The great Tracy Letts joins us to talk about Scorsese's monumental Taxi Driver, a film that is both fully ingrained in the American psyche and completely surprising and effective on every rewatch. Of course we're gonna spend our longest episode ever talking about it! This week, we discuss Paul Schrader's "God's Lonely Man" fixation, Ben's uncle's experiences as a New York City cab driver, the 1976 Oscars, Taxi Driver's themes of male loneliness and white supremacy, the incredible performances of Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, and how totally normal it is to go to a porno theater on your second date. Oh, and there's plenty of physical media talk.
Listen to the 1976 Draft ep of the Big Picture: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6CrUFsBll143Vk0ONS2tn6
Check out MVD Marquee / Radiant / Vinegar Syndrom: https://mvdshop.com/
https://www.radiancefilms.us/
https://vinegarsyndrome.com/
Buy The Haunting to listen to Tracy and Sean do a commentary
https://diabolikdvd.com/product/the-haunting-scream-factory-4k-uhd-blu-ray-preorder/
Watch Bette Davis and Robert Wise, Oscars 1987
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIrqJU0pjPs
Watch "The King of Horror"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwfziq-pQDo
Read Transcendental Style in Film
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/transcendental-style-in-film/paper
Read You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/130629/youll-never-eat-lunch-in-this-town-again-by-julia-phillips/
Read Drama: An Actor's Education
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/drama-john-lithgow?variant=32205506773026
Read Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet “By Mark Jacobson
https://nymag.com/news/features/50177/
Listen to Marty go Hogg wild
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KuLhxtGagWdAOoOZvrqqD
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