WASH MY PAIN AWAY

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Marvin Gaye ('What's Going On')

On the surface of it, Marvin Gaye's seminal album 'What's Going On' (1971) and Martin Scorsese's iconic film 'Taxi Driver' (1976) have no obvious similarities until you consider the fact that both works of art are cries for help in a divided America, one at the beginning of the decade and one headed toward the close of it.

Throughout the entire 'What's Going On' album Marvin takes on the role of preacher (though nothing like his own sadistic Pentecostal minster father) and commentates on generational themes of war and peace, urban poverty and crime, environmental degradation and spiritual redemption.

Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver', in comparison, sees the protagonist Travis Bickle returning from Vietnam as he re-adjusts to civilian life in New York City only to find it going quickly to ruin. Lamenting the ruination of the city and increasingly seeing his role as one of bringing some kind of return to law and order, Bickle presents a morally complex vigilante who judges the world inside his head with little ability to relate to his fellow man or woman. You only need to observe the awkward exchanges he has with each person he talks to throughout the film to see that he is either massively on the spectrum or is suffering from some severe psychological trauma as a consequence of serving in the United States Navy. Perhaps the idea of serving in a foreign war only to find his home country falling apart on his return creates a cognitive schism for Bickle.

Emotionally, it's obvious that 'What's Going On' is an album propelled by a sense of deep compassion and genuine desire to help repair a broken world and though Bickle in 'Taxi Driver' has similar intentions in his own disturbed and dysfunctional way, his inability to relate to his fellow man isolates his purpose for the greater good (or God?) with his distorted world view. In an early DR article I wrote entitled 'Holden & Travis' (13th Sep, 2021), I also found there to be an eerie comparison to J.D. Salinger's novel 'The Catcher In The Rye' in which I noted that Travis Bickle is in many ways like a grown up Holden Caulfield. We, the audience, live as much inside his head with his thoughts as the young narrator of the 1951 novel, though certainly Travis isn't as much fun to hang around with as Holden who is noticeably more astute, verbose and compassionate. Interestingly, both 'Taxi Driver' and 'Catcher' inspired assassins John Hinkcley Jr. and Mark Chapman to carry out their attempts on President Ronald Reagan (unsuccessful) and ex-Beatle, John Lennon (tragically successful).

Race also plays a significant part in both Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' and Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver'. Gaye sees the cruel injustice of a two tier justice system in America towards the black population whereas Travis Bickle appears to associate the African American characters in the film with his perception of New York City's cultural and moral decay, although it's unclear where this bigotry derives from as much of what we ascertain about Travis Bickle is left to the audience's imagination. In one acutely melancholic scene, Bickle stares at his small black and white television in his shoebox sized apartment whilst watching black couples dancing on the American musical variety show 'Soul Train' all the while resting a gun against his head. Two things occur to me here. Is Bickle reflecting on his shooting of a violent black criminal in a Hispanic owned corner store in the previous scene and becoming further entrenched in his racial prejudices or is he watching the dancing couples on screen and thinking how far removed he is from any such intimate connection to a woman. After all, by this point in the story he's already scared away Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) the campaign volunteer for Senator Charles Palantine's presidential campaign. Perhaps it's all of these at once. Of course, if I were to do my own re-cut of 'Taxi Driver' I would have Marvin Gaye singing 'What's Going On' in the scene as he performed on the 'Soul Train' show numerous times and it would tie the two works neatly together although it would mean losing the excellent 'Late For The Sky' by Jackson Browne that plays over the flickering images which adds so effectively to the creeping despair of Travis.

Ah, wholy holy
Come together
Wholy holy
People we all gotta come together
'Cause we need the strength, power, all the feeling
Wholy holy
Oh Lord, come on get together, one another
Wholy holy
Wholy holy - Marvin Gaye

"There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man." - Travis Bickle

So in the end, we come to the spiritual side of the arguments in both 'What's Going On' and 'Taxi Driver'. Where Gaye calls upon a higher power in a New Testament type of a way to bring America together as heard in the prayerful 'Wholy Holy', Bickle seems to call upon a more vengeful, Old Testament form of God to bring about change or a reckoning. The "rain" he refers to that will "wash the scum off the street" is certainly not a forgiving one. It has been suggested that it's Bickle's internal, conflicted rage that shapes his perception of the city and by enacting a violent act of vengeance on the degenerate pimps and paedophiles, he is carrying out his own baptism of blood and rebirth for both himself and New York. The country he thought he was fighting for abroad has betrayed him and he somehow needs to win the war on his terms and not the politicians like Senator Palantine.

The tragedy for Bickle is that he will never be able to put out the fire of despair in his mind for it never ends. Perhaps if he were to take up Gaye's redemptive solution on 'Wholy Holy' he might finally find the peace he longs for throughout the film.

“I got what I wanted…. I couldn't do it myself, so I made him do it.” - Marvin Gaye's final words to brother Frankie after being shot.

Make no mistake, however, that Gaye was any less troubled than Bickle in his personal life. After he was shot by his own father on April 1st, 1984, his final dying words (see above) to his brother Frankie seem to suggest he no longer wanted to try and make a heaven for himself on earth, preferring to find it instead in the loving arms of the holy father.