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Podcast: Psyop Cinema
Episode: Taxi Driver
Description: In a discussion that much of our longrunning Joker analysis has built to, we do a deep dive into Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). We explain the foundational place of Scorsese's film in the feedback loop between media and spectacular crime that we call the Joker Cycle. Looking at other relevant films and filmmakers, we speculate on the possible role of Brian de Palma in the Taxi Driver psy-op, discuss Peter Bogdanovich's Targets (1968) as an early entry into the feedback loop, and explain the over-the-top revelation of the method in The Last Horror Film (1982). Breaking down Taxi Driver, we talk...