So congratulations and a coupon for $10 off from Andy the gun salesman to the following winners: Wayne Palmer, Mark Gisleson, Hank Parmer, Jason Nagel, Tammy Riggins, and E. Yarber.

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 1, 2005 10:39 PM

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