John Ford’s The Searchers is likely one of the most divisive movies in historical past. The 1956 Western has been completely criticized by many, each on the time of its launch and within the a long time since, for its depiction of racist characters and themes. However it’s also thought-about by many filmmakers and cinephiles to be one of many biggest technical achievements within the historical past of movie and probably the greatest works in Ford’s storied profession. It has been recurrently cited by most of the most distinguished filmmakers of later years as a favourite movie of theirs and a big supply of inspiration for their very own work. One filmmaker on whom the movie’s affect is very pronounced is Martin Scorsese.

The celebrated director behind such basic movies as Raging Bull and Goodfellas has spoken publicly about his views on The Searchers, citing each his intense admiration for its craft and his extra sophisticated emotions about its controversial content material. Though 2023 noticed the discharge of Scorsese’s first Western, the critically acclaimed Killers of the Flower Moon, the affect of The Searchers is definitely extra obvious in certainly one of his famed city crime movies. Taxi Driver could also be set in a model of New York Metropolis correct to its 1976 launch date, however its lead character, themes, and plot bear overt similarities to these of The Searchers. Consequently, learning the 2 movies in relation to 1 one other reveals and emphasizes most of the sophisticated nuances that make them each so fascinating.

‘The Searchers’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ Inform Related Tales in Totally different Settings

​​​​​​Starting in 1868, The Searchers follows Accomplice soldier Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) who returns to his brother Aaron’s (Walter Coy) hometown in West Texas after a mysterious three-year interval during which he was lacking after the top of the Civil Struggle. After a neighborhood Comanche tribe assaults the Edwards’ dwelling, killing Aaron, his spouse Martha (Dorothy Johnson), and their son and abducting their daughters Lucy (Pippa Scott) and Debbie (Lana Wooden), Ethan and most of the native males, together with a number of Texas Rangers, got down to rescue his nieces. However after a number of Rangers are killed in a Comanche ambush and Ethan finds Lucy lifeless, and presumably raped, most assume that Debbie could have been killed too. Solely Ethan and Debbie’s adopted brother, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) proceed to search for her, which they do for a number of years. Martin fears that Ethan’s hatred of Native Individuals will lead him to kill Debbie in the event that they discover her, provided that he has mentioned it will be higher to be lifeless than to reside as a Comanche, however after they do free her from captivity by the hands of Comanche chief Scar (Henry Brandon), Ethan surprisingly reveals mercy and carries Debbie again to her hometown.

The titular character of Taxi Driver is Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a Vietnam Struggle veteran combating insomnia and loneliness who takes a job driving a cab at night time. Travis’ difficulties socializing and frustration with the state of Nineteen Seventies New York lead him to turn into a vigilante, with him finally releasing baby intercourse employee Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimps, led by Matthew “Sport” Higgins (Harvey Keitel), who Travis kills in a brutal gun combat. The movie’s last scenes present newspaper clippings praising Travis as a hero and a brief reunion between him and Betsy (Cybil Shepherd), a lady he briefly dated, earlier than he makes a nervous look in his rearview mirror that means that his violent urges are nonetheless a part of him.

What Was ‘The Searchers’ Affect on ‘Taxi Driver’?

The obvious similarity between the 2 movies, after all, is their shared deal with the rescue of younger ladies from captors with whom they’re in poisonous romantic relationships (the grownup Debbie, performed by Natalie Wooden, is certainly one of Scar’s wives). However they’re additionally linked by their explorations of themes of racial hatred and violence, and the way racism is linked to poisonous masculinity. Though his rescue of Iris could make Travis appear heroic, the remainder of Taxi Driver makes it clear that few of his motives are really altruistic and that he’s nearly equally disturbed and prejudiced as Ethan is. Early within the movie, Travis asks out a Black lady who works on the concession stand of the porn theater he frequents, oblivious as to why that is doubtlessly off-putting. She refuses and threatens to name her supervisor when Travis persists and, from that time on, he’s proven being visibly uncomfortable within the presence of Black individuals.

