RIP – Peter Boyle
Travis: Yeah, well. Naw, I don’t know. I just wanna go out. I really, you know, I really wanna, I got some bad ideas in my head, I just…
Wizard: Look, look at it this way, you know uh, a man, a man takes a job, you know, and that job, I mean like that, and that it becomes what he is. You know like uh, you do a thing and that’s what you are. Like I’ve been a, I’ve been a cabbie for seventeen years, ten years at night and I still don’t own my own cab. You know why? ‘Cause I don’t want to. I must be what I, what I want. You know, to be on the night shift drivin’ somebody else’s cab. Understand? You, you, you become, you get a job, you you become the job. One guy lives in Brooklyn, one guy lives in Sutton Place, you get a lawyer, another guy’s a doctor, another guy dies, another guy gets well, and you know, people are born. I envy you your youth. Go out and get laid. Get drunk, you know, do anything. ‘Cause you got no choice anyway. I mean we’re all fucked, more or less you know.
Travis: Yeah, I don’t know. That’s about the dumbest thing I ever heard.
Oh damn, after Altman another respected figure moves on to the great screening room in the sky. I’ll always remember his superb turn as Wizard in Taxi Driver (as above), as the unashamed bigot in ‘Monster’s Ball‘ and of course as the monster in ‘Young Frankenstein‘ - ”PUUUTTN OUUNN THAAA WRIIITTZZ!” . I recently got the original Hunter S. Thompson movie ‘Where the Buffalo Roam‘ and while his performance as the good doctor’s lawyer was significantly more restrained than Del Toro’s in ‘Fear & Loathing’ he rescues a deeply mediocre film.
This reminds to track down one of Paul Schrader’s early films – ‘Hardcore‘ – another ‘Searchers‘ influenced picture. I saw it on Channel 4 many years ago, and I’m pretty sure it’s deleted in the UK – off to ebay it is then…….
Oh, and new 300 trailer here.
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