Another movie novelization. Taxi Driver(1976)

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Checkman

Getting older and balder
May 9, 2007
902
1,989
Idaho
Wow this wasn't what I was expecting at all - certainly not from a movie novelization.Everything about this novelization is different - especially for this genre. It's an impressive little read. More of a novella than a full length novel. A trip into the mind of Travis Bickle.A first person narrative from a mental patient. It's disjointed and fractured - just like you would expect from a man like Travis.

At times it verges on being almost incomprehensible, but that's okay. Travis is a fringe dweller and his actions make sense to him - not to those of us who live on the plane that we smugly call reality.Travis's world isn't ours. The rules are different and Travis takes no time explaining them to us. So you (the reader) are simply going along for the ride. For Travis is the Taxi Driver.

As I said earlier not what I was expecting from a movie script novelization. Not at all.

The writer,Richard Elman, was a critically acclaimed New York City novelist and poet. The writing has some real depth and quality to it and the book can stand on it's own. If the movie had never been made this would have been just fine as a stand alone work. I suspect that somebody involved with the production might have known Richard Elman and asked him to write the novel. Possibly Martin Scorsese or Robert DeNiro - both are New Yorkers and active in the NYC arts and literary scene.

In conclusion Taxi Driver is a jarring, disjointed, and disturbing read, but also engrossing and intelligently written.Very interesting and unexpected.

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Mar 12, 2010
6,538
29,004
Texas
Thanks :) That sounds good! I think I thought the movie was based on a novel so this is kinda backwards for me lol. The only novels I've read that were based on movies or tv shows were those old Star Trek episodes that James Blish novelized.
 

Checkman

Getting older and balder
May 9, 2007
902
1,989
Idaho
Thanks :) That sounds good! I think I thought the movie was based on a novel so this is kinda backwards for me lol. The only novels I've read that were based on movies or tv shows were those old Star Trek episodes that James Blish novelized.

There is a writer up in Seattle who writes horror/science fiction novels. I've helped him out a few times with research involving firearms. We have a mutual love for old movies and novels from the seventies. As a way of saying thank you he sends me copies of old novels that he finds in the many used bookstores in the Seattle area.
 
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