One among a number of scenes narrated by an entry from Travis’ journal rants about what he sees because the lawless, corrupt nature of the town. His inside monologue states “All of the animals come out at night time,” as he drives previous a sidewalk on which the gang is predominantly Black. He additionally emulates a racist passenger, performed by Scorsese, who tells him of his plan to kill his spouse and the Black man she is having an affair with, by shopping for the identical caliber gun because the one the passenger had. The primary particular person Travis kills in his burgeoning vigilante profession can be a Black man who’s within the technique of robbing a retailer Travis is purchasing in. Though he did not straight search this encounter out, the truth that Travis is persistently carrying at the very least certainly one of his weapons with him in public at this level underlines that he’s hoping for what he sees as a justifiable cause to get right into a combat, notably with one of many kinds of individuals he feels are poisoning the town (certainly one of which the viewer can inform are Black individuals). And his dealing with of the scenario, taking pictures the robber point-blank within the head, is, after all, merely excessive and can be morally questionable regardless of the robber’s race. The connection between Ethan’s prejudice and Travis’ would have been much more pronounced if the pimps in Taxi Driver had been Black, as they had been within the unique script. In an interview with The Guardian, screenwriter Paul Schrader praised the movie’s producers for altering the pimps’ races to white, stating that, “Within the unique script, it was only a racist slaughter.”

Moreover, though he beforehand tried to steer her to depart them, and supplied to assist her accomplish that, Travis doesn’t decide to attacking the pimps and releasing Iris till after his try and assassinate Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris), the presidential candidate Betsy works for, fails. Likewise, a scene of Travis alone in his condo reveals him toying along with his gun whereas watching TV, particularly a soap-opera-like program during which a pair are having an argument about their romance. Ultimately, Travis pushes the TV set along with his foot, permitting the monitor to topple over and shatter. These and different incidents recommend that his vigilante mission could have been motivated simply as a lot by his must act on his violent impulses and the sensation of emasculation brought on by Betsy’s rejection (and sure these of the concession stand employee and previous ladies) because it was by an altruistic want to assist Iris.

Scorsese and Schrader spotlight why this ambiguity in his motives ought to give viewers pause over praising Travis’ actions, regardless of their one undeniably optimistic end result of releasing Iris. This level might be utilized to Ethan as nicely. It’s solely potential that Ethan solely devoted himself to on the lookout for Debbie for thus lengthy due to his racism, with him searching for to kill her because of his perception that her dwelling with the Comanches contaminated her, and by extension, his household, ultimately. The truth that Martin has to protect Debbie from Ethan so he doesn’t shoot her after they first discover her helps this interpretation. Ethan’s last-minute change of coronary heart shouldn’t absolve him of judgment for this prejudice, simply as Travis saving Iris shouldn’t absolve him of his immoral actions or beliefs.

Schrader acknowledged The Searchers’ affect on Taxi Driver to Politico, and Scorsese’s retrospective evaluation of the sooner movie for The Hollywood Reporter highlights qualities of it which might be echoed in his personal masterpiece. Scorsese describes Ethan’s loneliness as a top quality that separates him from different well-known characters performed by John Wayne and the affect of this on his movie is apparent. Loneliness is arguably probably the most distinguished theme in Taxi Driver, with Travis referring to himself as “God’s lonely man” in certainly one of his journal entries. Finally, most of his selections and actions might be traced again to his want to attach with others and the difficulties he experiences doing so. As an illustration, he takes Betsy to a porn film on a date, believing this can be a regular selection of exercise; the ensuing collapse of their relationship hastens Travis’ transformation right into a vigilante and straight conjures up his assassination try, the failure of which in flip leads him to take the decisive, violent motion to avoid wasting Iris. Scorsese additionally notes how parts of Ethan’s characterization, together with his immense data of Native American tradition and customs, emphasize “the craziness of race hatred,” during which “murderous fixation and disgust are facet by facet with fascination and attraction.” Taxi Driver additionally represents this contradictory “craziness” via Travis’ unsuccessful flirting with the Black lady.

‘Taxi Driver’ Reveals the Similarities Between Racism and Sexism

Even with out the racial factor, disgust current concurrently with fascination and attraction additionally describes a lot of Travis’ habits towards ladies extra broadly. Initially, Travis’ journal entries spotlight how he has begun to lionize Betsy, believing she is untouched by the corruption he believes is omnipresent, affecting everybody else round him (female and male alike). However when Betsy stops returning his calls after the porn date, Travis turns into enraged, aggressively confronting her at her administrative center. As her colleagues pressure him to depart, he rants that she’s “in a hell. And you are going to die in a hell like the remainder of them. You are like the remainder of them,” seemingly referring to ladies usually. Whereas pretending to solicit Iris to be able to discuss to her, Travis additionally appears to be considerably interested in her when she makes the sexual advances she believes he needs, though his horror at her age and scenario finally reasserts itself.

