I was going to say that Travis Bickel was a metaphor for urban alienation and that TD was a very special episode of M*A*S*H, then changed my mind. But here I am anyways.

@mechajutaro said:

@znexyish said:

I was going to say that Travis Bickel was a metaphor for urban alienation and that TD was a very special episode of M*A*S*H, then changed my mind. But here I am anyways.

Suicide might be painless , but homicide often lends itself to quite a few agonies. Bickle doesn't escape his battle with the pimp and company unscathed

If you ever get to do a morning t.v. talk show consider "pimp and company " as the title for it.

@mechajutaro said:

In both 1970s America and today, mentioning that Ho slaughtered landlords and was hailed as a hero, rather than denounced as a f--king murderer.... Well, that might give lots of behind-on-payment folks untoward ideas

Do you think all those landlords Ho mercilessly slaughtered died with no discomfort? What about the scars this left on the landlord's spouses, children and even grandchildren. Ho has no biz being hailed as a hero. Ken Burns, I remind you, himself pointed all this out. You really did not answer my question but your own reply was really untoward to the max.

There would be nothing wrong with the grandchildren (and even children) of the these poor slaughtered landlords now taking the Vietnamese government to an international court over this terrible long incident of the 1950's which horribly involved gigantic theft, horrendous unjust incarceration and large scale mass-murder. Even Ken Burns went against the North Vietnamese on this.

@Benton12 said:

Look, I realize the cause of the Vietnam War on America's part, which was really far less the Gulf of Tonkin and much more the slaughter of the landlords of North Vietman in 1955-56, seems unimportant to this movie. But is it really? Do you imagine the character of Travis Bickle knew about the 1950's slaughter of landlords by Ho Chi Minh in the land reform? If not. Would learning it even make a little bit of difference to Bickle? To realize what he and others actually fought for.At least after he shoots the pimps? I often this would have been a real neat way to have ended this movie. JUst as they did but have Bickle walk past a store window with active TV sets on display and have a talk show showing on the sets. The guest of the talk show on screen discusses the 1950's slaughter of 1950s landlords by Minh and how it was necessary for the USA to stop from him getting South Vietnam and doing the same horrible to SV landlords.

PS Ken Burns, the popular documentary filmmaker, himself mentions Minh's slaughter of NV landlords in his (Burns') own book on the Vietnam War.

Back to my original questions.

@Benton12 said:

@Benton12 said:

Look, I realize the cause of the Vietnam War on America's part, which was really far less the Gulf of Tonkin and much more the slaughter of the landlords of North Vietman in 1955-56, seems unimportant to this movie. But is it really? Do you imagine the character of Travis Bickle knew about the 1950's slaughter of landlords by Ho Chi Minh in the land reform? If not. Would learning it even make a little bit of difference to Bickle? To realize what he and others actually fought for.At least after he shoots the pimps? I often this would have been a real neat way to have ended this movie. JUst as they did but have Bickle walk past a store window with active TV sets on display and have a talk show showing on the sets. The guest of the talk show on screen discusses the 1950's slaughter of 1950s landlords by Minh and how it was necessary for the USA to stop from him getting South Vietnam and doing the same horrible to SV landlords.

PS Ken Burns, the popular documentary filmmaker, himself mentions Minh's slaughter of NV landlords in his (Burns') own book on the Vietnam War.

Back to my original questions.

If TD was about Vietnam at all. Which i say it isnt. Also, Travis being a vet is to me irrelevent to his character. Just character dressing. Would he act different if he knew he was sent to war to defend South Vietnamese landlords? He might get even crazier.

I dont remember how much the Vietnam War is even mentioned in TD. Is it brought up what he did. He could have had a desk job there for all I recall.

The issue you bring up wasn't brought up in any of the proper Vietnam movies either.

@znexyish said:

@Benton12 said:

@Benton12 said:

Look, I realize the cause of the Vietnam War on America's part, which was really far less the Gulf of Tonkin and much more the slaughter of the landlords of North Vietman in 1955-56, seems unimportant to this movie. But is it really? Do you imagine the character of Travis Bickle knew about the 1950's slaughter of landlords by Ho Chi Minh in the land reform? If not. Would learning it even make a little bit of difference to Bickle? To realize what he and others actually fought for.At least after he shoots the pimps? I often this would have been a real neat way to have ended this movie. JUst as they did but have Bickle walk past a store window with active TV sets on display and have a talk show showing on the sets. The guest of the talk show on screen discusses the 1950's slaughter of 1950s landlords by Minh and how it was necessary for the USA to stop from him getting South Vietnam and doing the same horrible to SV landlords.

PS Ken Burns, the popular documentary filmmaker, himself mentions Minh's slaughter of NV landlords in his (Burns') own book on the Vietnam War.

