LuckyGraveyardBoots

Everybody says this is a key movie of the '70's, but to me it seems somewhat ahead of its time. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola right after The Godfather Part 1, it paves the way for the likes of M. Night Shyamaylan...I would seriously not be surprised if M. Night grew up on this movie. It reminds me of Taxi Driver too, in a way, in its tone of communicating the state of being on the fringe of society (complete with jazz too...how about that). Gene Hackman plays a professional wiretapper who is paid by a mysterious figure to record a conversation between a man and a woman, knowing nothing about them. When he starts to put the pieces together he finds he has knotted issues about involvement with the people. This movie deals directly with the morality of voyeurism, individualism and involvement. We know nothing about the main character, but in a dream scene we catch a glimpse of the demons of his childhood and his inclination to death. There is also a sideways glance at the closet skeletons of his professional career. A motel scene close to the end becomes outright surrealistic, and an unexpected twist at the end combined with his search for a bug that is never found, leaves him alone with his saxophone, playing a solo melody for the first time. Beautifully artistic direction by Coppola. My main problem with this movie is Gene Hackman...his character is full of possibility, an exercise in loneliness, but the man screwed it up, because he is a third-rate actor.

Don't be fooled by the title, first off. Often compared to Taxi Driver, this 'black comedy' (on closer inspection not a comedy by any means) is one of the more genuinely sad films I've seen. Rupert Pupkin, played by Robert De Niro, is a wannabe comedian stuck in a dead end communications job. He desperately wishes he were Jerry Langford, his idol and a comedy show host. He manages to meet Langford, but when he is brushed off he devises a more drastic and immediate way to get his routine on the Jerry Langford show. It's very much like Taxi Driver in a lot of ways - Rupert and Travis Bickle share ultimate loneliness, although Rupert tries to cover his up with laughs, while Travis builds his existence around it. They both unsuccessfully attempt to make connections with the outside world, which fail because they really are living in a dream world (Rupert more literally than Travis). While Travis turns his terrible pain into violence against himself and strangers, Rupert tries to turn his into laughter. This is most notable in his actual routine that he does - it's full of jokes, but they only serve as a shabby cover for an ocean of sadness. I guess the most glaring similarity are the very ends of both movies, which would give too much away to tell.