1 min read

HOLDEN & TRAVIS

HOLDEN & TRAVIS
Two renegades: Holden Caulfield and Travis Bickle. 

I re-watched Martin Scorcese's "Taxi Driver" last night and it suddenly struck me that Travis Bickle is Salinger's adolescent protagonist, Holden Caulfield, grown up. I'm certainly not the first to think of this and it now seems blindingly obvious, but it's completely enhanced the way I feel about the movie which I've always struggled with previously. An idle recommendation for those of you interested in this comparison is to read or re-read J.D Salinger's debut novel "Catcher in the Rye" then watch "Taxi Driver" as an (unofficial) sequel of sorts. There's an amazing continuity shared between both works in numerous ways. Parallels with real life assassins Hinkley & Chapman aside, Jodie Foster's role as a child prostitute also demonstrates striking comparisons with Holden's sister Phoebe in Catcher.

Digital Renegade

September 2021