‘Taxi Driver’ Nods to Its Western Influences

Though it does not reference The Searchers straight, Taxi Driver nods to the affect of the Western style extra usually. Whereas Travis speaks with Sport, after initially pondering he is an undercover police officer, Sport remarks that Travis is, “an actual cowboy!” Likewise, whereas Travis’ resolution to purchase the big gun particularly is impressed straight by his encounter with Scorsese’s character, it additionally resembles the sorts of weapons wielded by many characters in varied Westerns, with the holster Travis typically carries it in additionally resembling the one Ethan usually wears. This can be a refined reference to the affect Westerns similar to these Wayne and Ford made had on males of Travis’ technology, together with Taxi Driver‘s actors and filmmakers. This in flip permits Travis to replicate on the expertise of many Vietnam Struggle veterans, who had been impressed to affix the army by each tales of their elders’ prior army service in conflicts like World Struggle II and action-packed movies like Westerns, during which “supreme” males had been characterised by their fight expertise and bodily power, solely to be greeted and ultimately haunted by the morally ambiguous nature of the later battle.

The Relationship Between ‘The Searchers’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ Makes Them Extra Attention-grabbing

There are greater than sufficient variations between the 2 movies to maintain them distinct, past their completely different settings. Taxi Driver doesn’t function any character with a job remotely much like that of Martin Pawley, for instance, and plenty of of The Searchers’ supporting characters present sorts of slapstick comedy which might be absent in Scorsese’s movie. The Betsy and Palantine storylines are additionally pretty distinctive to Taxi Driver. Though Ethan’s rapport with Martha has been interpreted by many viewers as suggestive of a shared romantic attraction, her early dying prevents this dynamic from being explored considerably. The opposite main romance in The Searchers, between Martin and his neighbor Laurie Jorgensen (Vera Miles), is usually lighthearted and even involves an optimistic conclusion, making it solely completely different from the doomed affair between Travis and Betsy.

Most significantly, regardless of their many shared traits and the same trajectories of their tales, Ethan and Travis additionally differ drastically in some key methods. Regardless of his many shortcomings, Ethan is admittedly fairly expert in most of the historically masculine pursuits which might be necessary to survival within the outdated West, together with horsemanship, monitoring, and fight, amongst others. This makes him supremely assured and permits him to command a sort of awed respect from nearly everybody he meets, even those that disagree along with his beliefs or are frightened by his ruthlessness. This in flip probably contributes to his large ego and his near-constant assumption that his beliefs are the appropriate ones, which solely actually wavers when he chooses to not kill Debbie. Travis, however, is sort of fully devoid of this type of confidence, at the very least till he completes his transformation right into a vigilante. He’s additionally usually painfully conscious that his character and habits make him appear irregular to a lot of his friends, and far of the drama of Taxi Driver comes from him making an attempt, and often failing, to seek out some sense of belonging and neighborhood. In brief, Ethan is the sort of man Travis aspires to be for a lot of the movie, although in actuality, they’re extra disparate than he want to imagine. Regardless, the tales of Debbie and Iris, and the shared deal with themes of racism and masculinity make the connection between the movies plain, and having the opposite in thoughts whereas watching both movie makes them each extra rewarding experiences.

‘The Searchers’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ Have Equally Influential Legacies

Though the passage of time makes the flawed, problematic elements of Ethan’s character and The Searchers as an entire, more and more obvious, the movie continues to be an immensely influential a part of world cinema, with parts of its character portrayals and themes, plotting, and visuals, particularly its notably well-known last shot, referenced in a large assortment of later movies and different media, together with loads of initiatives that aren’t Westerns. Taxi Driver has turn into equally as celebrated and seminal, if no more, with its affect being particularly pronounced on different vigilante and crime movies and people that concentrate on characters who function unreliable narrators.

Taxi Driver is accessible to stream on Paramount+ within the U.S.

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