Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

So Schrader's savage critique of fascist Revengeamatic flicks (Rolling Thunder) was turned by its makers into a savage fascist Revengeamatic.

Yet . . . the greatest savage, fascist, Revengeamatic flick ever made.

Which frustrates Schrader to this day.

It seemed all the cool critics had their special filmmaker to champion and (John) Flynn was mine.
So much so that I sought him out at nineteen to interview him.
How did I manage that?

I loved Rolling Thunder so much that years before it became available on Vestron Home Video—for a period of ten years—I followed it all over Los Angeles, whenever and wherever it played (before home video, cinephiles used to do things like that).

Part of the anxiety the viewer feels while watching the movie comes from the question the movie forces you to ask yourself.
Is this movie—Taxi Driver—a movie about a racist, or is it a racist movie?
The answer is clearly the former. And what makes the film a gutsy masterpiece is it dares to pose that question to the audience, and then allows them to devise their own answer.

For a filmmaker with such an iconoclastic reputation, De Palma was acutely aware of the commercial concerns of the marketplace. Some could say to a fault.

Viewers can accept my work or reject it. Deem it good, bad, or with indifference. But I've always approached my cinema with a fearlessness of the eventual outcome. A fearlessness that comes to me naturally—I mean, who cares, really? It's only a movie.

The way people were scared to go in the water after Jaws was how I felt about the prospect of going camping in the woods after Deliverance.

So, if you're reading this cinema book, hopefully to learn a little something about cinema, and your head is swimming from all the names you don't recognize, congratulations, you're learning something.

[Don Siegel] has always confronted the audience with lead characters you're drawn to despite on-screen evidence of their troubling nature, and deeds. Lead protagonists he makes it difficult to root for, but, ultimately, you root for them nonetheless. Which goes to prove what I've always believed, "It takes a magnificent filmmaker to thoroughly corrupt an audience."

Bullitt is about action, atmosphere, San Francisco, Yates' great location photography, Lalo Schifrin's jazzy score, and Steve McQueen, his haircut and wardrobe.
Nothing else matters.