Reply #3 on: June 14, 2003, 04:03:51 AM
Marty has said this of the Taxi Driver / Bringing Out The Dead connection: in the first one, the main character is like the angel of death stalking through New York. In the second, it's like the main character is trying to be a guardian angel. Taxi ends in a predominantly ominous and ironic tone, while Dead ends with hope. I think it's nice for a director to explore both sides of one coin.
And isn't there a theory that says all directors just make the same film their whole lives, anyway? It ties in nicely with some bits of auteur theory, and how you can trace a common thread or theme through an artists entire body of work.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.
When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.