Back to my original questions.

If TD was about Vietnam at all. Which i say it isnt. Also, Travis being a vet is to me irrelevent to his character. Just character dressing. Would he act different if he knew he was sent to war to defend South Vietnamese landlords? He might get even crazier.

I dont remember how much the Vietnam War is even mentioned in TD. Is it brought up what he did. He could have had a desk job there for all I recall.

The issue you bring up wasn't brought up in any of the proper Vietnam movies either.

TD indeed Vietnam War film. Want a film about about a psycho who is not a Vietnam War vet apparently watch '10 to Midnight'.Now as to whether knowing about saving South Vietnamese landlords would perhaps make Bickle crazier. Why? Knowing that would make his participation in the fight against Ho Chi Minh seem like he (Bickle) and other Americans had indeed not gone up against an innocent regime. Is it not important to realize that when you fight another country that that country's guilty heinous acts of brutal mass-murder is blood on their hands? You may mean it as a put down to what I am saying by stating that that Ho's mass-murdering act of landlords is not brought up in any films you deem as more proper Vietnam War films. It is not and that is exactly why those films are so deeply unfair in their treatment of the subject of the Vietnam War!!! They leave mostly untrained audiences with the nasty, false idea that North Vietnam was completely innocent regime that never would hurt a fly on the offensive. That notion is 100 percent false. Progress is probably made to you as you acknowledge the slaughter of the North Vietnamese landlords by Ho Chi MInh and say in a way that America was there trying to keep Ho from getting South Vietnam's land owning aristocracy and doing likewise. You probably never even heard at all of Minh killing landlords of NV in the 1950's before you read this. By Bickle's extremely tough attitude a safe desk job in the service was unlikely.

Well just a second there proffessor. You want to see it as a Vietnam movie then go ahead. Honestly to me TD is one of those classics I am expected to be bowled over by but I never really was. Its also a film thst people read different things into.

Not sure about 10 to Midnight which I remember as a better Charles Bronson violent action pic, if I remember right.

Hopefully someone else will join in on this topic.

@znexyish said:

Well just a second there proffessor. You want to see it as a Vietnam movie then go ahead. Honestly to me TD is one of those classics I am expected to be bowled over by but I never really was. Its also a film thst people read different things into.

Not sure about 10 to Midnight which I remember as a better Charles Bronson violent action pic, if I remember right.

Hopefully someone else will join in on this topic.

Not so fast, bud. '10 to Midnite' was a film where Charles Bronson played a cop chasing down a psycho killer (actor Gene Davis) of ladies. It was indeed about a psycho.

As for TD being a Vietnam War movie it certainly is. Even this website's very description practically describes it that way. See my next posting if you are grown enough to admit you are all wrong.

@Benton12 said:

@znexyish said:

Well just a second there proffessor. You want to see it as a Vietnam movie then go ahead. Honestly to me TD is one of those classics I am expected to be bowled over by but I never really was. Its also a film thst people read different things into.

Not sure about 10 to Midnight which I remember as a better Charles Bronson violent action pic, if I remember right.

Hopefully someone else will join in on this topic.

Not so fast, bud. '10 to Midnite' was a film where Charles Bronson played a cop chasing down a psycho killer (actor Gene Davis) of ladies. It was indeed about a psycho.

As for TD being a Vietnam War movie it certainly is. Even this website's very description practically describes it that way. See my next posting if you are grown enough to admit you are all wrong.

www.filmschoolrejects.com/seven-vietnam-war-movies-you-probably-havent-seen-but-should/

I copied the link correctly. Well press it and it will take you to a website showing that 'Taxi Driver' is indeed a Vietnam war movie.

Well if a website says so then all right. I didn't say that 10 to Midnight wasn't about a psycho. I haven't seen it. I will fabricate a better response and return maybe

The first one murdered in Ho's gigantic mass-murdering land reform was actually a prosperous business lady who owned land! Her name was Nguyen Thi Nam. She had previously supported the awful NV communists though not a communist herself.

Nguyen Thi Nam was a really beautiful lady too. Would have been great at the end of Taxi Driver to have had Bickle looking at the TV in the store window and they flash a photo of Nguyen and Bickle grins and then finds out this beauty was Ho's first victim of his horrible mass-murdering land reform in the 1950's!

@mechajutaro said:

Just stumbled across this , and couldn't help but think of this thread

Point of the mass-murder of landlords (by Ho Chi Minh) beginning with Nguyen Thi Nam in 1953. The slaughter far, far, far exceeds in importance anything and the entire war on the US's part beginning in 1954. The unnecessary landlord slaughter proved communist North Vietnam was morally worthless and their state was founded on many an innocent's landlord's blood!