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Probably my all-time favorite film. I'm writing a paper on loneliness/isolation in Scorsese's films (hence the semi-streak of Scorsese screenings), and what better film then this. Robert Kolker's chapter on Scorsese in A Cinema of Loneliness and his commentary on the new DVD are helpful, but I feel like he underestimates Travis' sanity in the first half of the film (or maybe that's just me giving too much credit to this character whom I have, unhealthily, related to since my angst-driven high school years). The most interesting aspect of Kolker's commentary for me was the film references that I have previously missed, mostly the allusion to The Searchers in the last half of the film. Also there is a very interesting, though at times a bit stretched, article on the uses of intertextuality in the film by John Thurman over at Senses of Cinema [link].
